Riverside Cluster Camp

4-7 May 2007

It was Friday afternoon and after about an hour at BP House making sure we have everyone and everything, 20 of us piled into the mini van and headed out of London (about an hour south) to Walton Firs Scout Camp in Surrey for the Centenary Cluster Camp. It was an amazing weekend with lots of stuff organised for all the kids (there were so many of them!) From Beavers (6-8 yrs) all the way up to Explorer Scouts (14-18 years) there was a lot of things going on to keep the kids entertained all weeekend!










Saturday morning we had an opening ceremony and played an international flag game. Our troop were all divided into different country groups to get to know other children in the Riverside Cluster. As a leader I wasn't assigned a group (as the Explorer Scouts were in charge of their younger teammates) but I joined the NZ team just for fun : )



















We then came back together as a group for the Scraphead Challenge, we had one roll of sellotape, 14 kids, and all the recyclable materials we had brought with us to build a designated famous structure from around the world in under an hour! So we managed to build a pretty big Arc de Triomphe before lunchtime with a lot of teamwork!! The kids had fun playing with the leftover cardboard boxes during lunch break and activities in the afternoon tired them out quite a bit



















They had a whole bunch of activities to keep them occupied in the afternoon with choices of rock climbing, abseiling, various arts and crafts activities etc. Saturday evening's activity was to prepare an international dinner so with Gomez (known as Mr Brazil to the kids) as our pack leader it was only fair that we made a brazilian chicken pasta dish and chocolate balls. The kids were more than happy to get in and help preparing these dishes, pretty much nutella balls doused in chocolate hail or coconut - a lot of fun but very messy!



















The kids all worked together to clean up and we had a campfire that night with everyone and heaps of fun with lots of rounds and dancing/jumping camp songs before building our own campfire, with hot chocolate and sketches until late that evening










They all slept in late on Sunday (until 7:30am!!) but we still managed to cram a lot into the day. After an English breakie of eggs, beans and sausies (as well as cereals, fruit and breads) they were ready to go for their morning activity session. I joined in this time played a horn, made a plaster cast, made a wax picture, painted an NZ flag on a cookie with icing and food colouring, went on the flying fox (the kids convinced me against my better judgement), and then ran through the maze and the assualt course with them! Chicken risotto lunch kept us going into afternoon activites when I made a spider out of wood and sticks - good times! Before cooking spag bol for the troop's dinner!










That evening we had another international game, unfortunately I couldn't join in the NZ team for this one as all the leaders had to hide around the site and the country teams had to find us... I haven't climbed a tree in a couple of years but it was definitely for a good cause! The glow sticks they collected from finding a leader made a natural progression into a disco and then one final campfire with our group so that we could toast marshmellows on the last night :)

Cooked up one final big breakie of omlettes for the kids and had one last activity with international mini-olympics on Monday morning before packing up everything and getting back to London early evening. It was a great way to spend a long weekend and its awesome to be back at work for a break. Almost lost my voice from singing all weekend and my muscles are sore from running and jumping but its so satisfying to be outside helping the kids have a great time ^^;