That’s why I like hammocking- much less faff!
had a great district camp this weekend at our local site, a few hiccups with so many cubs but all the kids had a brilliant time, keeping them out of the sun and hydrated was w challenge! 
If any of you ever get up north, this is the best scout/cub etc camp for whole of Scotland.
My lads Scouts were at their local district camp this weekend, his first as an adult leader, so we'll see how it went. All we've heard so far is that it was chilly at night. Wrong phrase when the camp site is at Willy.
Did an audax the week before last that of course started at the village hall which is also the Scout hut. Scouts and the leaders were providing tea and biscuits at the start and finish for £1 as a fundraiser. It was their first year being involved and they were astonished how much they made from 70 riders, a lot of whom told them to keep the change. Had a great chat with their Squirrel leader who was thinking of offering bacon cobs next time - I'd driven 90 minutes to the start, I'm not the only one who would have paid generously for a bacon cob!
Hopefully they have a nice annual fundraiser going forwards. They are also on, or just off, a couple of main cycling routes out of Lincoln, on and off road. A pop up tea room would probably work for them as well.
Just done our “Survival Camp” this weekend.
The younger half of the troop stay in tents, the older half spend the first night in hammocks and the second in an improvised shelter.
Obviously with the weather we had to make a few changes, so we had the younger ones in a permanent tented “village” and the older ones in an improvised tarp shelter under our big parachute. We also had use of a covered seating/dining area permanent kitchen.
We were at Bowley if anyone knows it, using the Little Bowley area.
As leaders we have decided from now on that the kids can no longer take phones. We discourage it, but after this weekend they will be banned. Too many of them just sat around watching their phones and refused to engage at all. They knew in advance that it was a bushcraft themed camp and they also knew that the weather was going to be a bit of a challenge.
One kid burst into tears when we asked him to get off his phone and join in. He moped around for a bit then said he wanted to go home. We called his parents, and they said that they couldn’t collect him, so he was stuck with us for another 24 hours. Talk about cheap baby sitting! Same kid was also sent without a coat.
We’ve also got an issue with Crocs. Not from a style point of view, but from kids wearing them instead of boots. OK for a hostel based trip but not great on a campsite with fire and metal pegs sticking out of the ground.
Anyway. 23 of the kids would appear to have had a great time and learned something in the process. Damp fire lighting, hammock and tarp rigging for wet weather, parachute setting, improvised shelter building and waterproofing, fish gutting, and how to dry a damp sleeping bag.
Cool, we're doing ours the weekend after next. Just one night though, we're going to Boarfold near Glossop. They'll all be sleeping in shelters they build, for some it's their first camp which seems a brave choice... They'll be skinning rabbits, which will be new to me too.
We don't ban phones, but we do discourage them and to be honest we don't have too much of a problem. They know that I have a rule though - if I see a phone, I'm having it and they'll get it back at the end of camp.
I've got to organise something for a 'cooking on fires' evening next week, any ideas? Something pretty simple as we've got other stuff going on too, but I want to get away from the usual cheese toasties/s'mores/chocolate bananas stuff we've done to death...
I like apocalypse cooking. Get 4 cans of food per team. Remove labels. Make pyramid. Issue tennis balls.
Knock them down to win them.
Teams combine them to make the best meals, taste off to get to victory.
Meatballs, soup, stagg chilli, spuds, custard, prunes, anything goes…
We don't ban phones, but we do discourage them and to be honest we don't have too much of a problem.
That used to be our approach until this weekend.
At pack down we had all the kit in the open with tarps on top to keep the rain off. Tarps were weighted down with camp chairs.
One kid removed a chair so that he could sit down and play on his phone. Tarp blew away. Kit got wet. Kid was obliviously doom scrolling whilst this was going on.
