Troop Summer Camp 2025

On 26 August we headed off in the sunshine to Wiltshire for summer camp 2025. A team of leaders and parents had gone down the day before to start the set up and so a lot of the central area tents were already up when we arrived. The afternoon was spent with the scouts setting up their patrol sites before the usual evening routine of cooking dinner on their fires followed by tuck shop, a game and then campfire before supper and bed.

On Sunday morning we had a Royal Tournament competition in the morning which was won by Spain patrol. After lunch they headed off for an afternoon of caving. The Euro’s 2025 hadn’t featured in our planning other than to give us our patrol names for the week but we do love a challenge, so when some of the scouts said they wished they could watch it we managed to make it work by borrowing a projector, used a groundsheet for a screen and set up in the farmer’s barn. The cheers during penalties must have been heard for miles.

Monday and Tuesday saw the scouts doing a rotation of activities over the two days, kayaking, raft building, rafting and shooting.

We headed out early on Wednesday and spent some time at Swinley Forest, had Mc Donald’s for lunch and enjoyed an afternoon at Coral Reef water park. That evening the leaders set up a wide game in the woods after campfire.

Thursday saw the scouts doing some knife work and preparing their lunch which was cooked backwoods style without using utensils or pans. That afternoon they had the super scout competition (a series of obstacles and challenges) which was won by Daniel for the older group and Violet for the younger one. That evening they had a cooking competition for their dinner which was won by Spain patrol. Some of their ideas to get extra points were amazing from welcome signs made from sticks at the entrance to their sites, to name plates for the judges and even a drawn-on moustache for a waiter.

Another early start on Friday as they went for a morning of paintballing which was enjoyed by all and then swimming in the afternoon.
Saturday arrived far too quickly along with the mammoth task of taking everything down and leaving the site as we found it.
Back in Cheam we announced England patrol had won with the most points of the week overall. They get to put their patrol name and their names on a wooden tent peg which will be hung at the back of the hall to become part of 1st Cheam’s history like the many that went before them.

The scouts were great this year and took part in everything enthusiastically. A special thank you goes to everyone who came along to help. It really does make a huge difference to what we can do.