The last two days of Summer Camp always have mixed emotions. Everyone is tired and is looking forward to seeing their families, but they've had so much fun that they often wish it wasn't coming to an end. And there is also packing! A summer camp uses a lot of equipment and it's a bit of a mission to get it done.
The weather at Perthyre Farm added an extra complication. Canvas that goes into store wet comes out ruined, so the Scouts kept an eye on the sky and worked in the gaps between the showers, taking down a tent and getting it bagged before the next lot of rain came over. Every piece of canvas came back to HQ dry, which was a great achievement. By lunchtime most of the field had gone into bags, boxes and the back of a lorry, with the sleeping tents, the toilets and the mess tent left standing for one more night.
That cleared the ground for the afternoon, which went to the FEN games: a long run of activities that made good use of the monkey bridge built earlier in the week.
Saturday's last act was dinner. Scouts and leaders sat down together, chicken and rice at one long table, balloons strung under the canvas and the lamps on. The tuck shop opened afterwards, and the last campfire of the camp saw the evening out.
The last night
Sunday started early and there was plenty left to do. Sleeping tents down, everything carried to the gate, and the lorry loaded to the roof with poles, tarpaulins, gas bottles, tables and the kit of a full camp that had somehow gone out in the same space. Then the litter sweep, the whole camp walking the grass in a line.
The lorry, loaded and strapped
Before flag down there was one more thing. The Scouts gathered in a circle on the empty field for Scouts' Own. The camp woggles went round. Then the circle was opened up to anyone who had a memory they wanted to share, from this camp or any other. Nobody is put on the spot at Scouts' Own; those who wanted to speak, spoke.
Scouts' Own on the empty field
Jess was presented with her 1EN scarf by Francis, and is already thinking about her next 1EN camp!
Jess receiving her 1EN scarf
Flag down, and then the field, handed back looking like a field. Grass, hedge and hill. You would struggle to prove anyone had been there at all.
The site, as found
Home via Membury services, and camp still was not over. The lorry had to be emptied into the hall and the equipment put away properly, and Malcolm was in the store to see that everything went back where it should go.
The equipment coming back into the hall
The equipment store, and the right way to put things away
Every tent, table and box came off the lorry and back onto its shelf. Only then, with the hall clear, did Francis, our Scout Lead Volunteer, hand out the awards: the FEN games, the competition meal, and the patrol competition for the most points earned across the whole camp.
Legends Camp is done, the new term is not far off, and the Scouts left for home with their parents to tell them about everything they got up to.