Thursday 28th October 10.15am

Steve and Andy turn up at the scout headquarters to find poor Clump awaiting on his own. No sooner had the minibus stopped when the gang all arrived. Onto the top of the van went the kit, into it we poured the gallant Explorers, legs, arms, sandwiches and sweets. Andy, so used to having plenty of room upfront ended up with Clare (IT) next to him as the boys were too afraid to let her sit with them in the back, (lucky girl really). We set off at about 11am after an unscheduled stop at Andy’s, because he had forgotten the Cool box’s – a typical well organised leader that he his.

After a good steady run and a stop at the Fleet services on the M3, the navigation was passed over to trusty Clare and Drew on the basis that two heads would bound to get it right. Turn left says Drew --- ooops! wrong direction - we were on the wrong bit of the M271. A quick turn around and back in the right direction. 20 Minutes later came the cry “straight through the cross roads” and onwards trundled the little yellows bus. Oops! We should have turned right! A quick reverse and back on track and lo and behold we spot the turn off to the camp site. Suddenly we heard a rather loud grinding noise and the brakes went on. A quick look in the wing mirror spotted the problem – the roof rack had collapsed under the weight of four tables, 3 benches, six duckboards and Karl’s lunch box. Brave Drew jumped out of the van to lessen the weight and only careful and skilled driving by the Old Man managed to get
us to the car park where we unloaded the gear and had a good inspection of the damage that Karl’s kit had caused.

Never to be worried, the unit unloaded the gear and trundled off to the camp site where the leaders had every confidence that the unit would be able to pitch the mess tent in the most favourable and advantageous site. Boy were we wrong! No sooner had the mess tent been pitched when the heavens opened and down came the wet stuff. And Lo! As the rain beat harder and harder did the merry band realise that the mess tent had been pitched not only on a slope so that the water came in the front but also smack bang in the middle of the little brother of a river of the nearby Solent. The leaders then realised it was faithful Karl’s fault, for it was he who had designated said spot. To the rescue came our hero’s - Clump and The Old Man– without the slightest regard to their own safety they allowed themselves to get completely wet and dug a trench reminiscent of WW1 around the tent and saved our kit from washing away, whilst the rest huddled in the mess tent – “I was sorting the kitchen out” came the cry from Drew!

And lo the rains did flow – 2 hrs later with no let up, accompanied by thunder and lighting, and it was getting dark. The Old Man used a tarpaulin and got his tent up, and the others followed suit. Five held the Tarp, two put the tents up, IT held a lamp and two became supervisors – (The Old Man was tired from his trench digging exertions and Drew was “Sorting the Kitchen Out”).

Disaster! We could only find three tents for the explorers – disaster in that the Old Man had to give up his tent to IT and Drew had to suffer the ignominy of having the Old Man in his brand new tent! A fire was needed desperately to get warm and thankfully the rain eased up enough to get one started. A delicious evening meal was prepared and the unit was well content. Unfortunately the lesser heard (we wish) Tickle was in fine form and several threats were mentioned before the middle tent finally went quiet. Revenge was planned that night and well executed – but more of that later.