Camp Diary – Summer Camp 2022

Sunday 29th May
The first full day of camp started shortly after dawn for most of the young people, and the noise soon woke all the adults, too.

The day was filled by site activities. We had an hour each of archery, shooting, crate stacking and the cavebus (literally a caving system in a bus).

In their patrols, the Scouts and Cubs prepared and cooked chicken korma, with a small mountain of rice and poppadums, followed by chocolate gateau and strawberry cheesecake. They then had to clear everything up afterwards.

The dastardly young leaders hijacked each patrol’s box of sweets and took them off around the site for tonight’s wide game, forcing the patrols to hunt them down to get them back.

They were all in bed and quiet by 10pm, after an exhausting day.



Monday 30th May
Today was one of our big adventure days.

We left the campsite shortly after 9am for the trip to Manley Mere, an watersports venue near Chester. The morning was spent on their adventure trail – a 1.5 mile walk through the woods with muddy obstacle challenges every so often. The Scouts and Cubs absolutely loved it and many of them finished it plastered with mud.

After lunch, the Scouts, Leaders and most of the Cubs went on the aqua park for an hour of high-adrenaline fun on the inflatables. They bounced, slid, climbed and fell into the lake for an hour.

The remaining few Cubs went out onto the lake in a couple of Canadian canoes.

We got back to the campsite late in the afternoon and everyone enjoyed a roast chicken dinner, followed by apple pie/crumble, a delicious end to a fantastic day.



Tuesday 31st May
For some of the leaders, today felt like Monday, because that’s the traditional hike day on the group summer camps.

Eight hiking group’s left the site in minibuses and were dropped off in various locations in the local area with routes to follow to get back.

Some walked along canals, others crossed railway tracks and pretty much everyone climbed styles, went through gates and sheltered from some pretty intense showers.

The plan had been to do some bushcraft activities in the afternoon, but everyone was back later than expected, wet and tired, so that didn’t happen.

After some time recovering, the patrols all cooked sausage mash and beans on their fires and then everyone got to watch a film in the evening.


Wednesday 1st June
Alton Towers!

We got up and out fairly early and headed south to the best theme park in the land.

Young Leaders and Patrol Leaders were allowed to go off in groups without adults and the rest of the Cubs and Scouts were split into small groups before hitting the park.

Everyone spent the next six hours on various rides and attractions, as well as passing a significant amount of time doing Britain’s favourite pastime – queuing.

Amazingly, the rain held off until we were driving out of the park. In fact, some of us may have caught the sun a little…

We all then descended on a McDonald’s in Stockport for dinner. The sight of 60+ people arriving at once must have shocked the staff and the other customers must have groaned, but we all had a great meal to end a great day.


Thursday 2nd June
The camp split into two halves today to do trampolining and weaseling.

I’m sure you’ve seen loads of photos of the latter and I’m reliably informed people tried to take pictures at the trampoline place, but they all end up blurry for some reason.

The kids loved both of them.

When the afternoon weaselling group got back, we got the Jubilee street party underway with a ceremonial raising of the flag while everyone sung the national anthem.

After all the food had been eaten, we got everyone together for the traditional finale to our camps – the campfire. Richard and Tom lead proceedings with help from the Patrol Leaders and the Assistant Patrol Leaders and welcome additions from a couple of the Linnet Clough crew.

A great end to our last full day. Tomorrow is all about packing up and getting out as soon as possible.

We will see you all soon.