Petworth Park Camp, May 2009

This was our annual camp at Petworth Park over the May Bank Holiday. It was also the 30th anniversary of the Petworth Park camp. The camp was exceptionally well attended with nearly 300 girls and boys from scouting and girl guiding. The weather was again terrific with warm sunshine for most of the time. Although the days were warm, the nights were very cold (ice in the fire bucket).

The leaders set up on Friday afternoon, with some units bringing their own supplies, but most relying on Tesco-Direct!

The girls arrived on Saturday morning and quickly set about erecting their tents. After lunch we took it in turns around three activities: Building the Camp Gate; Games on huge inflatables; and a Pentathalon. The camp consisted of four sub-camps, and each camp had to have its own 'gate'. Our camp was known as the 'Maroon 5'.

In the evening, our sub-camp held an enormous barbecue.

Sunday was the main activity day. We had three zones to visit: Scouting & Guiding Skills; the Challenge Zone; and The Lake.

In the Scouting & Guiding Skills zone, we were able to try abseiling; a climbing wall; fire building skills; cooking 'dampers'; glass painting; tee-shirt painting; sweet making; and pyrography.

In the Challenge Zone, we tried the Blind trail, pneumatic rockets; sock throwing, rifle shooting, archery and the zip wire.

In the Lake Zone, we had the opportunity to get very wet either on rafts; in kayaks; and on the water slide. Thankfully it was a warm day.

In the evening, we were fed and watered and retired relatively early after an exhausting day.

Earlier in the camp, on the Saturday evening a battle started which lasted over Saturday night and most of Sunday! The battle for the 2nd Storrington Guides banner started late in the evening when the banner was 'captured' by some of the explorers. It was then seen appearing in all sorts of unusual places before being rescued. The guides did not take this lying down, and got revenge by untying all the canoes and rafts on the lake, giving the explorers a hard time trying to retrieve them all. The explorers had the last laugh though when they gave two of our young leaders a thorough soaking in the lake.

On the Monday, it was time to strike camp. During the morning, we had the closing ceremony. Mums & Dads arrived at lunchtime and we were taken home for a much-needed shower, and an early night.

This was a very good camp and we would like to thank the organisers, leaders, and helpers who put in an enormous effort to make sure we had fun.

Click on thumbnails for photos and slideshow. Click here for general notes on photos.

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