Patrol Leader Summercamp 2022

Date - Wednesday 17th August
Time - late pm

Minibus fuelled up. Check. Van fuelled up. Check. Van packed, unpacked and packed again. Check. Best to be safe not sorry... All of the equipment on board and ready. Check. Excellent.. time to get some sleep and prepare for the weekend ahead.

Thursday 18th August
Time - 9:15am

The leaders vehicles arrive at the church grounds in convoy, met by the scouts and parents - all ready to go! The van is packed with everyones equipment and after a brief goodbye from the scouts to their parents they excitedly board the minibus. Before seatbelts are even clicked in the party has started.. food and sweets are being shared around and a chorus of laughter and joking fills the minibus. A final check between the leaders followed by the many "good luck" calls from the parents sets us off on our way to Cornwall.

On our drive down we had a mixture of beating sun and drizzly grey skies, the usual combination for camping really! Stopping outside Exeter for a quick lunch, we continued on to St.Austell to find our campsite, the lovely Drummers Lodge.




Once on site, we established our area to set up and began the operation under increasingly heavy showers of rain. With bags flying everywhere, tables, gas bottles and mess tent poles followed. The Scouts and leaders worked in unison - not very often this happens so easily.

The mess tent and hike tents were pitched quickly and by this time the site warden had arrived. He showed us the lay of the land, and much to our disbelief we had managed to book a weekend with the campsite to ourselves... lovely! And to top it off, the rain had given way to clear blue skies and warm sun.


We had curry for dinner which went down a treat and everybody got a good nights sleep after a long day of travelling and setup.



Friday 19th August
Time - 7:30am

The team were up early ready to cook breakfast for everyone. A full english and cereal.. of course! What else! Whilst breakfast was cooking we began fire wood prep for the evening. Saws, axes and knives all used safely and under the watchful eye of the leadership team quickly tore into the mountain of pallets - producing lovely neat piles of different sized fire wood. Perfect

Once breakfast was out of the way, it was onto packing our bags and packing the coolbox with lunch, as we all boarded the minibus to travel the short distance to Newquay. We took part in axe throwing right by the side of the harbour wall, the sun beating down and everybody having a great time.


After this, we walked down to the beach and had a ploughmans lunch and a well deserved rest before what was to come...Surfing! New to many of us but enjoyed by us all. We had the safety briefing, got into our wetsuits and carried our boards down slippery steps and across rockpools to reach Newquay beach - the home of surfing.

Our instructors were fantastic, and we spent about 2 hours having a blast in the sea. The sun was warm and the sea cool, the perfect combination! All of us fell off... many times! But it was great fun and everybody wants to go again! Result

We headed back to the campsite for a hot shower and got a big campfire going! We enjoyed pasta for dinner and the Scouts elected to run a wide game themselves - leaving the leaders to sit and relax by the fire. Lovely!

Saturday 20th August
Time - 8am

A slightly later rise this morning. All of us were feeling the side effects from the surfing.. with many of us walking with a slight limp and needing to stretch it out! What a workout we had the day before.

As our breakfast cooked we relit the fire, and got it big.. very, very big! We had pasties to make and cook in the camp ovens. With Dan leading the stew making, and then Miles overseeing the delicate task of wrapping the filling in pastry, all of the scouts managed to make a pasty! Not all the same size or shape.. but they all enjoyed it!

With our pasties cooked, we wrapped them in foil and took these with us onto the minibus once more. This time, headed towards Fowey. We had planned a roughly 6 mile hike along the coastal path of Gribbin Head. We passed castles, lookout towers and beaches and enjoyed the slightly cloudy, overcast day by the sea. Everybody had a great time but we were all knackered by the end.


Heading back to the campsite, once again we got the campfire roaring and the scouts helped cook a bbq for everyone to enjoy! With enough food to feed the five thousand, everybody was suitably stuffed and enjoyed a more chilled out evening.

We took down the mess tent and packed away as much equipment as we could to allow us a quicker getaway in the morning.

Its safe to say everybody slept well that night! I've never known such silence on a scout camp just a mere five minutes after they all headed to their tents!

Sunday 21st August
Time - 8am

Again a slightly later rise, but with only bacon rolls to cook and a few tents to pack down we worked as a team and got it all done on time to leave at midday as we had planned. One final stop to make before we left Cornwall.. the pasty shop of course. With everyone stocking up for the journey ahead, we headed to Dartmoor national park, where we had planned a few stops to eat and take in the views!

We ended up navigating down a few tight, twisty country roads but with most of the Scouts sound asleep once we hit the main road it was easy going... for all of 5 minutes. With the Scouts suddenly chirping up we watched a fire engine speed in the opposite direction with siren screaming. Not usually a cause for concern when heading the other way, but as the traffic started to build we slowly ground to a halt.

Roughly half a mile ahead of us a lorry was firmly ablaze on the inside lane. Again more fire engines passed and we waited around an hour and a half for the traffic to start moving again. Keeping scouts entertained on a motorway whilst not moving is extremely difficult, but we managed and were grateful to get going again!

We arrived back at the hall, all more tired and restless than we had hoped for, and later than expected, but all in good spirits following a fantastic weekend away!

Being the first Patrols Leaders only weekend we have run, it was a firm hit and we are excitedly planning for the next one! The idea behind this camp was to allow the PL's to pick the location, activities and menu as it is the last camp for a few of our oldest scouts now moving onto being Young Leaders.

It was a great weekend away, for the Scouts and the leaders and we hope this becomes an annual event!

For now, on to the next one!

22^th August 2022 Ben Aylward