December Competition Night Hike.
I think we can look back on Friday night as a very successful Night Hike adventure; thanks to everyone who helped plan and run it, and to our capable teenage Patrol Leaders, Zia, Rebekah and Jack.
Every single scout except for the three very newest youngsters said they were coming, and everyone turned-up, it is a remarkable sign of their enthusiasm for adventurous activities knowing they could be out on a very wet and horrible winter night. As it was, it was a dry and almost windless evening, although very muddy. Travelling the 15 miles out of London to the Biggin Hill area took us about 2 hours; we left at 6pm to start walking at 8.30pm.
We extended an invitation to other troops in the district and welcomed 6 very young scouts and new parent helpers with Nigel Riley from the 7th Camberwell who said they all had a brilliant night adventure.
As well as walking about 6 miles and doing a lot of steep climbing and night navigation up and down the North Downs the patrols were shown sets of faces and names to memorise, had to try and hit ‘wolves’ with stones when their flourescent eyes were caught in the light of the scout’s torches. At the final base in the woods they had to light a fire and we all had burger’s before walking back to the bus and home.
Rebekah led Panda Patrol to win the silver Hike Trophy as they made no navigation errors and were the only patrol to complete the route. Sadly Tigers and Lions all made a silly compass error at the very beginning and lost over an hour in time, leaving it impossible for them to complete all the hike, but the Lions scored more points than Pandas on the bases they did complete, so a close call. We all enjoyed some amazing views from the top of the Downs out over the lights of the Kent countryside, it was a full moon and even the M25 looked stunning from a distance!
Rod set-up the cooking base in the woods with Sam, Jane drove us there and ran Main base, Lin and KatiE did the photo recognition base and cooked, Jaki and Ricky did the ‘wolf base’ and I covered a bit of coordination and spent an hour in the bushes outside the very isolated Pilgrim House watching for torches and listening for the scouts trying to be quiet and gather clues in the darkness.
We got back to Manor just after 1am, sleeping-over at the church, enjoying breakfast together and planning future events, before knocking the mud off our boots and making for home. ( and more sleep!)
Well done everyone, especially the younger scouts who had very weary legs and sore feet. All of the scouts can be very proud of themselves, they faced a tough challenge and worked together with courage and enthusiasm.
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Eddie Langdown Leader
