Day 1 (Wednesday)

We arrived at the Scout hut at quarter to nine and hopped onto the minbus and, as usual, we had to wait for someone [who shall remain nameless... -Ed]. We set off at quarter past nine on our way to Lydney Deer Park. We had got about three-quarters of the way there when the leaders decided we should stop at the services. We stayed there for about half an hour then set off for the remainder of the journey.

When we arrived at Lydney Deer Park, we had lunch. Once we had all finished lunch we started setting up our patrol areas. First we put up the patrol tents, then the mess tent. Once we had set up our areas and tents we had to help put up the toilet tents and the shower tent. Once that was all over, we went to collect some wood for the fires for dinner. Then we cooked dinner and ate it (pies, potatoes and peas). Then we played rounders, and afterwards had supper. The younger Scouts went to bed, and about half an hour later the older Scouts came to bed. - Falcons Patrol

Day 2 (Thursday)

The morning was mostly devoted to camp gadgets, in which we were successful. Breakfast was eggs, bacon and spagetti. We got our fire going quite early so the other patrols were cooking while we were stuffing our faces. For lunch, we made our own sandwiches - it was amazing what some people had in theirs: chocolate and ham!?! We were also tortured with an inspection.

In the afternoon we spent a percentage of the time doing camp skills. The oldest (who had done their knife and axe) made some camp ovens. They cooked brownies, and I'm not sure why but the card kept catching fire and the brownies were black. The ones who were on their 2nd Summer Camp were doing their knife and axe. The youngest did some camp safety stuff with gas fires and stuff. The remainder of the day was spent playing wide games. Eagles Patrol

Our patrol was up early and subsequently bored before 7am, so I offered to do the teas. This process took some time because some leaders decided to be awkward. We had bacon, eggs and spagetti hoops for breakfast, but the leader who was eating with us decided to cook his own eggs because of the failures we had made!

After breakfast we made camp gadgets like a dresser, wet pit, washing line and gate. This took some time and patience with our gate, which needed lasooing. For lunch we had the ever trusty delicacy of sandwiches and crisps. We then did camp ovens with one of the leaders. His failed and ours didn't, so we ate the delicious chocolate brownies.

After this we had dinner of spagetti bolognaise and sweetcorn, followed by rice pudding. We played a wide game called V.I.P. next, which became too violent too quickly so it had to be stopped. We then played "Emergency" which was very sucessful - we played it three times. We then had tuck and went to bed. Tigers Patrol

Day 3 (Friday)

We woke up at 7:00 and had breakfast which consisted of cereal and scotch pancakes. We quickly set off to canoeing and the Seniors went off to Ross-on-Wye. We had some paddling practice and then hit the water. We travelled 2.5 miles going over rapids and strong currents plus seeing a few fishermen. Near the end there was a short rescue mission because a few people had capsized in the rapids. After we had collected the boats which had drifted away we went to the carpark, dried off and had lunch.

We then went to Ross-on-Wye while the Seniors went canoeing. We looked around the town and ended coming back to the minibus half an hour early. There we just mucked about. Later on we met the Seniors and went back to camp. We sat around for a little while and then went off swimming. We played and fought over floats and met 2 5-year-old Welsh girls who wanted to steal our float. Soon the swimming was over and we went back to camp. We then started our fires and cooked our food: sausages, mash and beans. We washed up and sat in the marquee. At about 11 o'clock we went to bed. Falcons Patrol

Day 4 (Saturday)

We got up at 8 and started to make our fire for breakfast which was bubble and sqeak, bacon and eggs. After breakfast, we had an inspection. After th short inspection, we started the sports competition with cricket ball throw, shot put, press ups and sit ups, 100m and the dumb bell. Our Patrol did quite well. After the sports competition we had lunch, which was sausage rolls, pork pies, scotch eggs, crisps and salad. We then started the PLs challenges. There was a challenge where we built a tower so a candle could stand on top and burn a piece of sisle. Then we had to build a sturdy bridge out of long staves, rope and pegs. The last challenge was a twig race.

After the challenges we started to build a dam across the stream. Then we had to clean the bogs which were disgusting. After that we helped make the rifle range and the aerial runway. When the aerial runway was finished I went on it and it was really fun. When I'd been on it I went to help build the dam then for tea we had a barbeque which was really nice. Then we played a game of four-way five-a-side football. After that we had supper and went to bed. Tigers Patrol

Day 5 (Sunday)

The whole patrol woke up at around 8:25, chatted for around 5 minutes and then the whistle went. We gathered round the flag and were told we had full kit inspection! We rushed around the site, getting the first started for breakfast and starting gathering our kit ready. We all had breakfast with a couple of the leaders, then some of us washed up while the rest of us layed out our kit.

We didn't do very well in the inspection; our kit was done well but the rest of it was poor. After the inspection we played kwik cricket (which was part of the sports competition). I didn't do very well, but some of the ours in our patrol got quite a few runs. We came second out of the three patrols. We then had lunch, which was sandwiches, crisps and fruit.

After lunch we had a bit of free time. Then the whistle went to gather round the flag, and we were told that we were doing archery, rifle shooting and an assault course. We did shooting first, which one of us did well in. After that we did archery, which I got the best score in. We came first out of three patrols. The assault course was fun - we had to go down the aerial runway and in and out of the river. I don't know how well we did in that. We went on a long water slide which was quite fun.

Afterwards we had to get out of our wet clothes and then light our fire, which we did with one match! Tea was chicken, potatoes and carrots. It was quite nice. We then had to wash up which we all took part in. After tea was finished we were called around the flag and told what to do for tomorrow. We then had tuck and camp bank and got an early night. Eagles Patrol

Day 6 (Monday)

We woke up at 7:00 and had breakfast which was black pudding, egg and tomato. Then we washed up and got ready for caving and climbing. We set off for caving, and when we got there we all put boiler suits and hard hats on. Eventually we went into the caves - we were told it would be quite cold down there and it was! It was pretty amazing down there. This bloke took us round the caves and we went through rabbit holes, mouse holes and worm holes - they were all very small, especially the worm hole. When we got out of the caves it felt so hot outside.

In the afternoon we went climbing. We asked to do fun climbs but they were still quite hard. When we had done climbing we packed up and had an ice cream. Then we came back and went swimming, but the swimming pool was not very good. After we came back to the campsite we had tuck and went to bed. Eagles Patrol

We woke up early at 7:00 and started the fire for breakfast, which was black pudding, canned tomatoes and bacon, We set off soon afterwards to go climbing and caving. The seniors went to caving first and we went climbing. We met up wth the climbing instructor who got us kitted up and took us down to the 3 walls we'd be climbing up.

The first wall I climbed up was the hardest one. One of the leaders got to the top on the other walls. Most people made it to the top. When we finished climbing, we had lunch, which was salad, then I went to get an ice cream. Then we set off in the minibus to go caving.

We met the man who'd be taking us and we put our overalls, wellies and helmets on. We then went down into the caves. The first part was easy. Then we came to the rabbit hole which was quite easy, and further on we came to the mouse hole. Everyone went through apart from one, and the same for the very smallest hole, the worm hole.

We then came back to the campsite, but had to leave soon after to go swimming. After swimming we went to the park to have fish and chips, then we came back and went to bed. Tigers Patrol

Day 7 (Tuesday)

We woke up, bleary-eyed, excited and raring to go on our 12km hike. We got out of bed and cooked our breakfast, ate it and then packed our bags. Once we had packed our bags, they were checked by the leaders. After that we had to clean the toilets because we could not leave them in that state. Then we set off on our hike of 12km to the campsite.

After about 3/4 of the way, we stopped at Speech House Inn and had cokes all round on the leaders. After a while we reached the sculture trail and at the end there was a big chair. Then it began to rain on our group. We looked up and saw a towering hill above us, We walked up the steep hill, our legs aching, going into the village of Christchurch.

After about 1km we reached the campsite, set up our tents, and then cooked our dinner, which consisted of succulent shell-shaped pasta, coated in rich roasted vegetable sauce, which was complimented by a juicy blueberry muffin, in a paper case. The tuck shop sold us the imported fizzy drink of orange fanta, to assist in hydrating us for the next long and challenging day of hiking. Then the leaders went out for an evening meal while we played football for a short while, and then went to bed. Falcons Patrol

Day 8 (Wednesday)

The day started at 7:40 when I was woken by my other tent members singing - BADLY! We had a cereal bar for breakfast at about 9:00 I think, then we set off on what was meant to be a 10 mile hike. The first part of our journey was in the minibus, which cut down the hike to about 7 miles, but the first half of this walk was very steep. We were walking up Offa's dyke path.

We met the leaders for lunch on the other side of the River Wye, and they were late! After our sandwiches, we crossed the Wye again and followed it to the end where we met with the other group. But the third group were not found until later in the evening when they walked back.

A good day. Eagles Patrol

Day 9 (Thursday)

This morning we woke up at 8:30 to gather round the flag. The leaders stated to talk about all the things we would be doing. We did flag break and started our fires for backwoods cooking. One person started the fire while the rest of the patrol started looking for long, thin sticks which were alive. Once we had a roaring fire going, we left it to burn to embers. We put 2 sausages and 2 bits of bacon on the shaven sticks and cooked with no utensils.

Once breakfast was eaten, we started a game of rounders for the sports competition. Unfortunately we lost, but it was great fun. After rounders we gathered around the flag and we were told about a challenge for each of the patrols. We had to fill a film canister with as many different things as we could. We did quite well.

Once the challenges were finished we gather round the flag again and the PLs went shopping. After the PLs had left we tightened the aerial runway and we had a few goes at it. We the PLs got back, we took down the aerial runway, and started Masterchef.

One person started the fire while the rest of us started making dips for the starter. i then started cutting up carrots to dip in the dips. When our fire was hot enough, we called the leaders and they came and marked our starter. We had two different dips, carrots and tortilla chips.

Once the leaders had marked our starter, we had 15 minutes to make the main course. We put the grills on the fire and grilled our loin steak. While the steaks were cooking, we put on the potatoes, carrots, peas and gravy. Once this was cooked, we layed it out on the plates and called the leaders for marking. The leaders marked our main course and left us to make dessert. We attemped to make caramelised fruit. We put lots of sugar on and waited for it to make caramel. We dropped a variety of apples, pears and oranges in the caramel. When we finally got the fruit ready, the sugar was a bit burnt, but we called the leaders over to mark it. Unfortunately, the leaders did not like our dessert.

We came second in the Masterchef competition. A bit later on we had a cmapfire. We all gathered round the campfire and sang a variety of different songs which were all fun. We also did a number of sketches such as the Ugliest Man sketch. I took park in this and it was funny. After the campfire we had cake and hot drinks for supper, and went to bed. Tigers Patrol

Day 10 (Friday)

We got up at about 8:30 and gathered round the flag in a swift action. The leaders told up what we were doing during the day. We started by starting to strike camp, with a few people cooking breakfast. After we had had breakfast, we continued dismantling our patrol areas and packing up. When that was finished, we had lunch, which consisted of burgers in a bug and fruit.

In the afternoon, we had the sports competition. The first sport we played was volleyball, but we failed miserably and came third. We then did the tug-of-war which we did better in, but didn't quite have the right tactics to beat Tigers. Next we did the football, which in the first game we won 5 - 2, but unfortunately someone went in for a tackle and ended up in excruciating pain. We then played the second game and couldn't find a winner, so it was called a draw.

Suddenly, the whistle went and we got around the flag. They told us what we were doing later on, and then went swimming. After swimming we went back to camp and had dinner, which was curry and rice. Later on we did 'Friends like these', which we won in a head on head sudden death round with the leaders. Lastly we had supper and went ot bed. Falcons Patrol

Day 11 (Saturday)

We packed up and came home. Camp Leader