Challenge Hike

 Friday 23rd/25th March 2007

Saltney Ferry Scouts took part in the Flintshire District Scout Challenge Weekend, during March 2007. It started over with a sleepover in our headquarters, in preparation for an early start in the morning. We then drove to Delamere Station, where the Scouts, Explorer Young Leaders, and some of the Leaders were dropped off.

Day one of the hike, was approximately 16 kilometres. This was a huge distance bearing in mind the majority of our Scouts were young, and relatively inexperienced at walking. The Scouts all took part in navigating, and although a few glitches were encountered along the way, they all did well. The funniest moment on the hike was when a rabbit decided to give a Scout a shock. Whilst walking down the path, the rabbit had hid under leaves. We got close, and the rabbit decided to run. Resulting in the Scout nearly needing a parachute to land!

On arriving at the Sandiway site, it was starting to get dark. This is where the big challenge started! We took our huge dome tent, which is not the easiest tent to put up in the dark. We quickly tried to erect it before the light went. Meanwhile a number of Scouts were feeling the results of a 16 kilometre walk. We then find out nobody had decided to pack the gas lamps, had mobiles ringing by the minute, and one more disaster which I am not going to talk about! We eventually get the tent up, get Scouts fed, and then I have to go back to get some lights.

We started the next day equally in panic, the clocks changed leaving us with one less hour to get ready. The hike for the second day was 12 kilometres, and the Scouts all did exceptionally well. The team I followed were exceptionally well behaved, and were that good I eventually decided to let them go on their own.

Overall barring the problems, it was a good weekend. Although the hikes were rather long for such an inexperienced group.

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