Hi,
As an indication of the weather for the weekend, a Cub's mother rang me at 9am Saturday morning to find out if the camp was still on. Yep - it was great weather alright. So good Mike was the only punter left on his WTMC family trip. Needless to say, he didn't stay in a tent at the Catchpool roadend by himself. He went home to catch up on all the jobs we have missed doing for the last few weekends.
I went to the Scout Hall to collect some gear to take to the camp, while Mike took Toby swimming. By all accounts (well, Mike's account) Toby swam very well. Half the length with breathing! Wow! He'll be chasing Tyler's efforts in the pool yet. She had school swimming races on Friday and came in 5th place in the school over 100m. How amazing is that? She is so wee! Next year she'll concentrate on the 50m (freestyle and backstroke I think) so she can keep her strength up. She did well in those events: in her 50m freestyle heat she came 3rd and 2nd in her backstroke heat.
Look! I pasted in Karen's text and now I have a nicer font! Happy about that.
Meanwhile, while Toby was swimming I got to drive by myself to the camp. I sang loudly all the way!
Helped pitch heaps of tents - some of the Cubs have nailed the half slip knot used on the guyropes - others think they have and others know they haven't. I re-tied quite a few! I am a dab hand at that knot now.
Anne was in charge of the camp kitchen and she did an amazing job. The parents all chipped in and the organisation of the camp was brilliant. Bagheera and Chil are dab hands at it. I am trying to absorb all that happened to get it running that smoothly as next year it'll be me and Mike running it. Yikes!
We had lunch quite quickly after the tents were pitched. Mike and Toby arrived just before then and Mike took off again to get stuck into his weekend tasks. This lunch was a packed lunch from home. Toby had had lunch with Mike but was keen to eat again so he munched on some of my snacks with the other Cubs eating their lunches.
After lunch the Cubs all decided to go swimming in the freezing wee pool. Oddly they seem to like it. Lots of splashing and jumping. Then someone noticed a huge spider on the side of the pool. That coincided with the end of swimming. A parent called it "The South American Water Spider" and Toby was convinced by that!
Back to camp and into groups for kayaking and the confidence course. Toby's group was the one I followed and we tackled the confidence course first. It was great and Toby did very well. He was paired with Tom and they clambered over everything on their way around. Some of the older Cubs were used to the course from previous camps and had time trials.
Then we were into the kayaks and Toby had a ball. The wee lake was a great spot for it, with a small "beach" and some wooden rafts at the edge. At the end of the kayaking, Toby was leaping from raft to raft and then ended up in the lake like the other Cubs. He was loving it! A few goes on the flying fox and then back for afternoon tea.
The activity before dinner was a game of soccer and they all loved that. Dinner was cooked on two BBQs and a gas griller (courtesy of Ryan's father). We ate sausages in bread and salad. It was scrumptious.
As it got darker, we played Spotlight. Then we made up damper and the Cubs cooked that over the fire and supper was Milo and toasted marshmallows.
By 9:30 the Cubs were all asleep in their tents. The leaders and parents sat in campchairs around the fire (oh, my font has switched back) and chatted for a while (midnight apparently) but I escaped to my tent at 10:30 to read. I read a few chapters and slept like a log. Well, until the rain pelted down. But then I just rolled over and went back to sleep.
The rain was settled for the day however and Sunday was constant drizzly rain. Breakfast was cereals (hardly anyone ate Weetbix) and the griller was used for making loads of toast and the Cubs ate lots of that.
More activities including kayaking and the confidence course again. Flying fox was again popular. Then lots of eating to consume the food we had leftover. Morning tea quickly melded into lunch. Lunch was ham and cheese toasties under the same griller.
After lunch we struck the tents and it took quite a while to pack up everything. It's amazing what Cubs are good at getting things done and what Cubs need constant attention to keep them focussed. By 2:45 we were done and I gathered up Chelsea and Brennan and took them home with Toby.
We collected Mike on the way to Karori and dropped off the kids at the Sampson house while we hung the tents up in the Scout Hall. Phew!
Back home to eat dinner (thanks Mike) and I fell into bed exhausted.
No Cubs on Tuesday this week so we can recover from the experience.
Have a marvellous week.
Love,
Angela
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