Winter Scout Camp

On December 16-18 2011, the Saturday Scout troop went to a Winter Camp. We met at the school on the 16^th at 11:30 and came back on the 18^th at 2:15. Throughout the camp, we gain new knowledge.

Day 1

On the 16^th, we started our journey to the campsite. We stopped at a restaurant. The restaurant was Eco-Farm Restaurant. I ate a delicious plate of fried rice with mushrooms in it. After that, we arrived at the campsite- Tung Tsz Scout Centre. When we went to the campsite, we went to our camping place and set up our tents. Setting up the shelter and the tent was easy, but the longest part we took was to nail down the nails into the ground. Sometimes the ground was hard so we had to nail harder or nail somewhere else. We also set up a clothes hanger using bamboo (the PLs made it). Then we put all our camping stuff into the tent and set up our tent.

For Barbecue, there were 2 barbecue pits and we used them to cook all kinds of food, like sausages, chicken wings, fish balls, etc. WE also had marshmallows. Then after our dinner, we went to the lecture room to make up and practice our skit in 45 minutes for earning the Entertaining Badge. The skit we need to perform is for the campfire on the night of the 17^th. It needs to be 3-4 minutes long and about Scouters. Raymund, Hermann, Kenneth and I were in a group, and we made a skit about a scouter you will never follow. Raymund was the bad scouter, he got all the things wrong, like uniform (pink socks), marching (left, left, left left left). So after our marvelous day, we slept in our small tents in Patrols. Cougar got split up, so Raymund and I slept with the Moose Patrol (Geoffrey, Hermann).

In this day, I didn’t really learn a lot of tings because I knew how to set up a tent and how to use the fork in the barbecue.

Day 2

On day 2, we woke up on 7:00, and then at 7:30 we did some morning exercise. We did some stretching, next we did 10 pushups and we ran a lap around the campsite. After that, we had breakfast. Then we did some orienting. Orienteering is basically using a map and find clues in the places they ask you to go to. We had 6 sheets and each sheet we had to find the 10 symbols. The symbols were letters/numbers like 1, r, s, 5, etc. I think that this orientation was easy because they were easily spotted. They were in spots like on walls, next to air conditioners, etc. In cubs, I did some orienteering that was harder than this. They were hidden in spots like under a swing, behind a drain, etc. Then we had lunch. We went back to the barbecue pit because we had a tinfoil lunch. Tinfoil lunch is when you have raw meat such as chicken, pork and uncooked vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots. First cut the meat and vegetables, then we put them on the tinfoil and folded it really tight. Then we put it next to the fire for 20 minutes. It was really delicious! I shared my food with my friends and they shared theirs with me.

After lunch, we watched the PLs and Adrian how to build a catapult with bamboos and sticks. It considered a lot of square latching. After that, we filled up balloons with water and had our water balloon fight! I got wet, but after a while, I was dry again. We went to dinner and then had our campfire.

We walked silently into the campfire, and then we sang a lot of songs, such as Campfire’s Burning, The More We Get Together, etc. There were different groups that perform their skits in front of the campfire,  (that included me) and cheers from each Patrol.

In the second day of the camp, I learnt a lot of things, like how to make the tinfoil lunch; because that was the first time I made it. I also learnt a different way to make a catapult with bamboos and string. I learnt how to make a catapult with bamboos and string in a different way before, but not like this way.

Day 3

On Day 3, we woke up and ate our breakfast, which was stove cooking. There were little stoves for each patrol and a container with gas. We connected the gas with the stove and we cooked eggs, sausages and a lot of other things. It turned out to be fun and the food tasted delicious. After the marvelous stove cooking, we need to show our kit.

Show kit is when you show all the things you brought to camp. You show it like there is a body, what I mean is you put your hat on the top of the mat and the shoes on the bottom, it is just like a person is sleeping there.

Even it is the last day, I also learnt some things, like stove cooking. It was the first time I did this. Also it was also the first time I showed my kit, so I also learnt how to do better next time.