Over the weekend of the 15th to 17th July the Stotfold Cub packs joined in with other packs for the District Cub Camp at Boyd Field. Camp started at 6:00 pm on Friday evening as the Cubs from Biggleswade District descended on the camp site with enough kit to last a week, this was stashed away in to the patrol tents, and the cubs joined in with ad hoc games of football and softball as the leaders made some semblance of order around the site.

Supper was served and the obligatory campfires were lit with each Cub being convinced that the fire needed just one more lump of wood whilst the leaders were less convinced of this need. Between the two sides the fire was maintained at a reasonable size and as it became dark from 10:30 onwards the cubs voluntarily retired to bed, by 12is all was quiet, most unusual for a first night!

More usual was the 5:30am start for some of the Cubs by 6:30 everyone was up, breakfast was well on the way the fire had been resurrected and toast was being cooked. The official breakfast was devoured in record time although the wash your own plate’s up rule was a little patchy in its application.
The morning’s activities were to make a fancy dress costume for the site campfire and to decorate the camp gateway. The theme for the camp was “Super Hero’s”, so to be different Stotfold decided not to go for the established hero’s but to create a few new ones. Sausage man, Snake man, Pillow man and Underpants man were just a few of the new breed of Super Hero’s created. Each one was lovingly painted and mounted around the gateway. It may not have been the most conventionally decorated gateway but it certainly the most original.

The costumes were also created along the same theme; convention was thrown to the winds with the results that can be judged from the accompanying photographs.

Lunch was demolished with equal speed to that of breakfast, the washing up improved as well.
The afternoon was taken up with “It’s a Knockout “ type bases the cubs moving around each base every 20 minutes or so. Stotfold having 2 Cub Packs ran 2 bases one using Space Hoppers to burst balloons the other using Space hoppers to transport water in an open cup along a course. The first game proved just how resilient your average balloon could be, the second just how little water can soak your average Cub.

Speaking of soaked cubs our next “activity” was a water fight, a large supply of super soakers found its way on to site and the Stotfold cube were banished from around the tents to test them out. Most of the cubs joined in as did a certain leader who only wanted to go to the toilet block. Everyone had an enjoyable, manic and very wet half hour or so.

Dinner was so well received that far from there being seconds, the leaders and chefs were struggling to get a look in at all!

After dinner dressing up in to costume for the Site Communal Camp Fire and Sing along event. Once again Stotfold excelled in being unique as can be seen. The sing along was led by ??????????
With the Cubs joining in with gusto, even those that didn’t want to at first. This was followed by our own camp fire where toasting marshmallows was the activity for the evening. Some were a little more toasted than others.

Having had a full day, by 11:00 the last few cubs were chased off to bed, and by 11:30 silence reigned.

Sunday morning started early but not quite as early as Saturday, 7:00 were the first stirrings with most of the Cubs up and about by 8:00. Breakfast disappeared as fast as Saturday, to be followed by a tent inspection. This involved the Cubs in putting away all of their belongings in their bags and generally tidying their tents. A simple job you may think but you would be amazed at how long it takes 20 Cubs to achieve this small thing.

The morning activities were “badge” work, we decided that we would practice lighting fires as part of the camper’s badge. Given the fascination with the camp fires from the previous two nights you would have thought that this would have been easy, but you would have been wrong. It took numerous attempts at building fires to light and then getting the hang of lighting matches before we had 4 small fires burning merrily away!

Whilst this was going on the remaining leaders started striking camp, and were joined by the Cubs as their fire lighting exploits reached fruition. Lunch was devoured with the now usual efficiency; this was followed by another water fight whilst the reminder of the camp was struck with the assistance of the arriving parents.

The closing ceremony bought all of the packs together around the flag, the results of the various competitions that had been running throughout the weekend were announced with certificates and prizes. For the record the combined Stotfold Cubs were placed 4th equal, but the main point was that everyone had had a great time. The weather had been fantastic, nobody got sunstroke or became dehydrated although most of the cubs did get very tired, oh yes, and very wet!

Many thanks to all those leaders and parents who gave up their time to make the weekend a great success for the Cubs.

Click on the photos for a better quality version.