Centenary Camp
We survived!
Over the bank holiday weekend, we took ten Cubs, four Scouts, and (I think?) three Beavers to the Stroud and Tetbury District Centenary Camp. There were 400+ children from the entire District there, most camping but some just coming for the days. We had three leaders camping over with the Cranham Cubs and Scouts, another came with the Beavers for one day, and we had two parents who came and helped on some of the days (Thanks!).
We were at the site on Thursday and Friday setting up, then the children arrived Friday evening. They settled in OK, although some of the cubs were a bit horrified to find that a standard Scout patrol tent did not have a sealed inner lining, so would admit insects…
On Saturday, the cubs and scouts were together as a unit along with a few other groups, and I accompanied them as they rotated through the Scouting Skills, Games and Sports, Creative, and Global zones. But then it began to rain, which caused some problems for that night’s open-air entertainments; there was some delay while marquees and gazebos were re-purposed to cover the area, during which we had to entertain our cubs and scouts in their tents.
Looking after Jean and the Cubs single-handedly had been quite tiring, so on the wet Sunday morning, I left Jean with our third leader (Sarah’s father, an Assistant Scout Leader from Essex whom we had borrowed) and took on his assigned task of maintaining activities in the Adventure Zone, meaning I could fulfill my commitment to stick with our group whenever possible, while not having to deal with a baby at the same time. Alas, the rain had been so voluminous that we had to shut down many of the adventure activities, leaving just rock climbing, archery, and air rifles; I was assigned to managing the queue for the rock climbing.
Afterwards, the closing ceremony for the cubs was rearranged a bit due to the rain, involving more relocation of tents. It was lucky I’d thought to pack a 2.1KW petrol generator, because the one running the admin tent cut out at around this point!
When it came time to start sending the cubs up to the parental pickup point in waves, I was drafted into driving loads of luggage around in my van, so Sarah had to walk the Cranham cubs up to the waiting point. I was delayed loading the last lot of luggage in, so when I returned to the pickup point, half of my Cubs had already left without me being there to say goodbye and give them their camp badges, which was a shame 
One of the parents got lost on the way to the pickup point, so we had to wait a bit, then we were late back to take the Scouts off on their hike. Taking this into account, the administrators minibussed us to half way around the course so we could catch up with the other groups. We made good time and had fun, and were actually the first group back in the end!
With the rain being what it was still, we sent Jean off home with Sarah’s father; it was too cold and wet to have a baby around. With the rain worsening again, some of the groups (ours included) decided to take up the offer of spending that night in nearby scout HQs. Three of our Scouts went home with parents, leaving just the one, who we took to Stroud Valley scout HQ for the night - a warm dry place to sleep was very welcome!
Monday morning, the Scouts were taken off to the watersports centre, so Sarah and I returned to the campsite to help with the long hard job of clearing up. Again, we were popular due to our ability to drive vanloads of stuff back to its owners!
Apart from the obvious uncontrollables like the weather, I think there were a few things I’d have done differently. For a start, it was very hard managing everything with a small baby. Other groups of a similar size had a similar number of leaders, but no baby! Leaders were expected to look after their groups, and contribute towards the running of the camp itself - and then when the rain changed everything, extra hands were needed for all that too.
We were discussing this with the leader of another nearby group, and we decided that we’d like to organise a smaller camp of our own. We don’t feel ready to take Cranham out camping on our own yet (for a start, we have yet to take the relevant course!), but organising a camp with another leader who is appropriately qualified would be fun. The spring camp was more or less organised for us, so this would be one we could actually take part in the planning of. In particular, we’d like to recreate the activities that Cranham missed due to the rain: grass sledging and so on, all of which are available at the conveniently nearby Gloucestershire County Scouting Centre… So watch this space.