Brilliant Loved it Outstanding Great – How was it for you??
‘Wouldn’t have done that if I wasn’t in the Explorers’ was the consensus I came across during an amazing weekend out and about.
Friday 28th to Sunday 30th of September had been scheduled and highlighted and circled in my diary for months. Two UK wide Explorer Scout Events had been organised and I had been invited to both!
MESH at the Downe Activity Centre was my destination on Saturday 29th. Beautiful Kent countryside, surrounded by trees, completed with a peaceful and tranquil drive along a narrow country lane – am I back in Scotland I had to wonder!!
I soon realised I was visiting an Explorer Camp when I was met by two Young People whizzing down a zip wire high above the ground and squealing with delight as they went!
Welcome to MESH 3! This year, themed around Pirates, it has grown in numbers of participants, as well as the geography of where the Explorers come from.
The Activities, the MESH team arranged, for the weekend were wide ranging. From adventurous zip wire and crazy crate stacking, to survival skills such as fish gutting and haybox cooking and everything you can imagine in between including Frisbee!!
MESH is run annually, at the Camp Down Activity Centre, by the Chislehurst Explorers and is open to Explorer Scouts from across the UK.
For more information please check out www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=2259168873
or e-mail chislehurst.explorers@btinternet.com
Home for a goodnights sleep then up early and heading to Wales to visit AWESOME. A completely different setting with rolling open hills and a gentle flowing stream BUT………. yes you guessed it peace was soon to be shattered when I turned a corner and found two huge fields full of around 330 Explorer Scouts, laughing, joking and chatting easily.
Earth, Wind, Water and Fire were the 4 sub-camps for a weekend simply bursting with activities. Each sub-camp had its own coloured t-shirt to be easily spotted.
As I wondered round the site the most striking thing was the variety of activities available. From 4-in-the-sack race, grass skiing, chair lifts, blind trails, even football on buckets!! This was meant to be quiet chill out Sunday activities as far as my programme told me!
It soon transpired that this was actually chill out activities when I was told the programme from the Saturday – canoeing, bungee runs, random-oke, giant water fight, rabbit skinning, shooting, climbing, camp fire and that is just to name a few!
AWESOME is a bi-annual UK wide Explorer Scout activity weekend held in Wales. 2007 event can be investigated at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5049084773 where even more photos can be found.
Weekend over and I was exhausted just watching all the activities!! Huge congratulations must go to the organisers of this superb weekend and also a big ‘thank you’ for inviting me.
I have done my Blog it is now your turn. I want your appropriate stories, photos and videos of any Explorer Events and weekends you have been part of.
Send them into explorer.scout@scout.org.uk and make sure you include what event it is about!
Thank you.
Gemma
