The Unit participated in the 2007 Gilwell 24 event held at Gilwell for Explorer and Ranger groups on the weekend of 6^th to the 8^th July. This was our 3^rd time of being at the event and this year proved to be the best yet! The event does what it says – a 24hour activity event, starting at 9am on Saturday and running right through without stopping till 9am on Sunday.

The Unit arrived on Friday night at Gilwell, Steve having been there all afternoon, setting the mess tent up. All that the Explorers had to do was set their own tent up and then relax, as demonstrated by Mullett, Curly and Laura. This gave us time to observe and comment on the skills of other units as they set their own tents up!

We had our friends from Upper Caldicote next to us, who were there as part of the Jamboree Unit for Bedfordshire, and as the evening wore on, more and more tents were set up until the whole of Marchant Field was covered. We took to entertaining ourselves with Diablos, ball games and Tannnys Trap, an invention to try and stop people walking through the camp site whereby Chris would jump on interlopers! Of course we had to prove the trap worked by practicing on Tanny first!

That evening we had a BBQ, started by Ted, and finished by Steve since Ted was killing the meat twice! The rest of the evening was spent wandering the site and inspecting the activities available, plus a session in the Lid (music) and an attempt to dismantle the Assault course! (note – Steve knew nothing about this and is innocent of all issues!)

Saturday saw an early start, even though some of them were already tired after a late night, but we all made it to the opening ceremony where the countdown began, and at nine, to rousing cheers the event started. The unit went off to do their thing while Steve went back to Camp for a well earned rest and to sort out the T shirts.

Below are some of the pictures from the opening ceremony.

There was a huge range of activities for the Explorers to try out. Some of them are shown below, but they included Funfair rides, Bouncy castles, Robo wars, Assault course, Giant Swing, Jacobs Ladder, Laser Quest, Line Dancing, Rope Making, High Wire, Giant football, Shotgun, Clay Pigeon shooting, Prussicking, Archery, Shooting, Quad Bikes, Scuba Diving, Swimming, Zip Wire, Mud Slide, Mountain boards, Wood Turning, Fishing, Rocket Launching, Quiz, Disco, and Several Simulators. Most of the activities were open through out the night, and the Unit even booked themselves into a night laser quest, using night vision goggles!

Throughout the day, with 2500 Explorers present, it was difficult to catch up with the Unit but below are some photo’s of times when they were spotted!

The next time we all met up was at sunset on the ‘Quick’, where Serena was invested at long last (on her birthday as well), into the Unit.

As night approached, the unit continued to make the most and dispersed to areas around the site. Unlike other years, the organisers had really put on a great event. This was evident in that Steve did not see the unit apart from meal times! However, around about midnight he did get a call to take Mullett to the hospital with a suspected broken ankle (not done on an activity mind you, he turned it over walking along the track!), which meant Claire, Mullett and Steve spent 4 hours at Whips Hospital and missed out on the Night Laser Quest.

Over all, the weekend was a great success, and after a very long, very active night, we eventually managed to get some sleep (if any), despite a local loudmouth,  just after sunrise. The title for hardcore unit member must go to Serena, who even slept out in her sleeping bag at the end of the night! We will definitely do the event again and hopefully relive some of the great memories and stories of the weekend over many a future campfire!