It was a cloudy Friday morning. Three weeks of preparation and organisation would soon be culminating in what, hopefully, would be a Region camp to remember. Region camp is the biggest standing camp of the year, other than Jamborees. It is held every June long weekend for all the groups of the South Metropolitan Region at Camp Coutts, Waterfall. Several hundred Scouts in all. It’s a lot of hard work but it really brings our Scouts together and goes a long way to helping the Scouts bond and form strong friendships. 1st Leichhardt sent 31 Scouts in all. 15 Scouts, 10 Venturers and 6 Leaders. In addition, we also hosted 10 Scouts from one of our sister groups at Dulwich hill.
After several trips to the shops for last minute items, my two daughters (who had a pupil free day) and I headed off to the hall to pick up the last of the gear. Skip, one of our leaders, went down earlier with one of the trailers so he could get back to Sydney for an evening of opera with his mother. We have very cultured leaders at 1st Leichhardt!
The second trailer hooked up and a car full of gear, we headed off. It was a slow drive but there was little traffic. We arrived at Camp Coutts at 2:30 but our Camp Site was deserted. I was expecting Polish, another of our leaders, to be there as he went down the night before to enjoy the calm before the storm, but there was no sign of him. It turns out he had gone back to Central to help Knit and Raph (our other two leaders) wrangle the Scouts travelling down by train and be on standby for any late commers who missed it. Forty-five minutes later Grace, Caitlin and I had the second trailer unloaded. The clouds were getting darker and rain looked inevitable. Another wet Region camp looked on the cards!
A couple of hours later, the girls and I had some of our shelters pitched and the rest of our gear assembled or under cover. Just in time too as a light drizzle started to set in. 6:30pm and it was time to head up the track to grab a bite to eat at the prearranged dinner venue – the local fish and chip shop at Waterfall station. We got up there and, though there was a steady stream of Scouts coming and going, there was no sight of our mob. A quick call to Knit suggested they were 15 minutes away so it was time to order. Not long after that, our group arrived. The excitement of some of our new Scouts, at their first Scout camp, was infectious and made us forget the wet windy night that was setting in around us. The fish was huge, the chips were hot and plentiful and the camaraderie was great.
Groups of Scouts sitting at tables chatting about all manner of things and looking forward to the joys of camping that awaited them. A train or two later the Venturers also arrived and it was standing room only. Stomachs full, the Scouts started to make a move towards the 2km trek back down the bush track to the camp. We had a few who decided they could predict the weather, ignore the packing list, and not bring raincoats so a quick chat to the shop owner solicited some spare garbage bags. A few measured incisions with a trusty multi tool and we were all kitted out for the walk back down to the camp site in the rain. A Scout is thrifty after all!
Once down at camp we began the arduous task of setting up the patrol tents.
These are white canvas tents that our group has used since at least the 50’s. They need three wooden poles that are tied together using square lashings. Despite the fact that we’ve practiced these several times in the hall, the leaders still were on hand to ensure they were tight enough to keep the tents up in the wind and the rain. Some time and several retied knots later, the tents were up. At this stage, I thought I’d better check on the Venturers who were still trying to erect their nine-person tents. Despite suggesting at one of their meetings that they put the tents up in the back yard, they were sure they had it covered. Maybe a practice would have been beneficial but with a little help, they eventually got there.
It was close to 10:30pm on what was already a long day and sleep was on my mind. Unfortunately, not so for the Scouts! They were looking forward to Crash and Eddie milo, made to a secret Scottish recipe held by Polish.
A hot drink was nice on such a cold and rainy night but the spirits of the group were already high with excitement. Shortly afterwards we sent them off to bed and there weren’t too many complaints. There was a dull chatter in the tents and the flicker of flashlights, but that soon died down and within 45 mins, all were asleep which meant we could get some sleep as well! Most of us at least. I went down to check on the Venturers. They were settled in for the night. The girls where in the girls’ tent, chatting away and the guys were in the boys’ tent. From the boys’ tent though, lofted the dulcet tones of a few of them singing to the music of a ukulele.
Max, our Unit Chair, is a self-taught ukulele aficionado and it sounded great. Outside it was cold and windy with a drizzle of rain, but inside they were having a great time singing their hearts out.
5:30 am on Saturday morning and the stillness of the new day still prevailed. The weather hadn’t changed too much, though the wind died down and the drizzle continued on and off. I’m always the first one up as I love the quiet of the morning. The kitchen was mostly set up so I started preparations for our first meal, cereal, porridge, sausages, eggs and toast. Hot water is always the first thing to go on, as you always need hot water at every meal. I was soon joined by Knit and we made a start on cleaning the BBQ.
The girls patrol was on breakfast duty so Knit woke some of them and they soon got up and took over.
Over the next hour, Scouts started trickling out of their tents and the girls had breakfast ready in no time.
Being older teenagers, the Venturers were the last to wake. With everyone fed, we made a start on erecting the rest of the camp. Dining fly, sinks for dish washing, tables, chairs and lighting. In between all this the girls decided to hold a morning exercise class. We then held our opening parade, raised the Dulwich Hill, Leichhardt and Australian flags and some of the Scouts went off exploring. Once fed and fully awake, the Venturers were a big help putting up the dinning fly up. Due to most groups setting up on Saturday morning, activities don’t usually start till after lunch on the first day. The Venturers then also went off to set up the activity they were running – a puzzle room.
Max, who is in the Cadets at school, managed to borrow several camo outfits to add to their activity. Wearing these, they came up with the name “Military Wizards”, in line with the theme of the camp – Mystery and Magic.
They also came up with a back story to fit the outfits in with their activity and were ready to go. I’m always amazed at the imagination of our young people (even the Venturer aged ones) at coming up with ideas and making what they have fit what they’re doing.
Hamburgers were on the menu for lunch (cooked by the other girls’ patrol) and they were delicious! One patrol stayed behind to clean up and the rest were off to do activities. The groups from each district, band together to run a series of activities for the Scouts to complete and they’re a lot of fun.
There’s also abseiling and a rope bridge to cross the lake – hopefully not falling in!
1st Leichhardt, thanks to Polish, set up a mystery box.
This was a great activity where scouts had to look for Greek letters scattered around the site. A box mounted on a tree had paddle pop sticks hanging off it with some of the same Greek letters written on them. Only one had a letter that was missing and the Scouts had to guess which one it was and pull it. If they pulled the right stick a bag of M&Ms fall out of the box. If they pulled the wrong one, it either let off a party popper or dropped some flour on their heads.
There was lots of careful consideration and deliberation but I’d have to say their powers of observation weren’t very good and more often than not, it was the flour or the pop of a party popper that surprised them rather than a bag of M&Ms. Needless to say they had a lot of fun!
Dinner, on Saturday night was cooked by the Venturers. The menu they came up with, was a beef stir fry and “Special” fried rice. It was delicious! Dessert was fruit and custard.
I don’t know why but it’s become a bit of a tradition on Region camp to screen a movie and run a disco on the Saturday and Sunday night, for anyone who wants to attend. Most years some of our Scouts go and some stay behind. Unfortunately, the disco is held in a small area about 50 metres from our campsite which, as you might imagine, is a bit noisy. This year, they were expecting rain so they moved it into one of the halls a few hundred metres away! This was great for us as the noise was much more contained. What was even better news though, was that none of our Scouts were interested in going to either. They all decided to stay and sit around our campfire circle.
Our campfire circle is just behind our campsite and just below Coutts Rock. There’ve been raging camp fires here for the last 98 years and this year the tradition was kept well and truly alive. Logs and dead branches where being collected throughout the day and we had a great pile to last the night through. Once lit, it didn’t take long to start blazing and soon the allure of flaming logs drew in the Scouts and leaders, like moths to a flame.
At first it was quite a subdued event with a quiet murmur and the occasional laugh. That soon changed with the suggestion of a song. It’s been some years since we’ve had a group of Scouts who didn’t mind a song or two around a campfire but this group was keen to have a go at it. Interestingly enough, they didn’t know too many songs but they didn’t let that stop them. After several songs I told them the story of Xavier Coutts, the first Scout leader of the Leichhardt Troop and how he found and petitioned the government of the day to allow the Scouts to use this campsite all those years ago.
After some stories of the various courageous deeds of Leichhardt Scouts over the years, the group finally quietened down. If we could keep this quiet and reflective mood going for a bit longer, they’d head off to sleep with no problems at all. They must have been tired – I know I was! I told them something I’d learned many years ago, that a memory not reflected on was a memory lost. With this I asked them to go around in a circle and talk about something they enjoyed most in the last two days. It was great to hear a myriad of memories that followed, from fish and chips at the station, to abseiling over the cliff face and even the songs we sang earlier that evening. After that, they were ready and the suggestion of brushing their teeth and getting some sleep met no resistance.
Once the Scouts were in their tents, I headed back down to check on the Venturers who had their own fire across the road. Mind you, it was a fire that took some effort to light and needed a saucepan of coals from the Scout fire to get it started. They too were quietly talking with the occasional tune on the ukulele. Seeing they were falling asleep as well, I made a suggestion that they shouldn’t stay up too much longer and left them to head off to sleep.
Another early start on Sunday morning, at least so I thought. For some reason I was convinced that it was 5:30 am when in actual fact it was an hour later.
It wasn’t long before I was joined by some leaders and Scouts ready for Sunday Breakfast. Bacon and Eggs was on the menu and it didn’t disappoint.
After breakfast we all made our way up to the top of Coutts Rock for a Scouts Own. A Scouts Own is a reflection that is either done around the camp fire or on the Sunday morning. It usually consists of a yarn or story, an activity, a reflection and a song all woven around a theme. We had five Scouts arranging this one, from both Dulwich Hill and Leichhardt. The theme, that they appropriately came up with, was togetherness. We prepared most of it after dinner on Saturday and there was a quick rehearsal just before we started. Leichhardt has earnt quite a reputation in the District for Scouts Owns and as we were starting, some of the other District troops joined in as well. Our story was about the mouse and the lion, symbolising that working together we can overcome our differences and achieve great things. That was followed by a lovely poem, composed by one of the Scouts, about togetherness, an activity where we interlocked arm to form a reef knot and closed with a song and asking the group to leave quietly thinking about a time when they did something that needed the help of others to complete. After that, it was on to activities for the day.
The Venturers, it seemed, also did some reflecting on their activity and decided to create a roster system for manning it. This was to give some of them a rest so they could put more effort into the activity when it was running. Sunday was open day and Cubs and Joeys were invited to come along and try out some of the activities.
Lunch on Sunday was Tacos and they were voraciously consumed in no time. A quick clean up and then off to activities again. Sunday nights at Region Camp also sees another recent tradition we started several years ago. Our dress up dinner.
This year the theme was Harry Potter to fit in to the broader theme of the camp, mystery and magic.
The menu was a four course Italian meal, consisting of bruschetta or garlic bread, gnocchi with a tomato or cream sauce, grilled chicken and vegetables and sticky date pudding or apple and rhubarb strudel with custard. It was about this time that the rain started falling again, but with all the fun and laughing at costumes, no one really noticed.
Not long after dinner, the rain subsided and we managed to get another campfire started. There wasn’t as much singing tonight but still a few stories and a guessing game called Black Magic. This had the Scouts intrigued and we played for over an hour. Again, all our Scouts stayed at the campfire in place of the disco or the movie. After the game, one of the Scouts asked “Can we do that thinking thing again, about what we liked about the day?”. And so we did and were regaled with a selection of memories. It was a great way to end an evening. Again, it was pretty easy to get everyone to bed. A quick check on the Venturers and again they were sitting around their fire having a chat.
Monday morning and there were pancakes, maple syrup and cereal on the menu.
After breakfast, there were a few hours where the Scouts could complete any activity bases the may had missed in the previous two days.
For the leaders, packing up was the order of the day. The tents were damp but the sun was up so they were slowly drying out.
Lunch was bacon, cheese and tomato wraps, BBQ’d to perfection. By this stage most of the tents had come down and all that was left to do, was to pack the trailers.
The tents were damp but the sun was up so they were slowly drying out.
Lunch was bacon, cheese and tomato wraps, BBQ’d to perfection. By this stage most of the tents had come down and all that was left to do, was to pack the trailers. With the trailers packed, Crash and Eddie had a go at tying them down with truckies hitches. This was a required activity for their blue cord which they have almost completed.
Once everything was packed, we had a quick closing ceremony and the Scouts started their hike back up to the station. Skip and I drove the trailers back to the hall where thankfully, we had a few parents turn up to help us unload.
With most of the gear unpacked and the tents strung out to dry, the Scouts arrived back at the hall. There were a lot of tired Scouts greeted by their parents who were waiting to hear all about their adventurers.
A real camp to remember!
1st Leichhardt Scouts 
neat
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