Survival Camp

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On the 28th and 29th April the 27th Scout troop went on a survival camp. We slept under a tarpaulin in a forest; Eagle patrol slept in hammocks because they won the best patrol of last term and that was their prize. On Saturday we were doing a few activities to get our Survival Skills activity badge like tracking by making arrows and crosses, natural shelter building with sticks and knife safety and sharpening. Another activity we did was whittling cooking sticks so we could stab sausages and put them over a fire, and the next day we used them for camp bread.

To cook our sausages we had to light a fire but it was a bit rainy and pretty much everything was wet, so it was hard to get sticks that would catch alight quickly. Kestrel patrol (my patrol) didn’t collect enough sticks to start the fire off and we didn’t have enough tinder and kindling. The only patrol that got a fire was Wolf patrol so everybody had to cook on their fire. My dad wasn’t very impressed because only one patrol got a fire (my dad is the Scout leader). We also made chocolate orange butter bean bombs which are a hollowed out orange (with a little bit of juice left in it because that makes it a bit more orangey) and cocoa, butter bean, raisin and maple syrup mixture to put in the orange skin. Then you wrap it up in foil and chuck it on embers of a fire or charcoal that has been burnt. Then after 10 minutes, take it off and enjoy.

The sleeping was very nice. It was me and Kieran under one tarpaulin. It was warm but I had a jumper, t-shirt, shorts and that was it but I don’t feel the cold that much.

The next day we had a firelighting competition but it wasn’t to light fires, it was to send smoke signals up into the air so if you were stuck in a jungle and a helicopter came over you would send a massive smoke signal to show that you were there. So you build a good fire and put a platform over it and when you see a helicopter you put loads of kindling on and on the platform you chuck loads of stuff that you have that smokes, for example wet leaves. The winners were Wolf patrol proving themselves to be expert fire lighters, and their PL wasn’t even there! Well done Wolf patrol. Then we played a wide game and went home on the train.

This was my first camp as a Scout. I thought it was really good but very challenging.

Written by: Owen

Cooking camp bread