On a sunny May bank holiday 9th Bracknell Merlins Cubs, along with 2nd Easthampstead, invaded a once quiet corner of Cobham to set up camp. Their first task was literally to set up camp, as they had to put up their own tents and after much hitting of fingers and tangling of ropes (certainly on my team) they were up, even if Akela was a bit anxious because the rope angles weren’t quite within spec.

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After a break all the cubs collected wood for a fire to cook the now famous Traditional Corned Beef Hash. When I say all the cubs collected wood what I mean is some collected sticks mostly for waving around a’la Luke Skywalker. At least they were all enthusiastic about lighting the fire and burning things! Following the corned beef hash there were chocolate bananas, which would rival anything Gordon Ramsey, could cobble together. After lunch each team attempted to build a bivvi, a waterproof shelter made from natural, but not living materials. Thanks to the local residents who had recently deposited their latest garden cuttings over the fence, most teams had a nice Rhododendron leaf roof, which would have been waterproof against normal rain, but proved to be no defence from Akela’s trusty bucket!

The theme for camp was the Olympics and in keeping with the theme the Cubs attempted to gain their athletes badge. Over the course of the weekend they would take part in various events involving running, jumping, throwing etc. whilst being timed and measured. By the end of camp, 8 boys reached the level required and now have their athlete’s badge. But the highlight of camp was certainly the Olympic willow and tissue figures.   Taking two lengths of willow, which has a thick end and a thin end, makes the framework. They are placed together with the thin end of one against the thick end of the other and vica versa. They are taped together and can then be bent into shape and joined with other shapes to create a framework. Once the main framework is built special art tissue is taped in place over it and then another layer glued on using a pva glue/water mixture. Once covered, coloured tissue is glued in place to create the features. This is an extremely messy process and, for reasons I don’t understand, this part of the task seemed to be very popular with the cubs.

By an unfortunate twist of fate East Molsley had booked Polyapes for their district camp on the very weekend 9th Bracknell and 2nd Easthampstead invaded and so we all joined forces on Sunday evening for songs and the odd dance (which in some cases were very odd) around the camp fire. It began with the Olympic torch bearing, willow figure lighting the camp fire with the torch and ended with the ceremonial burning of the Olympic figures to cheers from all spectators.

With all the usual wide games and an orienteering exercise camp finally closed on Monday and, with a team points system running throughout the weekend it was Milan Hlousek’s  team who won 1st prize! As usual the food was up to top restaurant standard and if proof were needed we managed to bring the toilets sewage system to a standstill and then sink the tanker that came to empty it, up to it’s rear axle! And that’s what camp is about…creativity, achievement and doing your personal best! Well done to all those who achieved badges during camp and thanks to all performed the sun dance…it seemed to work.

By Baggy (9th Bracknell Merlins)

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