Summer Camp 2009 @ Longridge Activity Centre

Longridge is a youth development centre that provides land and water based activities from a unique Thames-side facility, easily accessible from the UK motorway network. Hornsea Scout Group have attended the venue on numerous occasions in the past and have always found it to be an excellent venue. Longridge provides an array of water sport activity and courses in complete safety for young people from the site. Longridge offers a range of accommodation and some land based activities too! For more information download the attached *.pdf brochure (1.73Mb) click on this link to download the brochure as a *.pdf file. Or click the link to the left to view the Longridge Promotional Video.

Hiking

We support the County wide hiking competitions - the one day Humberside Challenge Hike in February and the more testing two day event in October: the Fells Marathon which attracts teams from all over England (in 2006 it was set in the Yorkshire Dales and in 2007 it will take place somewhere in Yorkshire). For more information on the event click this link for further information on the event.

Fells Marathon - October 2009

For more information about this years Fells Marathon being held at Birch Hall, Langdale near Scarborough click on this link to download the brochure as a *.pdf file

The original plan had been to enter 2 explorer teams and on scout one into last weekends Fells Marathon hiking competition. However the best laid plans ……It ended up being an explorer team of 6 and a scout team of four. Thanks Lauren for dropping down to help the scouts! We managed to time our arrival at the Birch Hall site to coincide with an outbreak of torrential rain but it’s fun putting up tents in the dark and the rain! The route always looked as if it might catch a few people out, especially in the early stages…and so it did. The weather on Saturday morning was as good as you can expect and Clem and I had managed to get an early checkpoint – the theory being that we should be stood down by lunchtime – so all was well. Listening to the radio it was obvious that teams were struggling to get to the first checkpoint and the times were far greater than expected. Our gallant scout team got there in 1 hour 14 mins which was fine ( one team took 3 and a half hours!) but then sadly went off the radar. They ended up probably walking more than any other team but sadly this epic trek failed to take in any checkpoints…Still it was a nice day for a stroll and they did join up with Bridlington Scouts who were also not 100% sure of their whereabouts.

The Fells competition is designed to specifically allow this sort of event to happen though and the Sweep Teams ( aided by a passing mountain biker) eventually located them! They did complete the course on Sunday however and we are proud of them – a) for taking part in the 1st place and b) for the excellent spirit shown. The Explorers did fantastically well considered the size and varying ability within the team and finished both days ( 9th overall). Tall Tom , the map control man says, “What I like about them is that they treat the event as social outing!” However I get the feeling we will surprise a few people next year and I anticipate a podium finish for one, if not both teams! If you wish to see the results in all their gory detail then check out the link to the left of the page.

Shooting

On May Day Bank Holiday Monday, a party of 9 of the older scouts visited County HQ at Raywell near Cottingham to enjoy a session on the air rifle range. The event went well and best shot on the day turned out to be Jess.

Hornsea Scouts Summer Camp – Broadstone Warren – 2007

As the song goes …”and they say we’ll have some fun when it stops raining” . Well we did because it did!

Broadstone Warren is a great camp-site with huge camping areas and an ample supply of firewood. The roads within the site are basic and the smaller tracks off these are suitable only for 4x4 vehicles. I know this because the day after we’d driven our convoy of vehicles down one such track to our site I had a proper look at the site plan I’d been given and read this useful info. Still, we now know that the school minibus performs well off road, far better than the KIA people carrier and far far better than the Luton Transit Van. Wednesday evening was a true test of scouting spirit and memories of the Centenary Camp at Driffield weren’t far from everyone’s mind. It was damp, a bit cold, the toilets were one up from Portaloos and we were wondering, if it continued to rain, how we were going to get the vehicles off the site early the nex morning for our day trip to Calais.

Thursday - Of course we were late getting away from camp but at least we managed to remove the vehicles from the site and we managed to get a ferry a half hour after our allotted one. On arrival in Calais the plan had been to spend the day on the beach so we headed off in that general direction. After half an hour the clouds unloaded in great style on our by now strung out gaggle. Wet and cold we were looking desperately for any bolt hole that would take a party of 27 for some brief respite – you would not have bet on where we ended up! Well actually you would end up betting in there, for it was a betting shop/ bar/ anything else you fancy. The manager was a top bloke who when I told him the size of the group said “We manage”. Excellent Tea , Coffee and Hot chocolate arrived and there were opportunities for various scouts to practise their skills to say big thanks, notably Ruby and Rhett and others.

This break saved the day and after a trip to the shops for lunch we were off to the beach where the more mentally challenged members of our party ran had a refreshing dip: You know who you are!

Friday – Horse riding was excellent and I think all enjoyed it apart from Clemmy whose horse gave way under him . Luckily no damage was done and the horse was back at work shortly after. I think Clem was ok too!!

The rest of the camp was spent constructing a variety of shelters which various scouts slept under and also getting familiar with the safe use of a knife and axe and how to sharpen them correctly. It was different to previous camps as we had a lot more time round the site to do scouty type things! To cool off on Saturday we booked the pool and cool off we did as it was a tad nippy.

On the last night we booked a ghost walk – led by a professional actor who, in the best theatrical manner was 45 minutes late for his appearance!. He took us around the site while telling us grim stories about grizzly murders and strange happenings - just like being in Hull really! It was very good though – especially for those who were sleeping out that night. Did anybody else hear the chains being dragged along at midnight?!

I wouldn’t rule out a return to Broadstone. The staff were excellent and the site is fabulous. OK so it doesn’t score highly on toilets/showers but you can’t have everything. Its just a shame its not quite on your doorstep. The mileage per vehicle was around 800 miles. The behaviour and attitude of all campers was great and big thanks to all! As ever I welcome suggestions for next years camp. So until then..Carry on Camping! RC

Comic Relief

To help raise funds for the BBC's comic relief event on the evening of Thursday 15th March 2007 the Scout Group held a none uniform evening. In order to attend Scouts and Explorers without Uniform had to make a donation to Comic Relief, however the Scouts & Explorers in uniform had to make a larger donation to comic relief.

All the Scouts donated and to top it off the Scout Leader in charge accepted donations of £5 to allow the Scouts & Explorers to throw plates of cream at him. So overall a good night was had by all concerned, all in aid of the BBC's Red Nose Day!. If you look in the gallery by clicking on this link you can see some pictures! Plus for a further report on the evenings activities see the BBC's regional website for a report courtesy of the BBC including further pictures of the evening!