Cubs hit Collon

Finally the day arrived 7th December. A couple of months ago Linda and Fiona met over coffee (you'll see a theme here) and had agreed to do a combined cub outing. All of us had been counting down the days and hoping that the rain would hold off and we could get the kids out before Christmas. It was forecast that there'd be a 10% chance of rain. Well it was raining at 9.30 when Winnie and Fiona arrived at Collon. We hoped that the 10% would happen there and then and be done with. Our wishes were answered! By 10am it had stopped!

Everyone arrived on time for 10. I won't lie I did a double take when I saw a small bus arrive and for a moment thought... "who / what the...?" but it was Linda and her gang, yay!!! I was expecting cars :)

Scouters from both Groups got together and did a run through for the day. We all wanted to have bases, we all wanted fire, knives, axes, fire, pioneering, fire you get the idea. Because of the uncertainty with the weather which has an effect on whether we use Collon we decided to do our little shop that morning. So Fiona and Linda hit Tescos, where they didn't enjoy a freshly made Dulce Gusto Latte from a stand in the stores. Guys you wouldn't have enjoyed it...honestly.

Meanwhile back at camp Mark got the kids in a circle and got them to walk a tight rope.

The aim is to hold the rope, lean back, right back and a cub walks along the rope. I don't know for sure if anyone made it round all the way but I know fun was had!

The cubs had all scattered to collect wood for the upcoming fire and once enough was collected they were split over the various bases. Remember we had fire, axe, fire, knifework, fire, pioneering so much to be done.

[At this stage the shopping scouters were at the tills, sipping the coffee]

Each base was manned by respective scouters and the kids got stuck in!

Wood collection

One of our Scouts, Adam joined us to for the day to give us a hand. He helped out the older cubs from both Groups and they built a fabulous altar fire. We have some keen pioneering cubs and scouters amongst us! Thank you Adam!!!

At this point the Tesco trip was done and both of us walked back on to a buzzing site. There were knives at work, axes chopping and a fire barrel waiting to welcome a roaring fire.

Because time was moving along and we were conscious that we were wrapping up at 4pm before it got dusky, we decided it would be better to cook the sausies, bacon, turkey sausies and bacon and so on on the hob in the kitchen. It would just take too long unfortunately. So Adam and Niall together with Winnie and Aoife took over cooking duties inside.

Meanwhile back outside Saoirse and Andrea our new resident fire starters looked after the altar fire.

Kids had been asked to bring a packed lunch but when the bacon was ready a call out was made, grubs up!

Andrea who has been itching to make some char cloth finally got her chance and made some beautiful char cloth! Well done Andrea!

At this point the rest of the kids rightly felt it was time to explore and they disappeared into the pine forest where we could hear shrieks of (I assure you) laughter.

4pm was starting to arrive in our periphery so we managed to squeeze in a couple of games using our rope thank you Mark.

A blindfold led course (which i didn't get a chance to photograph - sorry) and also another "stay out of the "mud"" game followed.

We forgot to cook the corn but it'll have to be next time. We didn't however forget the smores :)

Now it seriously was time to down tools. So the altar fire was dismantled, Linda sorted the kitchen, kids packed up their stuff, gear was collected and it was time to say good bye. What a day. The kids all had a great time, i know the leaders had a blast and a big thank you to our extra leaders Mark and Silke for joining us and adding to the fun and sharing ideas and knowledge.

It was lovely meeting all the James and Connors and Alex's, hilarious there was nearly 2 of every name and there were 3 Jenna's :) oh and there was a "Sweet Jesus Fiona and a Perfect Andrea" Thanks Mark!

Finally a big thank you to Linda, Aoife, Orla and Fergus for joining us and a making a good day great! Till next time!

I know memories were made and I have a cub scout that's asking me when we are going camping so Linda... when are we going camping?? x