Almost the whole pack came to the camp - and half of them brought their Dads. The great thing about Dads and Lads camps, apart from the "many hands make light work" philosophy of washing up, is the new relationships that develop. For a weekend all the cubs have 16 brothers, and all the Dads have 16 sons. Everyone helps each other, and everyone has an enjoyable if exhausting time. What follows is a summary of the camp highlights - for more details, email us, or come to the next camp!
Friday night began with a Treasure Hunt, searching for clues on magic silver discs (OK, CDs!). In spite of some sabotage by person, or persons, unknown, one team manages to decode the clues and find the treasure which was distributed and eaten by the winning team members - we couldn't afford gold this year, just sweets.
Saturday's highlights were the three adventurous activities run by Raywell's own instructors. They were climbing and abseiling on the Climbing Wall, Air Rifle Shooting on the purpose-built range, and Archery. Many boys demonstrated their bravery by abseiling for the first time, and their climbing ability by reaching the top of the Wall.
The afternoon was spent building Balistas - "mediaeval" shooting devices made from canes, sisal and rubber bands! Teams were judged on distance and accuracy using tennis ball ammunition. The Dads' competitive spirit came the fore resulting in a keenly fought contest.
In true Scouting spirit we joined with two other packs for our Saturday evening Camp-fire. Leaders from Newland Methodists Pack in Hull led the singing, with contributions from our own leaders. We all learnt new songs from our new-found friends and taught them our old favourites. Quite whether the Kotick version of the Haka will be added to the other pack's repertoire remains to be seen.
The evening's entertainment was concluded with a Multimedia Quiz for mixed Dads and Lads teams. Questions were aimed so that many were easier for the Lads than the Dads, leading to genuine team work. Rounds included Sport, General and Local Knowledge as well as TV and Films, a picture round and a Sounds & Music round. All good fun and educational too!
Sunday morning brought the Grand Dry Boat Competition. Teams were asked to build a boat to carry 5 cubs around a course using only the provided pile of scrap. Clearly there hadn't been sufficient rain to allow this to be a water activity so the boats had to be powered by Cub Legs - Flintstone-style. It was amazing to see the amount of entertainment that can be generated from a pile of cardboard, sticky-back plastic and sellotape! The race was close with the first team across the line disqualified for not recovering a "man-overboard" and thus finishing with a short-handed crew. Fortunately the Best Looking Boat was judged before the race as all three craft were distinctly unseaworthy by the end.
The camp concluded with an enthusiastic round of parachute games ably led by our Beaver Leaders, a quieter way to finish one of the best Camps the Pack has seen.
