SCOUTS DISTRICT LIGHTWEIGHT CAMPING COMPETITION

On the weekend of the 30th/31st March, 12 teams of Scouts joined up with the Explorer Scouts section to take part in this years District Lightweight Camping Competition. A two day/one night event, requiring our team of Scouts to (unaided) navigate/complete two 11km hikes, whilst carrying all their own equipment, with a night away where they were required pitch-up/down their tents and to cook their own dinner and breakfast on trangia stoves.

This event was a great success and the following comment was made by the organising District Scout Leader. “Firstly I would like to thank all the scouts who attended the weekend as they were a credit to themselves, their parents,  their leaders and scouting. The scouts manners and behaviour was excellent and made the weekend a real pleasure.”

Well done to the Knaphill Team of Jamie, Archie, Luke, Sam, Toby and Matthew !

The Scouts Team.

On the 30th of March we entered the lightweight competition. In my team there was me, Archie, Luke,

Jamie, Matthew and Sam. We started in Liphook and then began our walk. We started off well but got a little lost. We then continued for a while and eventually got to the campsite after a long, not so difficult hike. We then cooked our dinner which was pasta, chicken cuppa soup and angel delight. Next morning (the 31st) was breakfast which was cereal bars, cereal, porridge and hot chocolate, after we had packed our equipment away we set off. At first we got quite lost but then we found our way. Soon we were all feeling tired as we had spent a long day walking.  But luckily we got to the end and we were all happy and proud to have finished!

Report by Toby (Scout)

Day 1

On the first day our team started in the middle of nowhere, and we had to figure out which way to start going. Our team was me (Sam), Toby, Luke, Archie, Matthew and Jamie. We walked from the start to the first checkpoint and Luke was navigating for this part of the walk.  We walked a bit too far, so we walked into the check point from the wrong side. At this check point we switched to Archie and Jamie navigating from checkpoint 1 to 2.  This part was very short, we started on a road and then we had to go down a small path to a car park. Then we switched navigator to Matthew, we were going from checkpoint 2 to 3. As we walked through this area we passed a farm and had to walk through a muddy path. At the next checkpoint we switched to me and Toby navigating the team to the campsite, and while we walked we changed to Luke navigating. This section was the longest. At the campsite we were given an area to pitch our tents, we quickly put them up and we had some free time. We then had to cook our tea, which we had carried from the start.

Day 2

On this day we had to get up and cook our breakfast and then pack our tents up. We set off and started to hike to the first checkpoint. Sadly, we had to leave Luke behind as he hurt his foot. Toby was first up navigating. He accidentally got us lost and we were late for the first checkpoint. Then I navigated from checkpoint 1 to 2.  We went past a lake, through a forest and up to a pub which was the next checkpoint. We switched navigator to Matthew at this checkpoint.  In this part we had to walk across lots of hilly terrain to the next checkpoint. At this checkpoint we switched back to me for navigating the last section where we went from checkpoint 4 to the finish. We walked through a field and finished at Liphook train station.

Report by Sam T. (Scout)