I had an excellent weekend camping with the cubs. We went out to Henlow for 7pm on Friday and were picked up again on Sunday at 4pm. In between we crammed in so many activities I am still struggling to focus on Wednesday. Some of the leaders usually take the Monday off after camp and I can understand why.
As a rule, we were not allowed to go to bed until after all the cubs were definitely asleep. Given that lights out was not until 11pm anyway and they were all hyper, I did not get to bed until 1am Friday and Saturday night.
Couple that with getting up at 7am and an exhaustive program with 8 and 9 year olds and I was understandably shattered at the end. I’m getting too old for this shit.
Still, it was great fun and we got to to do the climbing wall, archery, rifle shooting and raft building as well as number of other games and excellent camp food and it was well worth the small amount paid.
Sleeping in a tent was surprisingly comfortable but then I shared a 4-man tent with one of the other dads and we had a “bedroom” each so plenty of space.
We were lucky too that the weather was so great. Spending so much time out in the sun was a rare privilege and I did catch the sun a bit too much on my face I think.
Highlight for me was the climbing wall I think. Katie was one of only 2 cubs (9 in total) who made it all the way to the top. She is like a monkey. She made me very proud. I also made it to the top and only a few dads managed that so I was very pleased too.
We had great fun with the rafting too splashing each other as much as possible using the paddles. Wouldn’t have been so much fun if it wasn’t so warm.
With the rifle shooting I was again very pleased with Katie on the second set of 5 shots when she understood how to use the sights and got all 5 shots in the scoring zone.
And I’ve got a nice bruise on my left elbow from the string of the bow when it twanged in the wrong place and missed the arm guard. Bloody hurt.
Also, on the weekend they got on a bit of a recruitment drive and tried to get me involved with being a leader for the scout group. Lots of flattery ensued “you’ll be great at it”, “you’re an outdoors type of person”, etc and I admit I am really keen to get involved but just cannot give over the time needed to do it. I am sure it would be really rewarding and think I can probably give a lot but I don’t see my family much as it is so it’s a no for the moment.