Tuesday seems to have lasted a long time for the leaders - we were up at 6:30 for an early morning swim at the beach just a short run away and have been busy ever since.
A shift from the usual greasy breakfast to a healthier (and crucially faster) continental one saw us chopping up pineapples and grapefruits before the scouts had even woken up!
We were quick to get off site so that we could maximize time at Woodlands Leisure park - like a theme park but predominantly with slides rather than rollercoasters. The scouts were soon crashing into eachother in bumper-boats, sliding down waterslides in dinghys, and shooting eachother with foam balls.
Sadly the owl display was cancelled because of the poor weather, but that just meant that the scouts had even more free time to buy ice cream and slush puppies!
We finished off the park experience with a patrol competition on the Commando Assault Course, with the scouts happy to push the little boys and girls out of the way in order to get round as fast as possible on the cargo nets and balancing beams!
Curry on site was followed by a screening of Scout Camp the movie (which went straight to DVD for some reason?!)
Tomorrow should be a more relaxed day on site, with the leaders looking for any reason to set the scouts the ‘Traditional Birthday Challenge’!
The day started with the usual cooked breakfast on open fires, and flag, but this was a special day for one of our scouts - James Argument is 11 today!
After completing the traditional summer camp birthday challenge he was rewarded with his present - a classy pirate outfit.
The main activity of morning was dancing - we got a street-dance instructor from Torbay to come in and teach them a few moves. Some got the hang of it sooner than others! She’s back on Weds to judge their dance efforts (a la x factor)
Torbay later for the fireworks… (and arcades, etc)
For the first time in it’s history, this year’s Annual Easter Football Grudge match didn’t actually feature any current Cobden or Kinder scouts – they were too busy making their stew for lunch! And so it was that about 60+ old-boys from the two troops (in the form of Marple Explorers, Network and Alumni) battled it out for the prestige of being named Marple’s best Scout troop.
In 2009 it had ended in a stale-mate. 2010 saw the match won by Kinder on penalties, though Cobden took some comfort from the fact that they had been unassailable on their usual patch of moral high ground. Would 2011 prove to be another classic? Read our full report & then have a look at our exclusive match highlights.
The sun shone at Easter Camp as never before. Whilst the Cobden and Kinder Scouts were bivvying and building fires, it was the perfect time for the older boys and girls of Marple Explorers, Network, Rangers and Matrix, to have water-fights, shoot down 35 ft groundsheets slides, and generally laze around in the sun.
Welcome to the new Marple Scouts website which should allow everyone involved in the Group to post their own articles / reports / photos / etc and also leave comments.
To get started you need to register below and, if you want to write articles, send an email to new[a]marplescouts.co.uk, so that we can give you some special powers!
August 23, 2011 7:34 pm | 
