Beach Camp 2008

With a slight feeling of aprehension based on what happened a couple of years ago, but bouyed-up by an optimistic weather forecast, 16 Scouts & 7 Leaders trooped-off to Foveran Links for another Beach-Olympics weekend camp.

Beach Camp 2008 - our new sign's first outing (as well as a couple of Scouts)!

Friday:

Mike, Chris and Bruce had been on site since 3.30pm working hard to unpack the trailer and get the mess tent and all the hike tents up during daylight hours. They managed 95% of the tents leaving only one to be put up by it's occupiers (sorry Terry, Keith & Jim!).

The Scouts started to arrive just after 7pm after walking the short way from Drums of Foveran Farm - home of Peter & Mike Ingram who we gratefully thank for allowing us to camp on their land.

The darkness (i.e. night-time, not the band) prevented a more wide-ranging exploration of the camp site but it didn't stop the Scouts from indulging in some rather odd games including floodlight football and some sort of wrestling game where the weirdness of the screaming and grunting seemed to be the main point.

In the mess tent supper (burgers) was being prepared and the Scouts discovered the store of indoor games that we'd brought. There was the traditional round of cards and Jenga but also Aberdeen Monopoly was brought out as was a couple of sets of dominoes which seemed to go down very well with virtually none of the kids having played it before. Keith's big sweetie jar of chocolate covered raisins went down extremely well.

Lights out was at a very optimistic 11.30 but there was general chatter going to and fro until the early hours as usual.

Saturday:

Saturday dawned clear and bright but quite breezy. A small group of Scouts working for their Outdoor and Outdoor Plus Challenge badges tramped up to the mess tent to prepare breakfast and very well they did it too. Sausages, bacon, beans & cereal.

              
Breakfast cooks - yes the atmosphere was that hazy!

Some Scouts were already high up on the very large dune just south of the camp site with plenty of apparent energy and raring to go. After breakfast the beach-olympics began with this morning's activities including shooting, sand-sledging, dune jumping and boules. The Scouts competed in 4 teams of 4. The sand-sledging champs were Liam and Fraser who both completed the course in 5 seconds with some pretty spectacular sledging. Fraser was dune-jumper par excellence followed by Findlay and Andrew McL. Finlay's team won the Boules event and Fraser's team the shooting. After the first day's events it was very tight at the top for the first three places between Finlay's, Andrew T's and Fraser's teams, all within 2 points of each other. Could Andrew F's team pull back some of the gap tomorrow?

A make-it-yourself lunch was laid out with a selection of soup and sandwich fillings (a 100% take-up of chocolate spread of course) and then followed by a hike up the beach to the pub in Newburgh. Several parties of Scouts disappeared into the dunes occasionally but the group kept more or less together. The wind by now was quite strong but at least on our backs but we were all starting to get a bit apprehensive about what it would be like walking into it on the way back.

The pub staff looked a bit nonplussed when 23 of us turned up even though we had cleared it with them on our camp recce the previous weekend! Still, we were shown into the function suite and everyone enjoyed a drink and a packet of crisps.

After our snacks we set off to return to the camp site but this time we went through the dune field itself which was very interesting and quite a bit sheltered from the wind. Some of the old derelict defensive gun sites and supply bridges were quite eeiry in this strange setting.

Not far from the camp on the way back we crossed a small drainage stream from some of the marshes we saw in the dune field and the Scouts spent a good half an hour there trying to dam-up the flow. Andrew T & Findlay (with some help from a couple of others) managed it with some frantic sand-shoving and pretty soon afterwards all the Scouts were having a go - some with more success than others. Playstations, computers and gadgets notwithstanding, take a bunch of kids and give them a supply of sand and water and they'll have a great time!

Back at camp the sand was shaken out of our boots and another cooking party went up to the mess tent to prepare and cook dinner (chilli and rice with sponge puddings and custard to follow). Very good it was too! The leaders were particularly impressed by the fact that the mince pot could be cleaned without the use of a scouring pad which meant the mixture was being stirred often and well enough not to allow any burning to take place.

More indoor games and general capering about occurred until we adjourned to an adjacent derelict shed for a small campfire session with a fire built by our 5 PLs. There wasn't much wood over and above what Terry had brought with him but we managed to get through quite a few of our favourite songs, mostly being led by Nikki & Chris.

Chris & Mike went back to the mess tent to get started on our pancake supper and it was all agreed that Chris was certainly a dab-hand with the frying pan as far as pancakes were concerend.

Several of the Scouts could be seen nodding during the campfire & pancakes and everyone was much more keen to get to their beds tonight. The chatter, like the wind, died down relatively quickly and we all passed a pretty good night away.

Sunday:

Next morning there was virtually no wind at all and we got up a little later than usual but the breakfast crew (a slightly different one today) were on hand to do the cooking. The menu was the same as yesterday substituting eggy-bread for the beans.

After breakfast we held a "Scout's Own" Sunday ceremony at which we had a surprise guest - District Commissioner Ally Lees. Ally said a few words and then presented two of the Leaders with Scout Association Long Service certificates; Jim (10 years) and Mike (5 years). Both Leaders were extremely (but pleasantly) surprised by this, particularly since the latter knew about the former's presentation (and was busy taking photographs of it) but had no idea he was going to be singled out as well! Ally stayed with us for a wee while and came around to see the Scouts on their morning's activities. Thanks very much to Ally for coming down to visit us.

Today's activities continued with beach golf, polo mint shooting and beach-casting competitions. Champion beach-caster was Matthew, followed by Andrew F and thirdly Rebecca. Golfer of the day was Matthew (again), followed by Luke.

Andrew F's team had indeed done better today than yesterday and had caught up with the others but a tot-up of all the teams' points over the two days showed that the winning team was FRASER, MATTHEW, LUKE & LUCY. Well done!

Team scores:

Of course, the camp had to come to an end and as we'd played right up until 12 noon it was perhaps a little optimistic on the Leaders' part that we could get everything packed away in one hour in order to be ready to rendezvous with the parents at 1pm. Nevertheless, the Scouts did pretty well in getting finished by 1.30 so, what with the walk back to Drums Farm, we were "only" 45 minutes late.

We appreciate the help everyone gave back at Daviot to get the trailer unpacked and the gear stowed. Thank you.

Overall the Leaders though this was a very good camp with everyone appearing to have a very enjoyable time.

Thanks to all of you who came along and made it another successful and enjoyable camp. Thanks to Peter & Mike Ingram for allowing us to camp there, Ally Lees for his visit and all the Leaders, including Bruce who joined us for his first Scout camp and who was very good company as well as a very useful helper. We also hope our first-camp Scouts had a good time and that they will be back for more!