Draca Explorers  Gold DofE team were willing to walk 500 miles, perhaps even 500 more. Don't think they did quite walk that far on the end on their assessed expedition in the Lake District, but they were certainly glad when those country roads were taking them home on the last day.
Well done team Max!mus Pr!me & pals, you're an inspiration.

This evening we were fortunate to be hosted by Jasper from Go Tennis at the fabulous facilities at Haslemere Lawn Tennis club.
 
Our Beavers got to practice hand and eye co-ordination which are key for playing any kind of sport.  They learnt about forehand and backhand tennis strokes; where to position their feet and bodies to ensure a good return of the ball that was fed to them.  They then put all the techniques into practice  and played various tennis games which seemed to be met with great enthusiasm.  We had a couple of Beavers that proved to be real tennis stars – well done everyone for taking part and entering into the spirit of the session.
 
Thanks to Jasper and HLTC

Last year we took our older cubs off to Brownsea Island to celebrate the Cub Scout centenary. It was such a fantastic camp, very relaxed with a smaller number to look after, and more exciting for them as they had to bring their own provisions - proper explorer style! So good was the camp we decided to make it a tradition and run the camp each year as a "My Last Camp". 

This year's camp was just as much a success as last year. Cubs made shelters from DD Tarps (thanks to Scouts for lending them), brought their own highly tactical survival food (some more tactical than others, but it's a learning curve), learned how to whistle through an acorn cup (thanks a LOT king Louie!) and witnessed the Colonel being awarded his wood badge (though maturity is in question). 

Welcome back to Beavers and also a very warm welcome to our new Beavers! This evening we made paper hands to help us learn each other’s names.

We also collected natural things to go into our bug hotels. The insects of Haslemere are going to be very lucky.

Camelsdale Cubs hosted a HUGELY successful district 6'ers camp this weekend. 26 (give or take) cubs practiced their survival skills in Andy and Sue's ever popular "I'm a cub scout get me out of here" (even though the storm was quite harsh, but probably fair); Jon Taylor came and talked to us about bushcraft and fire skills; and The Colonel showed how to turn last night's marshmallow skewers into whimmy diddles (with 100% confirmed propellor rotation). 

​Thanks to ALL who made it happen, especially Ivor for hosting. A very relaxing / exciting / adventurous / creative camp was had by all. And a big thanks to cubs for coming along, throwing yourselves into it and behaving so well. 

​

Thursday 26th - Camelsdale Scout HQ is turned into an animation films studio that even Aardman would be jealous of. 

We produced four films depicting historic events in Camelsdale Cubs history

​In September your old clothing/shoes/soft toys/handbag/bedding donations raised more than £125 for 1st Camelsdale Scout Group. Bags of Support is doing another collection in Camelsdale on Thursday 2nd February, so please have a rummage around bedrooms, wardrobes and attics this week and over the weekend then bring in your filled bags this week or early next week (w/c 30 Jan). 


If would be great if we can raise more than £100 again, which will go directly to supporting the Group.


What can you donate?

• Good quality re-useable clothes, paired shoes, belts, handbags, bedding and soft toys
• It's a great opportunity to clear out your wardrobes to make way for new spring/summer clothes and to also get rid of clothes, shoes and soft toys that your children have grown out of.

What happens to the donations?

• Bags of Support will “weigh and pay” 50p / kilo, which quickly adds up and goes directly to 1st Camelsdale Scout Group
• Any high quality items are sent directly to the Glodeni Orphange in Romania where they’re really needed. The other items are sold and distributed in Romania to people who can’t afford to buy new clothing.

Why donate?

• Apart from raising money and supporting a good cause in Romania, textile recycling helps to reduce landfill. The UK generates 1 million tons of textile waste a year, which makes up 12% of landfill
• The Bags of Support project is a great way of teaching your children the importance of recycling and helping to reduce waste
• For more information about Bags of Support visit www.bagsofsupport.co.uk

Thank you for your support.

Other dates to put in your diaries

1. Bag packing fundraiser at Waitrose, Sat 4 February, 10am-12 noon and 12-2pm. Is your child (or are you) able to help out? It's the last week before the store puts in self-service checkouts, so the last week that the manned tills will get such high footfall. Please help us to make it count for 1st Camelsdale.
2. Fun wine tasting fundraiser, Fri 3 March, 8-10pm at the hut. A light-hearted and fun evening of entertainment and food, run by an ex-Scout parent who does this for a living and wants to give something back to the Group. Event invite coming out soon.
3. Family camp, 24/25 June. More details nearer the time.

Rebecca Jones
Chair
1st Camelsdale Scout Group

1st Camelsdale Cubs, and assorted leaders, enjoyed one of the most awesome camps in the history of everything, on Brownsea Island, September 24th & 25th.

As we all know, this is the spiritual home of scouting, where Baden Powell held the first "experimental" camp in 1907. This year, the centenary year of Cub scouts, we brought it bang up to date with our own risky experiment - by letting the Colonel organise it. 

Setting off in our borrowed mini bus at 8am we arrived in Sandbanks, giving us enough time to lower the tone of the area before catching the 15 minute ferry over to the island. Having hired tents and cooking equipment we got the VIP treatment - a trailer carried our gear to the camp site. After setting up camp and a quick lunch we explored the island with the capable guidance of the warden (Chikai's brother-in-law, that's handy!). 

Back to the camp for 6pm for tea. The cubs brought their own food, a mix of dried expedition food, boil in the bag "look what we found" meals and (my favourite) Harry's "just add water and stand back while it explodes of it's own accord" meals. After tea a walk to Pottery Pier and then a wide game.

Sunday's weather turned out as lovely as Saturday, despite the stormy night. We've figured out how far our group is from Brownse, so contributed to the overcrowded scout sign post with our own "Camelsdale 100km" sign post - how appropriate for cubs centenary

After breakfast we set off Geocaching the island, which is a sort of Pokemon Go with real things.  We'd bought two "travel bugs" which we're hoping to track through the Geocaching.com website. The fist one was found by Ringwood scouts that very afternoon! Anyone interested in tracking them follow these links:

https://coord.info/TB7ETRX
https://coord.info/TB7G2MG

We also tracked plenty of wildlife - deer (both stags), red squirrel, peacocks, pea hens and chick peas. Possibly the most wild and scary were our leaders -  Ivor, Mark and Claire and Andy. Huge thanks to our young leaders Livvy and Sam for their help.