Blown Away by Camp Custard

Fifteen scouts from 1st Burghfield and Sulhamstead Eagle Troop went on their annual Camp Custard. They were joined by two 1st Theale scouts. Here is Charlotte’s report.

Friday

We went on a hike from Ashampstead to Rushall Farm. We got into our patrols called Sierra, Alpha, Victor and Echo. They make up SAVE because that was the theme. Jack was leading first and missed the turn. We nearly got lost but luckily there was another turning going the same way, so we took that instead! The hike was 2hrs long. When Jack wasn’t leading, he kept falling over.

About half way through the hike, we looked for Saturday’s breakfast. Skip told us it was 40 paces away from him in a red box. Gemma found it but it was well hidden. We took it in turns to carry it but it was heavy. One of the eggs broke when Jack fell over! Christian replaced it with a chestnut which he found.

When we got to Rushall Farm, Paul, Sam and Erica were cooking our dinner. We went to pitch our tents and make the bivvies. Sophie, Gemma, Emily and I slept in one tent. It was lovely and warm. After we finally got the porch up, we set every thing out in our tent. The boys closest to us were only putting their cover on top. In that tent were Alistair, Jake and Daniel. They knew that they were beaten! After dinner we had a look at all the bivvies. They were fantastic. The campfire was long but warm. Before we knew it, it was time to go to bed. Our tent was the noisiest.

Saturday

We woke up at roughly 7am. We were all desperate for the loo (that is when I found my shoe was soaked because the porch had fallen down and it had rained in the night!) so we all made our way slowly along. Then we went down to the fire to cook our breakfast. It was egg, which didn’t cook very well, sausages, bacon and beans.

When we were finished, the girls made a line out of rope outside Emily and Isobel’s bivvie where we hung up all our blankets and sleeping bags. Next we had a washing game relay in 2 teams. You had to wash your face in the bowl 2 metres away, then run back to get a cup and while running, fill your cup with water from the other bowl then run on. When we got to the other bowl, we had to clean our teeth for two minutes then run back. The first team to do all this were the winners. Then we had a little bit of free time.

We were called over to the flag and we got into our patrols. Sierra and Alpha had a V.I.P. I was one for Sierra and Jake was one for Alpha. Half an hour later, Victor and Echo came looking for us. Echo Found Alpha but Victor gave up looking for us because we were in the wrong location.

After lunch we had to build a shelter out of things we found. We had some more free time which is when we looked for Sophie’s PJ`s and we found them at the bottom of her bag where apparently she looked in last night. Then we went to the fire but we didn’t stay long because there were boys cutting wood and then chucking it onto the fire. When the fire had calmed down a bit we went down with our chairs. Not long after we sat down around the fire, the PLs were called to cook dinner. They were Emily B, Isobel, Matthew and Jack. They cooked us Spaghetti Bolognese. It was delicious especially with grated cheese on the top which melted. After dinner, Rikki did a glowstick game. There were glow sticks in little rings surrounding two adults with torches. The adults counted to five, then shone a torch for a count of five. When it was dark, we had to try and collect the glowstick rings and take them back to our base. When the torches were shining, the teams had to be as still as possible otherwise they had to put their ring back and start all over again. It was really good fun.

Sunday

We woke up late this morning (roughly 8am) and looked out of our tent. One side of the cover we put up on Saturday had come down and so there was a massive puddle. It was chucking it down and super muddy! We got dressed and started packing all our stuff. When we looked out of the tent the portaloos had completely come down – at least the toilet would be clean! We had breakfast and we finished packing and Gemma and Sophie went down to the campfire. We started taking our tent down and suddenly there was a big gust of wind and Emily B’s tent nearly blew away! I had to hold onto both of them before they blew away. Gemma and Sophie came to help us take the rest of the tent down and we went to have lunch. Our parents were contacted to come early because it was so wet and windy. When they had got there it had brightened up a bit.

It was a brilliant camp but it was great to be home.