Kudu Horn - March 2000

Hello Everyone

The New Year is already well on its way to being an old one. Time has really flown and we are now at the end of our first term which has been packed full of events. 1^st Cotswold won the Kontiki Raft Race and our Scouts took part in an Interpatrol Camping Competition. We also had a very interesting visit from some Swedish Scouts. We were also fortunate enough to have them attend the annual BP Dinner, which was held at our Scout Hall on 19 February.

Sadly, Scout attendance on Friday nights has been on the decline and I would like to encourage the boys to try and make an effort to attend regularly. This will go a long way towards building team spirit and morale.

We have had a change in leadership as Steven O’Reilly left at the end of last year and Gareth Whittal, Nicholas Berry, Daryl Whittal and Craig Wilson now run the Scout Troop. They are doing an excellent job and I would like to thank them all for their time and effort.

Congratulations must go to both Gareth Whittal and Craig Wilson for receiving their B.Com degrees in Accounting. Gareth and Craig are both studying towards their Honours degree this year. Good luck for the coming year, as ours thoughts will be with you guys.

I am pleased to report that Juliet Berry (aka Kaa) is alive and well and living in London at the moment. At present she is working as a nanny for a family there. She also had a stint at doing temporary jobs. Best of luck with those nappy changes Juliet!!! J

Thanks must also go to Ernie Pike, who despite being a “pensioner” now, has been hard at work around the hall. He and his able assistant, Len Zeelie, have put up the notice board covers, which I am sure you will all agree, makes a huge difference to the Hall. Thanks guys, your efforts are sincerely appreciated.

Enjoy the holidays and to those who will be going away, please drive safely. Hope to see you all again next term.

Welcome into Y2K. As you can see, 1^st Cotswold is totally Y2K compliant, otherwise you would not be reading this edition of the Kudu Horn J.

As all the scouts know, we had to bid farewell to Steven O’Reilly at the end of last year. This posed us with a problem in that we were unable to find a replacement for Steven. The remaining scouters (Nick Berry, Daryl Whittal, Craig Wilson, & myself) have committed ourselves to 1^st Cotswold & will do our best in running the troop as effectively as possible. None of the scouters have taken the position of Troop Scouter as all of us are at critical stages in our various studies.

The scouters are trying there best in order to make scouting a lot more interesting & challenging this year, but in order for this to happen we need to get feed back from the scouts regarding the program that we are running. We do not mind receiving criticism, as long as it is constructive.

So far this year, the following events have taken place:

Swimmer’s badge:

On the 4 February, we had organised that all scouts would meet at the St. Georges Swimming Pool in order to have a fun meeting & pass the swimmers interest badge for those who have not earned it yet. Unfortunately due to poor turnout, we could not perform what we had intended. Kurt Horn was the only scout that was willing to earn his Swimmers interest badge.

Visit from a Swedish Scout Group:

On the night of February 18, a group consisting of 6 Swedish Scouts & 4 Rovers from the Das Bratwurst Scout group visited our scouts to see how a South African troop is run. The Swedes had a great time (including our scouts) in that everybody got involved in the activities. In the end, everybody managed to learn a bit of what scouting is like in the respective countries.

The Swedes had just finished a project in East London & they were slowly working their way down to Cape Town. They stayed in P.E. for 3 days & then left for a 3-day trip to the Addo Elephant National Park, before moving onto Cape Town for their return flight.

Here is an extract from an e-mail that I received from them after returning back to Sweden:
“We definitely had a great time at your scouting meeting. The people that were there were great and it was fun to see how you worked as scouts.

Since we had spent a week in E.L seeing poverty and meeting wonderful black people. Coming to P.E was like entering a different world. The conditions were so different.

We actually spent a few hours on the beach; it was a pity that you and your friends couldn’t be there with us. But we had a great time anyway. (We looked like lobsters when we left for the lion park. We will look like chocolate girls and chocolate boys)

Addo was simple the best. We saw bbbiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggg elephants and a lot of springboks. We were hot hot hot when we were safari hunting after a glimpse of the bbbbbbbbbbiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggggg elephants. Of course we saw rhino and buffalos, we went out after dark on a guided safari, so we saw a lot of animals.

Thank the whole troop for making the evening memorable.

Tell your scouts to write us on our e-mail.”

If anybody would like to get in contact with any of the Swedish scouts, you can send me an e-mail asking for the specific person for which you would like to send an e-mail to. If you have forgotten the names of the scouts, a group photo, with names, can be viewed on our web site.

Kontiki:

Kontiki was held on a sunny & warm 26 February at Red House.

Cotswold entered 2 rafts. Patrick Wilson (PL of Kudu Patrol) entered a 6-man raft, & Kelvin Garner (acting PL of Rhino Patrol) managed to enter a 4-man raft. Kelvin did pretty well in organising the Kontiki for his patrol, as due to some unforeseen circumstances, we had to pass the organisation onto Kelvin a week before the Kontiki was to take place. This was actually his 1^st chance at planning for such a major event.

The Kontiki took the form of a long distance race this year, similar to that from about 6 – 7 years ago. The race was from the public slipway, a little paddle down stream, around a buoy & a check point, then a very long ± 1.8km paddle upstream to go around yet another buoy & check point, & finally paddle another ± 1.8km all the way back to the finish. The weather conditions unfortunately deteriorated in the latter part of the race as the wind picked up quite a bit & took toll on the tired arms & spirits of the scout & guide crews.

There was a very good turn out of rafts this year as there were a total of 27 teams that entered the race.

Cotswold once again proved their superior skills & stamina, as congratulations must go to Kudu Patrol for winning the race as well as the overall Kontiki. Kudu Patrol did more than just win the race, but totally annihilated the other teams. The winning time for the race was 2 hours 23 minutes. The raft that came in 2^nd overall was a further 25 minutes behind Kudu Patrol. Just out of interest sake, the raft that came in 2^nd was a 4-man raft crewed by Girl Guides!

Rhino patrol must also be congratulated for finishing the race, as they had a relatively young crew in board & suffered due to the wind. Their achievement can be put in a better perspective in that of the 27 rafts that started the race, only about half actually finished due to either the rafts falling apart, or the crews quitting. Rhino patrol came in 9^th overall (incl. the 6-man rafts). Well done Rhino for living up to your scout promise (“I promise that I will do my best…”)

Interpatrol Camping:

The Interpatrol camping competition took place from 10 to 12 March at the Berry’s farm, which is on the banks of the Sundays River.

The idea for having the camp so early in the year was for a number of reasons:

Good practice for the up & coming Mc Clelland trophy;
To see what areas need to be worked on;
Get the camping done, while the weather is still fairly warm.

Over all the camp was not quite up to the standard that I was expecting. I think that the scouts must start using a bit more imagination when they build their camp sites as the sites look almost identical to those from previous years.

I thought that Jaco Gerber did pretty well as PL for Rhino Patrol, as this was his 1^st camp as a PL.

Some up & coming events to be diarised are:

Mc Clelland Camping Trophy (inter troop competition) Þ 14 – 16 April;

Interpatrol Pioneering Þ 1 May;

Interpatrol cooking Þ 12 May.

If anybody wishes to pass on, or receive any information, please do not hesitate to contact one of the scouters. If you would like, you can contact the scouters via the usual methods or by e-mail:

Scouter’s which are available online:

Nick Berry: millenium6@xsinet.co.za
Gareth Whittal: whittal@iafrica.com

Yours in scouting
Gareth Whittal

ALIEN HACK

The cubs assisted Darryl Garner in alien plant removal in the Quarryman Nature Reserve on 5^th February. According to Kevin Garner, this was the most ever that has been removed on one occasion. The boys learnt a lot about what alien plants were and why they needed to be removed. Lunch was enjoyed courtesy of LaFarge Quarry Management. The highlight of the day was when Darryl, carrying Akela across the river, slipped and Akela landed in the water. The Cubs are still laughing about it.

A WALK UP THE KOPPIE

On 18 February the boys all went up the koppie next to the Hall and had a nature ramble. It is surprising to see how the fynbos has recovered from the fires over the past few years.

The boys celebrated BP’s birthday at the highest point of the koppie with cupcakes and cooldrink. Afterwards they sang, “We’ve got the BP spirit”. The boys felt sure that BP could hear them from his place in heaven and being on top of the koppie we were that much closer to heaven.

KONTIKI

On 26 February the annual Kontiki Raft Race took place. We entered two rafts. It was tough padding into the wind but the event was enjoyed by all. It was good to see so many parents there as well. Thanks to the dads for building the rafts, Charles Tregoning for the transport of the rafts and to the organizers of the event.

COTSWOLD WALKABOUT

On 3 March the Cubs did a walkabout in the Cotswold area. During this walk the older boys had to follow a demarcated route on a map. They went to see Akela’s vegetable garden and Uncle Pike’s compost heap. After seeing what went into making compost, they were surprised to learn that the finished compost did not smell at all.

THE GREAT MILLENIUM WATER CHALLENGE

On 4 March the Cubs went to Uitenhage swimming pool to participate in the water challenge. The Cubs all swam well and Robin Watson, Brendon Edwards, Ashley Delport and Dylan Prinsloo got 3^rd place in the 4 x 1 width freestyle relay. The event ended with a “crocodile” race and the Cotswold boys formed the longest Crocodile.

DONKEY FUND

At the end of last year the boys had to do a “Good Turn” and managed to raise R477.54 toward the education of donkey owners to ensure that the animals are not subjected to cruelty. The Animal Welfare Society manages this project.

RECYCLING

Recycling has always been a high priority with Cotswold as our Hall was built from the proceeds of newspaper collection. Our present recycling drive is to collect newspapers, cardboard, scrap paper. We rest that newspapers be kept separate from other paper as we get more for the newspaper. At present we are also looking for other forms of waste – 2L cooldrink bottles, plastic shopping bags, orange sacks, cooldrink cans, food cans, scraps of material, no matter how small – to be used for weaving. The residents of Motherwell are converting all these items into usable products for use and resale. Although we are not paid for these items we, as a Scout Group, are contributing to a cleaner environment and are also assisting with the empowerment of underprivileged communities.

Acknowledgement to various scouting magazines and internet sites for artwork used.