gjh's blog

So I just spent the week on Ray Mears' Fundamental Bushcraft course. It was awesome :-). You guys can make some guesses as to what you might be doing at future troop meetings and at camp!!

Keep the programme in your pocket - You can now enjoy mobile Scouting with the new badge app. [Scout Association News]

Finally an official mobile app! Because I know how many of you Scouts can't remember to bring your badge books with you :-). Get it here.

This is Catherine, Rachel, Matthew and Adam. They're on the road as we speak, in a ten mile tour around Waterbeach. We came 5th and 20th out of 25 last year in this county event. The team walk for about seven hours, navigating around a bunch of "incident" bases that each have challenges to complete for points. Wish them luck.... results coming ... very soon!! Watch this space.

We haven't seen these two working together so beautifully since Cam went up to Explorers. It's nice to see the old couple back together looking after each other.

This was a shot from Games Night - the last kayak class of the season, down at Overcote. One little plug for Ben F - his first ever attempt at Eskimo Rolling happened on the same night. Ben fluffed attempt one, but succeeded on two and three, which is stunningly good.

A large number of Scouts will be receiving Scout badges on Monday to recognize their BCU qualifications at Passport and Discovery levels. Well done!

Yeah, first day hike for these guys - started in October last year, and finished last weekend. JUST inside Year 6. That's good stuff. I haven't told them yet that they're doing an overnighter as soon as they hit Year 7 in September :-)

Well done lads. Especially the completely organized without me part - I almost forgot you were going. That - that was impressive.

"How to Start Kite Surfing - Take wakeboarding, ditch the boat, add a parabolic kite tethered by 100-foot lines, toss in some wind, and you get kiteboarding, a sport born in the late 1990s that is currently exploding in popularity.
[PM Outdoor Adventures]"

Any of you guys tried this? Do we need Beach Camp???

Explorer Scouting is ambitious. Our "Panther" unit started this year and we've done a couple of camps, a cycle ride, kayak, and a trip to the Peak District, as well as a variety of weekly meetings. But this video from "Ayers ESU" shows you how high the bar is set. I want us to be this good. The only way we'll do it is for you, our highly trained Scouts, to move up and bring your skills and expertise with you. Just imagine what you could do.

Ben, Harry, Jonathan and Nick are busy acing their patrol camp right now. And it's going to put them in spitting distance of Kingfisher on Monday...