Finally Back To Camping!

Looking over the to Mess Tent
In the last week of July some of our brave leaders ran a week long summer camp for not one, not two, but THREE Scouting sections!
Due to restrictions in place when planning these sections did not have any overlapping nights, essentially making this three consecutive camps – which is not an easy thing to run…
We started with our Monday Meteor Scout Troop setting the pitch up, building up a fire, and starting to get into the camp-groove. A couple of days later our Thursday Typhoon Air-Scout Troop came in and took over – after Meteor had kindly put their tents away (can’t have Typhoon missing out on putting tents up). Finally, Odiham’s own Endurance Explorers arrived, and at the end of their stint were great at helping pack the larger equipment away before the worst of that last day’s rain hit.

A Small Campfire
Despite the ever changing weather all of the sections looked to enjoy their activities – Caversham Lake’s Aquapark and a hike through Swinley Forest (Meteor Troop getting a *very* close lightning storm for their stroll) for their first activity day, followed by a rotation through archery, mini-golf, and bouldering, with some camp-skills thrown in for good measure on the second activity day.
Endurance managed to get to Coral Reef for their wet activity, having very recently done a District wide meet at Reading Aquapark.
It was great to see so many Scouts on their first ever proper Scout Camp – having been two years since the last one could be done most of the Scouts had only been on Cub activity days before! Similarly with the Explorers, being almost a brand new Unit most of them had only been on Scout camps before (and a couple not even that). They all stepped up to the mark with the increased responsibility and self-reliance each section has from the younger ones, and we hope they all took great memories and experiences from the camp!
100th EH gives a massive thank you to the few leaders who stayed on site throughout, and further thanks to those who gave what time they could during the week to help them.
Personally, I think the leaders went home more tired than the Scouts… (I might be a bit biased)