Explorer Summer Camp 2006 at Longridge

This years Summer Camp, summed up in one word...ah, now that’s difficult, either that word hasn’t been thought up yet or I’m going to have to use several, it was just brilliant, one of the best I’ve ever been on and I’ve been to quite a few by now. It was made great by the company we had there and of course the organisational skills of the corporation that is Sheila! We were the first ones down out of the Explorers and the Scout group, we also had the best of the weather too, it was great, even I got tanned! Thanks go to Colin and Sheila who drove us down and also put up wit a lots of ..interesting music! Go Grease Lightening! We were there believe it or not only four days, it seems a lot more than that with the amount of stuff that we managed to do! When we got there we found ourselves pretty much by ourselves, it was great because the nearest other scout group was over the other side of Longridge, we had the toilets, the swimming pool and the scenery all to ourselves, we were on holiday!

After unloading the van safely there was dinner that was cooked in our own individual groups, now I wasn’t too sure about this before the week started, because not being known for my culinary talents and being allowed to really do any thing we wanted was a bit unnerving. But as it happened it turned out to be one of the best parts of the holiday, because we could really get creative. There was also the five quid challenge that involved feeding a whole group on a flyer, which you would think would be quite easy had we not had to shop in Marlow! A place were they got rid of Iceland for being too cheap presumably. It’s surprising how many pitta breads u can get for a quid though! I reckon my group won that only spending four pounds and sixty six pence!

The following day was activity time, where we all took part doing some of the courses, this year I think everyone came back with what they set out to do, as Hannah, Graeme, Becky and Beth all got their Canoe Safety certificate, Mark, Steph and Justina all got their Kayak 1 Star, big shout to them! And Me, Will, Dukey, Heather, Stephen, Carys, Andrea and Louisa all went on an ‘Extreme Sports’ course all week because we are Extreme! Yeah! Oh.. and Adam got a tan! Some of the things we got up to were pretty Wild too, like weir running...how did Duke manage it sideways? This involved basically falling from a height with a load of water in a Kayak! The largest Weir we went down was Marlow Weir which was around six foot of cascading water, still didn’t get my hair wet though! There were also a lot of things that I hadn’t done before like Rock climbing (photo opportunities!) and a bit of Rifle shooting, (Heather got the Highest score!) as well as Bell Boating which was fantastic with my group and if any one says anything about Hugh Grant, I’ll lamp them one!! Yeeehaaarrr! But what really made the week were the things that we did together as a group like the Dragon boating, now if only (was it Maggie?) could steer in a straight line we could have easily have beaten that boat!

And the Beach party was amazing too with the outfits, and the Games and the Outfits! Oh, Wills Paisley shirt was something I’ll never forget, he was going for the Caribbean look! And it was extra special because me and Becky were joint winners of the Limbo competition! Yeah! The Bikini Babes won the Photograph competition of the family on the Beach with Dukey doing a great impression of an old Grandad and Graeme doing a great impression of a lobster! Look at the, Photos, you’ll see what I mean! And then there was the Donkey race and the hula Competition, not at the same time though, anyway the overall winners I think you’ll find was infact my team, yeah, go Wills Bikinis!

Does everyone remember the New Age Christian group that was there? These guys turned up halfway through the week and flooded the place with around millions of people, I love the way we put up a barrier round the camp to stop people walking through, it was our little corner of sin!

I have decided to give the Bravery award to Weezer and Cary for there Weir run with their eyes closed (I don’t know if that was intentional!) and the John Horatio Duke, Whamster award goes to Graeme this yeah for the amount of time he spent in the Pool wrestling with the award co founder

Most Flamboyant leaves my hands after four years running and goes to Will for that shirt, and the Most helpful award goes to Tim.

And Finally, from the Wood pile to the Pink house, and from Marlow to the boys clean Tent, we — all had an ace time. But where would we be without Sheila, Andrea, Big Duke, Andrew, Justina, Karina, Bruce and Colin, who without there help we wouldn’t have made Leven, So thank you! And Thank you also to everyone that went, for just a great time. Love Jack

For pictures from the summer camp, please do see the web based photo gallery.