The Scouts Survive!

A couple of weeks ago 10 Scouts travelled to Meggernie to take part in a Survival Skills weekend, with another 34 Scouts from around Scotland. We arrived late on Friday night and thought we'd be going straight to bed...but Rab and Judith had other ideas...there was lots to learn and loads of activities to do before bed. The Scouts did feather sticks, survival kits, fire steels, tinder cloths, axe work, the fire triangle and survival shelters. It was 1am before everyone got to bed. 

It was back to work the next morning, straight after breakfast the Scouts had to search the site for kit to build bivouacs, which they'd be sleeping in that night! They found a tarpaulin and some rope so everyone made pretty good bivouacs. 

Then it was back to learning more survival skills. The Scouts learnt how to light fires without matches, water filtration and purification, first aid including bleeding, CPR and defibrilation, safe use of axes, saws and knives, different types of fires (jenga, altar, star and long fires), all about trees - which make the best fires for cooking, heating, light and emergency situation communications...they're now fully prepared for any survival situation. 

After a very full day the Scouts lit our own fires and made dinner (stew, kebabs and pizzas on the open fires)and then got all their kit together to sleep in our bivouacs. It was quite cold and rained during the night but they all stayed in our bivouacs and even got some sleep. 

The next day the Scouts were all quite tired but still managed to learn more skills, made their own fire steels and cooked spatchcock chicken, fish and chocolate bananas over the open fires.  

After one of the most exhausting weekends ever, we all got out Survival badges and even a special survival kit to take home. 

Thanks to Rab and Judith and all the other expert leaders for a great weekend.

Here are a few photos of the various activities we got up to.

Cubs go wild in Barrwood!

The cubs had a great day at Barrwood - as well as caving, firelighting, bivouac making, and cooking on the fire they also ran around lots, with sticks.

Many of them enjoyed the sticks so much they brought them home!

Thanks to all the Leaders especially Daryn and Richard who did the planning.

A few pictures follow. For those parents who wondered why the cubs returned home smelling of woodsmoke, the answer is below......

Beavers raise £455!

Balfron Beavers have raised £455 for Robin House Childrens Hospice, well done!

CHAS would like to say a very big thank you to the Beavers for all their work in raising the money.

Cubs at Ardroy

Last weekend the Cubs went away to Ardroy and had a great time. The weather was a little challenging, in one half hour spell we had sunshine, rain, sleet and snow. But that didn't put anyone off, even if climbing with ice blocks for hands was a little difficult.

The weekend was packed with loads of activities (see the photos below), huge amounts of food (but very little waste - 263 grams on Saturday night but 0 grams on Sunday morning), midnight feasts that happened at 7am the next morning because everyone was far too tired, and lots of great team work from the Cubs.

Here are a few photos from the various activities we did:

Jacob's Ladder - which was very tricky for some of our shorter Cubs and in the cold, but everyone did fantastic and made a huge effort. There was lots of helping their fellow Cubs as well.

Den building - in the woods with Cam and Nick, the Ardroy guys. Some of us went for a big shelter, with a nice log bench in it for relaxing...and others went for a camouflaged moss-covered shelter for sleeping in. 

Labyrinth - which is a dark tunnel so photos are tricky...but here is one of us are about to go in. 

The Quest - was a series of tricky problems to solve...one was to balance the whole group on a seesaw and one was a spider's web which we had to get through without ringing the bells, although it mainly involved crawling through a muddy puddle. 

Climbing - under the watchful eye of Phil we did some proper climbing up the Ardroy climbing wall. 

Eating - one of our favourite activities was eating

We also did lots of other things, including games in the forest, firelighting, making kazoos and the nightline.

We had a great time and there will be lots of memories, but particularly - cold hands, hot juice, dorm battles and how wonderful really good waterproofs are!

Rembrance Sunday Service

Balfron Troop were very well represented at the Remembrance Sunday service this year. There were many Beavers, Cubs and Scouts, one of whom laid a wreath on the Troop's behalf. 

Scouts at Auchengillan

A couple of weeks ago the Scouts went to Auchengillan to try their hand at archery, air rifle shooting and jumping off the climbing wall (attached to the para drop rope!). Here's a few pictures of the activities.