Hike in Groenkloof

On the 12th December four of us, and Lynx, went hiking in Groenkloof reserve outside Pretoria. It was a great fun although the day started out cold and ended up being VERY hot when we had finished. We saw a lot of game including wildebeest, zebra and impala, which were all very near the hiking trail so we ended up trekking through the bush a few times to avoid them. This was used as Jade's Adventurer hike and two of the other girls now have their pathfinder hikes signed off.


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The Owl Part II

Wow, it's been a while. Exams are terrible things. However, we now have pictures of the owl we built a while back. Isn't it lovely? (I'm also updating the Chairman's Challenge entry with pictures.)



Technically, the second photo has nothing to do with the owl, except that we built it on the same camp. On Sunday morning, just for fun, we used the cloverleaf lashing to build an octopod. We thought it was pretty cool.

Now, for the scouts: here's the question to answer for Friday night: who is standing on top of the octopod? (You can click the picture to see a bigger version.)

Bonus question: In the first picture, Pippa is wearing uniform because she's been at a special meeting for Patrol Leaders. What are meetings like that called? (Hint: look at page 147 of your Scout Trail book.)

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Building

We were planning to build treehouses on Friday night, but the weather had other plans. The rain was bucketing down by the time our meeting began and there was no way we would be working outside. Instead, Pippa (Crocodiles' PL) ran some pioneering activities inside.

The girls built and braced a pair of tripods. Then they learned how to use a bowline and rolling hitch to fasten themselves securely to the tripods before climbing up onto the bracings. With more time, we could have transformed our tripods into a tower, but with all the knotting practice, and the power cut that meant we were working by gaslight, that didn't happen.

Instead, Pippa and Lynx taught the troop how to tie a Cat's Paw, a rather unusual knot used with pulleys. We don't know where the name comes from, but if any of our readers do, we'd love to know!

At the same time, two of our senior scouts were on Backwoods Camp. In that rain, it must have been chilly. The girls earned their Backwoods Interest Badges on the camp.

During next week's meeting, the group AGM will be run and all parents are encouraged to attend. Afterwards, there'll be campfire for the whole scout group, so remember your campfire blankets!

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A New Term

Yesterday we had our first meeting for the last term of 2009. Over the holidays, a new system for storing our long (five and six metre) poles had been set up, and we got to pack them away. This is more exciting than it sounds, because the poles are stored several metres up. Getting them there required two PLs in safety harnesses and four people on the pulley systems. The author of this blog now has four blisters, but apparently she is getting soft, as everybody else was fine!

We also learned different ways of carrying injured people and which should be used when. Then we ran races using the different carries. It was a fun and practical way of making sure everyone understood how they worked.

Before we ended, we got to hear about the projects Kay will be running to get her Springbok Scout award, and to meet our new District Commissioner. I can't wait for another term full of scouting activities!
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Chairmans!

The girls got back from Chairman's Challenge today. They did really well, placing fifth overall!

The raft came in eighth, after six and a half hours on the Vaal River. At this morning's cooking competition, the scouts 'went green'. Adiero cooked greek salad, pancakes and curry and rice on a biofuel stove to tie for third place.

Way to go, girls!

Here you can see the rafts setting off.


Here's Adiero's raft and crew.


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Chairman's Challenge

I don't have any pictures, which is very sad, but I'm going to post anyway. Otherwise, this blog might go for a whole month without any activity, which would be awfully disappointing.

The Owl Part II will be coming soon, but first I need to get hold of those photos. In this case, a picture is worth quite a bit more than a thousand words.

Meanwhile, we've been getting ready for another pioneering event: Chairman's Challenge. Our troop's raft placed tenth at Kontiki (the Gauteng-wide scout raft rally) this year, which means we were invited to race the other top twenty rafts down the Vaal river. Our senior scouts have been designing the raft and practising the building.

Since only six scouts will go to Chairman's, the rest of us spent the meeting outside, around a fire. Once the fire was laid and lighted, we cooked twists and boerewors: delicious! We also spent a bit of time thinking about how we use the Scout Law and Scout Promise in our day-to-day lives.

Next week, the raft crew will be at Chairman's. The rest of us won't be meeting, but we're wishing them the best of luck!

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Mixing and Matching

This week's meeting didn't have any particular theme, unless it was 'following the scout trail'. We began with a going up ceremony, where we welcomed one of the cubs into the scout troop, after which she was invested. There are no pictures, because only invested scouts may watch an investiture (although we do make an exception for the parents).


We heard about some of the activities Kay has been doing for her Explorer badge,
looked at the calabash doll she found on her river cleanup,

and watched the slideshows from the outings.

We learned about practical safety and maintenance of gas equipment - part of the Adventurer badge, but a good thing for everyone to know.

In between, Cougar taught Pathfinder level First Aid, we played games, we spoke about the owl that we'll be building on the twenty-second and we even cleaned out our storeroom.

The Owl Part I

There's a district pioneering event coming up in three weeks, so we spent a meeting practising our building skills. The finished structure will be a giant owl, although we couldn't build the whole thing in just one meeting.

Lifting up the central quadpod. (Built with a cloverleaf lashing, which everyone - well, Lynx and Charlotte anyway - thinks is awesome.)

Unhanking a rope as we get ready to brace the quadpod and build the superstructure.

We're nearly finished bracing the quadpod; everyone's attention is drawn by the owl's head.


The owl's head - or at least its structure. The final product will be covered and given simple features.

Mapping

Map Reading


The ever-popular mapping symbol game. (It's a variant of the card game Concentration, but as well as remembering where the cards are, you have to remember which description matches which symbol.)


Plane tabling. This mapping technique is relatively complicated, but everyone enjoyed learning it and mapping out the hall. Next time, we'll need something bigger to map!