Members of 4th and 1st Chester-Le-Street guides and 4th CLS Senior section had a great time at camp in Guernsey in summer 2016. It has been a regular trip every few years for over 20 years. A really relaxed event usually with excellent weather at a lovely Scout owned camp site on the less populated north of the island. We have trips to the beach which is only a few minutes walk away, visit the island of Herm for a day, make lovely dipped candles at Guernsey Candles. Have a go at geocaching, explore wildlife areas and the Town of St Peter Port.
This year we did our usual trip to Castle Cornet for the firing of the noonday gun and then watched a local dram groups historical play about a cholera epidemic on the island that led to better drainage systems.
We were allocated a site with a palatial marquee on it with absolutely the best camp kitchen ever including a full size fridge freezer and a double wide catering stove with eye level grills above and ovens below. Absolute luxury for Anthea Heel the regular QM.
The highlight of the week for 4 guides working towards their BP Challenge was completing the clause to build and sleep in a Bivvy. They had spotted an ideal spot earlier in the week but the day they planned to build their shelter another group of campers built a structure right in their chosen spot. The spent ages finding somewhere else they thought would work and probably ended up in a better site. The weather turned windy and wet and got worse and worse all day but they insisted on continuing with their plan. They were delighted next morning to have had a very cosy warm night in their shelter with only one wet pillow and a couple of slightly damp sleeping bags to deal with next day.
Our final adventure of this camp was the 4 leaders having to summon up cow herding skills on return to the site 2 days before we left. As we put the kettle on a cow walked past the marquee entrance, it was joining its 14 mates already in the next camp site up from ours. Hilarity ensued and other campers set to get them back into their field some using bicycles. One left a rather long messy calling card after making several bids for freedom.