A Scout’s perspective (inserted as delivered!)
"The Nemesis Camp was
over the weekend of September 17th – 19th.
Friday involved pitching tents, eating a BBQ and standing around listening
to dodgy music at the disco before going to bed.
On Saturday we started off with breakfast at about 8.30ish, followed by a
9.00 flag break. Then we did 12 activities with lunch in between the 8th and
9th. After all the activities we had dinner and listened to another dodgy
disco. After this torment we went to bed.
Sunday held the last 6 activities. After breakfast it was a 9.30 start for
the activities. Then we went to a Scouts’ Own and a presentation where we
learnt that David Mahoney’s Patrol had won the cooking competition base. Then
we finished the packing which we had started before the presentation and went
home.
The activities we did included scuba diving, climbing, caving, trek cart racing,
pedal car racing, rifle shooting, archery, mountain biking, ariel runway,
assault course, volleyball, backwoods cooking, cooking, The Big Challenge,
Bungee running, gladiators, sports compendium and casualties union.
The Camp was good for the price but because you only got 45 minutes per activity
you didn’t quite get long enough. Other than that it was an enjoyable camp
and I’d recommend it to anyone."
An APL
The PLs and APLs went
on a District Camp for PLs and APLs.
Those present were Duncan, Tim, Chris, Tom, David, Spencer, Sean, Ian and
Gareth.
Although a very wet and cold September weekend bravely all of the eighteen
activities went on over the two days. Some of these activities included: Mountain
Biking, The Big Challenge, Scuba Diving, Bungee run and Pedal Cars. Some of
the activities were good but others lacked charm especially the Backwoods
cooking one where you had to gut a fish with a pen knife then cook it on a
only half alight fire.
While all of these activities were going on Chalfont Heights sweet shop and
vending machines were drawing in a small fortune.
Among all the activities my favorite was probably Casualties Union where you
had to make yourself a huge cut using very realistic types of makeup. Second
to this I would say the Scuba Diving was good but in an unheated outdoor pool
in September pulled it down slightly. But despite the cold the experience
was amazing and I would say that it is well worth doing again.
Sean mainly provided the evening entertainment but there was also a sound
system blasting away. Despite the bad weather I would say that it would be
well worth going again to the Camp again in future years.
A PL
Nemesis – what a great
name for a Camp!
This was the County PL weekend, now extended to include APLs and Senior (old)
Scouts.
The principle is great. Get 250(ish) Scouts to turn up and camp for the weekend.
All the Scouts have to manage is to stick in their groups and go from exciting
activity to exciting activity. Great idea, but will it really work?
Friday consisted of the
Leaders karting kit across to the campsite and organising the central catering
areas – organised by District. The Scouts only had to manage a Patrol tent
to sleep in. Not too stressful for the little loves! Oh, and they had to get
into their organised groups.
Now why is it that people have such a hard time mixing with other people ?
Guess we’ll see if the groups hang together. To ease the problem of supper
in the District camps, there was a central bar-b-q for the Scouts, which seemed
to go down really well, followed by the disco. Now there is an interesting
activity for a Camp of largely boys. It was never clear whether they expected
people to be dancing round their ruck sack or just sat around chatting, either
way, it happened and the wearly Leaders made for bed, even if their Scouts
seemed to do everything but.
Saturday morning was
really the start of a very busy day. Shame then many of the Scouts had only
managed an hour or two sleep the previous night and didn’t want to make breakfast!
The Districts each did breakfast, but then, with the exception of having to
man activity bases throughout the day, there were no programmed breaks until
lunch. This did allow plenty of time for cooking lunch, and dinner, but didn’t
give the poor Leaders on the bases much of a break.
The site benefited from large woodland, and it was a pity that these were
not better used as bases, still, those in the woods seemed to have fun and
all the kids were muddy and smiley by lunchtime. The only real exceptions
were those who had been scuba diving, who I’m sure would have been smiling
had the hypothermia allowed! It was an interesting fact that the scuba diving
didn't wash the mud off!
Milling about the site mid-morning with cups of coffee for people I made an
interesting discovery, the vending machines. Now, daft of me to have overlooked
the potential for the vendors of a captive audience who couldn’t possibly
eat the ordinary food prepared for them by their District Leader teams, but
the marketeers had scored heavily here and there was a steady stream of hungry
kids to the machines, depleting their meagre stocks. Just about every scout
on site was to be seen with pockets full of candy and munching on something
or other. All of this would have been fine but for the waste of centrally
catered food and the litter – oh well.
The activities seemed to be a hit with everyone, even some (but not all) of
the Leaders running them. The range of experiences your average PL could enjoy
was huge and hats off to the organisers for their planning. Scuba diving was
a mega success. The mountain bikes were great, especially for those who managed
to stay on them, as was the cart racing. Even the traditional ariel runway
got a few thumbs up. Most of the activities continued without a hitch for
all of the day.
The questions from a Leader perspective was why were there no mid morning
and mid afternoon breaks? Sure there was a lot to do, but even the kids need
a drink and snack. It might also have served to hold the groups together better.
It was evident by mid Saturday afternoon that the groups had become a little
disjointed and people had started to meet up with their mates again.
Dinner at the District
Camps was an easy affair. No-one was quite sure what the evening programme
was so we tried to get everyone fed as swiftly as possible. There were a lot
of very tired people on the site, and many of the Scouts were tired too! Maidenhead
seemed to have groups who wished to eat al fresco and others who chose not
to eat at all – presumably waiting for the vending machines to be restocked.
There followed another disco. My only thoughts were, well, frankly, sad. A
domestic hi-fi being pumped to an unbearable limit and left to rattle and
distort across an otherwise very nice and peaceful field. Note to the organisers,
don’t insult the youngsters with this – get a decent sound system and then
do it properly!
Cookham card school went into session for an hour or two. Many matches were
won and lost, but no fortunes. Then as Leaders began to stumble, tired of
course, the rains came. This should have shifted everyone to bed, instead
it moved the groups who were scattered about the field into other areas to
sit and chatter. I found mine sat on a bench next to the vending machines.
Nothing sinister I believe, just that here they found a dry bench. Soon they
were ushered to bed – that would be 6/7 in one tent and 3 in the other – that
seems fair. Good job the 3 made it ‘til morning because I am certain their
fellow Scouts would have been very upset if their selfishness had led to any
discomfort due to the cold!
Sunday was a re-run of
Saturday, only spelt differently and with a change of weather.
It all started okay – early dips for the scuba who kicked off at 8.30! By
mid-morning it was raining heavily. For a few bases it was decided to close
down for safety (sanity) reasons.
By the time we had tided the equipment off our base and got back to the central
area there were Scouts hiding in the shelter of the marques staring at disbelief
at the rain – well okay, they were staring at disbelief at their magazines,
but it was raining too!
My group thought I was being funny when I suggested the first break in the
rain would see us taking the tents down. ‘Yeah, you’re joking right?!’ – er
no actually.. it has to be done. Wouldn’t you know it, shortly after packing
the tents the rain stopped. Oh well, they wouldn’t have dried in time anyway.
The Camp closed with a Scout’s Own in the Chapel, some awards where one of ours manages a first in the Patrol cooking base, and then a final tidy up, say goodbye to the girls and off home. All in all – well I was completely exhausted, but then I was tired before I started. The Scouts, well they were exhausted because they would not go to sleep and had enjoyed a couple of very busy days. Was it worth it and did it work ? I think so. Everyone I have spoken to has raved about it and certainly have passed on that message to the rest of the Troop.