25th - 27th January 2002

View the De-Briefing Weekend report here

Read the Winter Camp 2002 competition reports below

Our troop was allocated four spaces for Scouts to attend the Winter Camp 2002 De-Briefing Day. This is a day of evaluation of the Winter Camp 2002 to help improve the event next year.

In order to choose the four boys we held a competition. All you needed to do was write a report about the Winter Camp 2002.

What were the good bits? What were the bad bits? How could the camp be improved next year?. What other activities could there be?.

The writers of the four best reports were able to put forward their views at the evaluation weekend. The writer of the best report also received a winter camp 2002 t-shirt.

The four boys that attended the weekend were Michael D, Ben R, Jamie S and Calum F.

The Winter Camp 2002 T-shirt went to Michael D.

Only three reports made it in on time so those three are attending the weekend. All the other reports were in late so one report was chosen from the rest. The winning report was chosen from those four.

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Winter camp 2002 was a really great camp.

Day 1:

I gave Calum, Adam & Colin a lift there. Unfortunately I was navigating, so we got lost and turned up slightly late.

When we got there we began to put up our tents. I was in a tent with all my friends. After we sorted out the tent we went into the mess tent. Where we got given wrist bands & told where everything was. The leaders then took us on a walk around the site.

After that we had some free time to do what we wanted. So me and my tent walked around and looked at the things we didn’t see with the rest of the troop.

We accidentally got split up, but we found each other again & decided to go back to the camp site. When we got back we had some food and went to bed.

DAY 2

When I awoke only Dawesy was awake. But soon every one else was up. we had some breakfast and went out. WE went into the lid and looked what was there. There was lots of really good things we went on a few then went to see what Colins brother was doing. they were making a mud slide on which me and calum went down on our bellys. after that the two of us went back to camp and changed. WE then went to the storm hut with the rest of the people in our tent. We had TO be back at one o’clock. Me and Colin turned up a bit late. After lunch me & cal changed and went on the mud slide again. WE got really muddy and had to shower. Next we had dinner and went out to see the camp night life. There was a disco in the lid, quazer the lazer game was still up in the square. we went to the storm hut then came back for went to bed.

DAY 3

I was awoken in the morning by Adam. Who jumped on me,but I fell back to sleep and was awoken twenty mins later by Adam yet again. This time he’d hit me with his torch, so I hit him with mine. we messed around for a while. then we had breakfast and went out. we went and had some gladiator jousting matches. I drew with Adam, & beat Lawrence. when we got back the tents had gone. we had an egg throwing contest. Then went home.

What a brilliant camp.

THe good bits (things to keep)

1. ThE moving climbing wall

2. The bungee run

3. The bucking bronco

4. Quazer

5. Swan & storm hut activites

6. Gladiator jousting

7. Assult courses

Improvement

1. Sign posts

2. quazer time table

3. a card that lets u in the swan hut for only two hours a day.

4. cleaner showers

5. a map for each scout.

6. Quazer open later.

New Activities

1. A proper mud slide.

2. Water slides down the hill.

3. quad bikes

4. bouncy castle.

5. another quazer

By Mike D

1st Stotfold Ridgeway Scouts

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The winter camp 2002!

The winter camp 2002 was easily one of the best camps I’ve ever been to! The activities were great and very fun! I would definitely recommend the camp to others that didn’t go this year!

Some of the best bits of the camp were, Quasar (a shooting game involving 2 teams of 3 trying to shoot each other), the rock (a big machine that you climb up while it is moving), archery (I think you know what that is), the mud slide (a big hill with mud all over it which you slide down), video games (computers and playstations). We even learnt how to do a bit of line dancing in one of the great shows! The cinema was excellent! I loved the disco because it was really loud and they DJ’s played really good songs! The view of London is great and looks beautiful at night time! I also liked the museum because it had loads of really old badges in it, which was very fascinating!

One of the bad things about the camp is having to sleep on annoying bumps and dips! The only other bad thing was the prices of the food in the café e.g. one bag of small chips cost one £1. Apart from that there was absolutely nothing wrong with camp!

Next year the organizers of the camp should definitely get Quasar again but maybe limit the amount of groups allowed in the queue at any one time to avoid disappointment. There should also be a temporary fence around the lake to stop people falling in it and getting hypothermia! I also think that the time in the computer games hut is limited for each person because one of the boys stayed in the computer games hut for the whole time and he missed out on all the fun of the other activities.

I think the camp is better with a theme so I have thought of one we could have next year, secret agents! We could all dress like 007!

Next year there should definitely be quad bikes and a special hike through the woods and around the campsite. I think there should be a who done It game which involves finding clues to try and solve a mystery, along the lines the Cluedo.

By Ben R

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Winter camp 2002

I liked winter camp 2002 because we got to do what we wanted within reason and we built a mudslide by putting water on the grass and kicking it up. The other good part was that the activities where fun like gladiator jousting and the assault course.

The only problem was that the queues where to long for the activities so they should have more activities and it would be fun if there was a aerial runway. There might just be a chance that the food could improve, even a tiny bit.

by Calum F

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Winter Camp 2002

To Gilwell park we went. 'MAD' wanting to sleep in a tent. There was karting, lasers, computers and more. Inside and outside lots to do and explore. The tents were put up and the campus was set. Time to have fun, get muddy and wet.

After the camp was setup we went to explore starting with the clock tower which was our meeting point then we went to the London view and onto the disco.

Saturday consisted of rifle shooting, laser clay pigeon shooting, computer games, karting and watching the sledging on the muddy assault course and then we had a (Wild Wild West) fancy dress in which I came third but prizes were only given for first place and then onto the disco again.

On Sunday we done the laser game, the rock, the bungy run and the rodeo bull. Then it was back to camp to pack up all the gear and take home all our muddy clothes and boots.

The first night on camp was quite cold so I decided to use the hot water bottle filling service. The water was not as hot as it could have been, luckily the weather changed over night. The layout of the park was good with plenty to do I enjoyed the laser game and laser clay pigeon shooting best. But we had to wait quite a while for the most popular activities and maybe each scout group should be given an allocated time for the activities to cut down on queing.

By Jamie S

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The Winter Camp at Gilwell Park was a great success this year, this years theme was ‘Wild Wild West’.

All of us enjoyed the camp, there was a wide range of activities to chose from and they were all good when I tried them out.

The good points were that we had a rather large campsite so that we weren’t all squashed up! There was a big site to wonder around in and explore, the mudslide that we created was really good and very sloppy!

The bad points were that it was amazingly muddy there and all your clothes got ruined, I think the souvenir shop and the café were a bit pricey and I also thought that was very hard to find your way around because there were no signposts! Another point was that the activities could have been a bit well organized, as we had to wait 2 hours to wait for Quasar when we only got 6 minutes inside it!

On a balanced view I think this camp was very enjoyable and on a scale of 1-10 I would give this camp an 8 .

By Tom D.

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Gilwell Park

We arrived at Gilwell Park on the friday in the dark, put up our tents and settled in.

Our first contact with our other friends camping was at the disco.

After dancing the night away we went to bed having learnt some new dance steps from 'oldies', and I have to admit my "Tiger feet" were aching.

I had to share a tent with some younger boys, who were good and went to sleep quickly.

Saturday was a busy day, after eating breakfast and washing up, I queued up for a turn at quaser. It took ages. After lunch we had a second go on quaser, which we followed by "Climbing the Rock". We then joined in the theme of the weekend "Wild Wild West" and played many games like hatchet throwing, horseshoe throwing and quick draw. Teatime came round quickly and then we went to our 2nd disco of the weekend.

Sunday we got up a little later. Then after breakfast I had a go on pigeon shooting - the pigeons were not in much danger, I only hit about three. Computer games and skaletrix were next followed by lunch.

Then it was time to pack up our belongings, take down the tents and leave as much mud behind as possible (althrough I still managed to take a lot home).

The camp was good fun and I met a lot of Scouts from other places.

The highlights of the camp to me were:

  the sumo wrestling

  The shows put on by the camp leaders

  The Wild West Games

  The discos

I would suggest that:

  The activities could be better signposted

  That the activities were split into three sections, with a booking system for the most popular activities to cut down on queuing, also to make it a more fair way of using the activities,

  A map of the site put in place at the main square for people to use.

  The toilets were dirty and muddy and this made them difficult to use - a cleaning rota was needed.

As I said I enjoyed the camp and would like to be part of the group that was expressing their views and making Gilwell an even more enjoyable weekend.

Michael S.