700 Squirrels, Beavers and Cubs from across Berkshire descended on Paccar Scout Camp at the end of March for two Wild Adventure Days that unleashed their inner adventurer.
Organised by the Berkshire Scouts Programme Team, the aim of these two events was for all attendees to achieve their section-specific Adventure Challenge Award in a single day of fun, friendship and new experiences.
Utilising the fantastic facilities that Paccar provides, alongside the skills and knowledge of our wonderful volunteers, the younger sections took part in a wide range of outdoor and adventurous activities, many of which were brand new to them. Experiences on offer included climbing and abseiling, indoor caving, firelighting, tomahawk throwing and archery, circus skills and many bushcraft style activities.
While as Scouts we are taught to be prepared, the one thing we can’t control is the weather, but with the benefit of one of the warmest, driest weekends of the year the scene was set for two days of excitement, adventure and challenges – from Squirrels lighting their first fire to Cubs conquering their fear of heights.
For many of the participants, this was their first experience of meeting up with other young Scouts from around the county as well and the community feel of the day was fantastic with different groups urging each other on to push themselves to go higher, faster or achieve more than they thought was possible.
Alongside the incredible range of activities on offer, highlights across both days included different sections and groups connecting with each other, whether a Cub helping a Squirrel negotiate the tricky Nightline – a blindfolded obstacle course, the exorbitant number of high fives as Scouts completed activities they found challenging, or different groups bonding over some shared eclipse viewers on the Saturday and bouncing excitedly at each other about how much of the sun had disappeared!
The two days were the result of a huge amount of work behind the scenes for our County Programme Team, supported by over 200 volunteers from across Berkshire who donated their time to run bases, herd cars and support the event in a huge variety of different ways. The young people were chaperoned by group and section volunteers and parent helpers who, if they were lucky, maybe snuck in a quick go on the pedal go-karts, or a snoop around the indoor caving system themselves! A huge thank you must go to everyone involved in making the day happen, with especially large thanks to the County Programme Team.
But what did the County Programme Team make of the day? We asked Simon Pickett, County Programme Team Leader for his thoughts on the Wild Adventure Days: “It was wonderful to see everyone having such a great time, trying out new outdoor activities,” he said. “And, 700 Berkshire Scouts achieving their Adventure Challenge Award in one weekend must be a record!”
So, a fun and successful day for our adult volunteers, but the last words have to go to those who the day was designed for – the Squirrels, Beavers and Cubs who achieved their Adventure Challenge badge. What did they think of the day?
“I loved the whole day, but especially the abseiling and the ammonites hidden in the caves!”
Iris, Beaver
“The activities were really fun – I liked how you could do lots of things in one day” Ted, Cub
“I loved the go karts as it made a change from walking, but my favourite, favourite, favourite part, was lunch!” Louis, Squirrel
Clearly, we have a very adventurous (and hungry!) young Scout population in Berkshire – and we look forward to seeing them grow and develop the skills they began to learn on these Wild Adventure Days – hopefully even testing them again at future events!