All posts by Michael.Dreksler

Our Scouts at Kent International Jamboree

Last week Scouts from Swift, Chapman troops at the 4th and 9th Sevenoaks Scouts took their summer camp at the Kent International Jamboree (KIJ) at the Kent County Showground in Detling.

What is KIJ

Kent International Jamboree is an activity camp for scouts from around the world in the heart of Kent. With over 3,500 young people from coming together to take part in activities and celebrate scouting.

A Jamboree is an opportunity and an experience like no other. Most Scouts and Guides get to experience many different forms of nights away experiences but a Jamboree, whether it’s a local, national or international Jamboree is the kind of camp that will live with them forever.

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Scouts Camp at Hamlet Wood

Our planned microlighting session during camp unfortunately had to be cancelled. After a quick reassessment of our weekend, we decided to relocate the camp to Hamlet Wood scout campsite near Maidstone.

The camp was a patrol camp, with scouts doing just about all the catering for the whole weekend, including cooking for leaders!

We tried a somewhat different menu for a change.

  • Supper: Sausage-in-a-bun, hot chocolate
  • Breakfast: Full English (choice of egg, beans, mushrooms, bacon, sausage, toast/eggy-bread)
  • Lunch: Chicken or haloumi fajitas followed by campfire doughnuts
  • Dinner: Spaghetti, tomato sauce and meatballs and pineapple fritters for desert
  • Sunday Breakfast: Breakfast burritos
  • Eleven o’clock snack: Smores

We did manage to squeeze some activities in-between the cooking and eating – we threw tomahawks, ran a catapult shooting gallery (only tin cans and chickpeas were hurt) and ran some wide games.

We have masses of photos and videos – there are a sample below but you can view them all in the shared album

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May Camp at Hammerwood

The scout troops spend the weekend camping at Hammerwood Scout Camp, on the edge of the Ashdown Forest near East Grinstead.

It was a back-to-basics camp with the scouts cooking all their own meals over wood fires.

Menu for the weekend was

  • Hotdogs & hot chocolate for supper after pitching camp
  • Cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms and toast
  • Tea/coffee/squash, fruit or a biscuit for for mid morning snack
  • Do-it-yourself wraps for lunch + fruit tart
  • Tea/coffee/squash, fruit or a biscuit for mid afternoon snack
  • Chicken and vegetable curry and rice for dinner followed by sponge puddings and custard
  • Hot chocolate for supper
  • Choice of eggy bread / omelette and cereal for breakfast
  • For end-of-striking camp snack the scouts made Smores using enormous (‘EPIC Huge’) marshmallows

The scouts managed a good number of activities into the weekend when they weren’t cooking.

  • The brushed up their archery skills
  • They set tracking trails for the other teams to follow
  • They all had chance to perfect their axe and saw skills
  • They tried their hand at whittling – either tent pegs or cutlery
  • They also managed to play quite a few wide games – without injuries!

Apprentice Flavour Maker

The Scouts from both troops have been trying their hands at Sales, Marketing and Product Development…

They took part in an Apprentice-style challenge to design a new flavour of crisps, to develop it, and market it to the rest of the troop.

Finally, Sir Jason and Sir Emily Sugar made their final pronouncements and decided on winners.

We are not sure that we have found the Next Big Thing, but we did come to the conclusion that cinnamon flavoured crisps aren’t as unpleasant as they sound, and hot-chocolate powder doesn’t go with anything, and definitely not Cajun seasoning…

(Click any photo to open a bigger version that you can scroll through)

Sir Emily Sugar announcing her decision

Should you want to try this with your troop, it was based on this OSM activity

Scouts went chariot racing this week

On Tuesday Chapman prepared some of our new pioneering poles before using them to build some basic chariots and racing them.

The first step was stripping the bark off the new poles.

They then got to building their chariots and racing them. Unfortunately everything happened so fast we were distracted from photography and missed that bit!

I did get a picture of the poles in the daylight though

Not to be out-done, Swift tried their hand on Friday. This time we managed to get some shots of the race too!

Scouts Christmas Camp at Waylands

Both scout troops have been away on Christmas Camp, which was held at Waylands Scout Camp nr South Street.

Spit roast turkey at Christmas Camp + scouts

We tried out two battery powered spit-roasts which we fitted to our altar fires for the first time.  We gave them a work out with Turkey for the Christmas dinner on Saturday and roast pork in a bun on Sunday.

Apart from eating we managed to fit in some seasonal activities

  • Mug pong
  • Treasure hunt
  • Rope swing making
  • Reindeer making
  • Christmas tree making
  • Woggle making
  • Christmas Carol-fire
  • Mini pantomimes
  • Christmas Quiz
  • Silent disco
  • Secret Santa

We also managed to invest two new scouts! but we forgot to take photos