DistrictSurvivalWeekend
- by Jared "veteran Scout" and Carla "newbie"
Carla – "Before the survival weekend my camping experiences were limited (to a few sunny days on the IoW). I was also one of the few girls at the event, but I was treated just like I wanted to be – like everyone else! The survival weekend was a lot of things I hadn’t done before and a lot of fun. The weather was great, and best of all it gave me a sense of achievement that comes with being responsible for all of your shelter, warmth and food for the weekend (and getting it right!)"
Jed – "It was a great event to be involved in, and a good one for the Explorers to be ‘broken in’ as junior camp leaders. There is no better way for a Scout to learn than by hands-on application – and it showed in them building their bivouacs. But there wasn’t that element of freshness for us Explorers, who are (mostly) already experienced in this environment, and it felt like a nice refresher course. Maybe the survival part should be taken up a notch next time – bring it on!"

Survival at Hannam's Copse - A Great Weekend!

It had all the markings of a classic Malcolm Pope event, with both familiar and new faces abound. Hype was high, with Scouts pouring in from all over the country (well, Wigan) to hear the Legendary Dai Pearce impart his know-how on the first night. He did not disappoint: after investing Dan back into the fold, we then settled into learning how to pack a Bergen (very useful), and knowing how to survive in the Nevada desert (without gambling). Never underestimate the effectiveness of a raincoat in a desert.

Saturday morning began Malcolm’s favourite part of the show – scouts getting on with it independently. Left to our own devices, we called upon PMA and T.E.A.M. to get our shelter and fires up and running, though fire building strangely came naturally to us!

With the leaders flitting between camps all weekend, we had to make sure we were ‘active’ whenever they came to visit! Later after lunch we were roused from our hammocks, after spending all that time ‘making’ our shelters, to do a line search of the field – honing our skills of perception. The incident hike followed, where we utilised those observation skills to find our lost team members, and practiced our first aid by diagnosing and transporting them back to base safely.
Cooking (and eating!) after a day of activities always seems more satisfying, and this time was no different. Keeping the fires going all afternoon proved to be a task, as our fire burned through our large supply in record time! Dinner was a nice butter-fried chicken, cooked with canned peas for a tasty improvised sauce (chef’s idea!), with new potatoes. Not to be outdone that evening, Dai provided drop pancakes which went down a treat with the Explorers!

Due to masterful engineering, the Explorer’s shelter was a multi-purpose facility able to withstand pounding rain and howling winds that the weather predicted us to have this weekend (impressive…). On top of that it was still large and comfortable enough to sleep 7! The real masterstroke in the design was the ‘courtyard’ where we were able to have a fire to sleep around – genius. We all slept like logs that night.

A salvo of the leader’s eggy-bread greeted Sunday morning, with the definition of ‘queue’ enriching us intellectually. Spiritually, it was provided with the well timed Scout’s Own on St. George’s day yielded a rousing rendition of ‘Keep Me Travelling Along…’, and a renewal of our scout promise was made (the quickest renewal on record for Dan…). Our comical enrichment came afterwards with the sight of the scouts doing the signalling and navigation exercise ‘like it ought to be done’, and some traffic in the round robin event! Needless to say, everyone had a great time and it showed in the final moments of the camp – showing their appreciation for the main man – Malcolm Pope.

Ohh, and the Deputy DC's car? Well the ground was so soft all the Leaders needed a hand getting away at the end of the weekend!!