This was our view when we woke up in the morning:

Beautiful, right? Our campsite was right next to the sea and we took full advantage of this with many visits down to the beach. On the second night, we had a BBQ on the beach as the sun was going down and it was a wonderful way to spend the evening – my personal favourite moment of the entire camp.

Here you can see BBQ master, Mr. William Brown, hard at work:

We really did get up to a whole load of different things during our week long summer camp, including:

Highlights were continuing the SCOGUI Go Ape tour of the country, surfing (definitely much harder than it looks) and walking around the beautiful Welsh countryside.

It was a super action packed camp so I’ll just leave you with some photos! There are also several videos that you can watch on our youtube channel.

A huge thank you to Mark and Megan for organising this year’s summer camp, and also, to everyone who attended and made it the wonderful week that it was!

The Friday night started with a traditional campfire and plenty of songs! There was also a few games of Kubb (If you are unfamiliar with the game of Kubb, you can read about it here) and traditional late night cheese on toast (arguably the best part of camping barn). Then onto Saturday…

Saturday saw us attempt our most ambitious pioneering project yet. With our SCOGUI banner flying high, it was an impressive sight! For those less adept at tying knots there was also a swing, rugby and spacehoppers! This photo is a comparison of our pioneering project with the model we were working from. Not bad!

Of course, if it can be climbed…

In the afternoon, we went on a leisurely walk over to Rutland water. Rutland water is a beautiful spot with lots of grassy open space and a reservoir. A few brave SCOGUI members took the chilly plunge into the waters, whilst the rest of us stayed dry and played a spot of cricket.

We took a traditional group photo in the evening before the drinking began! There was classic ring of fire, a pass the parcel and plenty of bananagrams to keep everyone amused.

A huge thank you to Dave and Tom for organising camping barn this year! It was a great weekend, and if you weren’t there, I think it’s clear that you missed out!

P.S, More photos will be up in the gallery/on facebook soon. If you would like a high quality copy of any of the photos I took on camping barn, please email me on publicity at scogui.org.uk

We got to the campsite very late on Friday evening, but still had some time to enjoy the campfire before returning to our tents. (Yes, we were camping and it was below freezing…brrrrrrr…)

Saturday morning was spent in our hat teams (we received different coloured hats on the Friday) and we went around the London Monopoly ‘board’ answering questions when we got there, it was lots of fun and a great chance to see more of London and meet members from other SSAGO clubs.

Then, the afternoon was spent on our chosen activities. I chose the Tower of London, but there was loads to do, including the London Dungeons, Museums, Pub Crawls and the London Eye.

At the Tower of London

There was the traditional Barn Dance in the evening where there was obviously, lots of dancing and the costume parade, where everyone who came with a silly hat got to show it off with the chance of winning a prize!

We returned from the Barn Dance venue to the campsite for another campfire with lots of songs and some alcohol. Good times! After another cold evening in our tents we spent a lazy Sunday morning doing some silly games. However, these were not just any silly games, they were a challenge to win the Gaddafy Plate. Read more about that here. We split into teams of 6 and challenged other SSAGO teams to various activities.

SCOGUI winning Tug of War

And…SCOGUI won the plate! Well done to the team that won! We must now try our best to keep hold of it.

It was an amazing weekend, I hope everyone who went enjoyed it, and for those of you who didn’t, make sure you get to Cardiff Rally in February 2011!

The weekend involved several activities;

Mountain Boarding. This is essentially throwing yourself down a hill on a skateboard. And it is a lot of fun! I think (almost) everyone fell down at least once. But none more spectacularly than Jess, please note the keys flying out of her pocket!

Three brave souls decided to show off; the rest of us at the top of the hill of course booed them when they did not fall over. That is the entire point of mountain boarding after all!

Our other Saturday activity was rifle shooting, though some people seemed disappointed to learn that the Scout Association does not allow shooting at animals.

We had a campfire on the Saturday night, SCOGUI campfires are always really fun and we sang A LOT of songs, it was nice to have some new ones from the freshers.

Sunday morning was the assault course, which, similarly to the previous year, involved forcing the freshers/reluctant returners to attempt to go through the cargo net. Heh.

I took the opportunity before everyone went home to take some group photos, I think they turned out well!

A huge thank you to anyone who helped make Freshers Camp the success it was.

We set up camp at Furzfield Campsite late on Friday evening, then Saturday was a visit to Brighton! We spent some time on the beach and some of us braved the sea with some pretty intense waves! Several of us ended up pretty bruised and battered by the end of it, but we all agreed it was worth it. We also enjoyed attempting to bury certain associate members under the pebbles.

After the beach, we spent the rest of the day on the pier and doing some shopping. Of course, we had to make the most of the photo opportunities…

Finally, we ended the day with a trip to the pub and, in true SCOGUI fashion, a campfire!

Sunday was Kayleigh’s 22nd birthday! We celebrated with some delicious Low cake, nom nom nom.

Later on, we went to visit Little Hampton where we took a few group photos on the crazy-wonderful bench sculptures. The group photo turned out pretty epic, so stay tuned to see it used in lots of upcoming publicity!

Finally, we ended our trip to the seaside with fish and chips and a round of crazy golf, which was lots of fun despite the rain. Congratulations to Kirstie, crazy golf champion! A jolly British day out.

A huge thank you to Mark for organising this year’s Seaside Camp! Please check out the rest of the photos (there are plenty!) in the gallery.

Whilst there, we had the choice of taking part in several activities:

We were also fed very well, enjoying many a slice of late night cheese on toast, fabulous cooked breakfasts and DIY kebabs on the BBQ.

However, perhaps the most exciting part of the weekend was a visit from Lindsay, Elizabeth and Edward Bear. Lindsay and Elizabeth were members of Loughborough SCOGUI in the late 60s/early 70s and Edward bear (now 61!) was the club mascot at that point.

We’d arranged for them to visit us on the Saturday of Camping Barn and they certainly did not disappoint! Not only did they bring Edward bear along with them, but a huge amount of SCOGUI programmes, posters, menus, membership cards and more.

Additionally, Lindsay showed the Scouts a thing or two about tying knots and climbing ropes! We are so grateful for their visit and hope to see Lindsay and Elizabeth soon.

Overall, it was a really lovely weekend and a great way to chill out before exams and deadlines! Thanks to everyone for coming.

(Click continue reading for a detailed report on May camp!)

The Brownies enjoyed a very nice camp fire on Friday night with some expertly led singing from Alice Cannon and Ashleigh with the occasional help from the rather enthusiastic Mark Harrop. The girls were often heard reciting the songs at the top of their lungs throughout the camp (mainly at 6am in an attempt to wake up SCOGUI…. ).

Saturday saw the girls presented with a range of activities – it being up to the girls to decide what they wanted to do and when. The girls enjoyed the Black Hole – a pitch black maze that you can only crawl through- (albeit with head torches) and the jungle trail assault course. Both activities were led by some very helpful SCOGUI who took it upon themselves to make sure that all the girls knew about Geoff -  the Black Hole’s resident crocodile!

Also available were a range of crafts in the Clark hut that included party crowns, sparkly hair grips and a party pencil. The girls also went on a bear hunt (we’re not scared!), played scrabble in the woods and some small random games such as sardines. Saturday evening also saw the girls having their nails decorated and painted ready for their party – some male members of SCOGUI also had some very fetching designs on themselves!

Saturday night the girls had their party inside the Clarke Hut – all dressed in their party gear and with karaoke expertly led by Brown Owl Rachel. The girls played some traditional children’s party games –such as musical statues – and then were treated to some of SCOGUIs finest dancing to classic songs such as YMCA.

The weather was unpredictable and completely miserable throughout the weekend – however everyone took in it their stride (apart from a certain SCOGUI member who had forgotten their waterproofs and hence refused to get out of their tent at all on Friday night!)

And quite randomly…. for the first time ever, some ingenious person came up with the idea of using disposable trays and cutlery for the children – meaning no waiting for the Brownies to wash up and dry their plates in much over-used washing up water! Yay!

Somehow the girls were still not worn out and on Sunday some rather sleepy SCOGUI were woken up rather early again by singing Brownies. SCOGUI expertly helped the Brownies pack away their kit and put down their tents. The girls then played games for the day while SCOGUI cleaned the camp site and led the Guides on the black hole and jungle trail.

All the girls said they had a fantastic weekend and would not shut up about how great camp was at their next Brownie Meetings.

Extended thanks go to all the SCOGUI members that worked hard at May Camp – its clear how much all the girls enjoy it. Its clear that a camp of such a large scale would not be possible without the hard work from SCOGUI!

Written by Teddy (AKA Lisa)

Weekend activities included abseiling expertly led by qualified instructor Jamie Shirra, some rather competitive attempts at the low-ropes-course and assault course and a night hike around the countryside.

SCOGUI were certainly very well fed over the weekend, thanks to the culinary and raving expertise of Mark Harrop. Overall it was a very enjoyable and value for money weekend! Extended thanks to James Shirra and Mark Harrop for arranging camping barn 2009!

There was a small camp fire on the Friday evening (rumour was that there was no wood to burn!) and a sober Scogui started off the singing.

Despite the weather forecast, Saturday got off to a bright start. The camp site was woken up at 7:45 for breakfast and although the early birds had to wait a while before the food was served, we were glad we didn’t come down late and have to queue up for an hour! After breakfast the activities began and, unusual for me, there were two activities to choose for morning and afternoon. Scogui was well represented at the ‘Extreme Pub Quiz’ held in the afternoon in Brighouse (probably called extreme because the walking around was around 6km!). All of the pubs visited had character, be it the ‘Retro disco with Daz’, the Ukrainian satellite TV or the church organ in Weatherspoons and it was a really great afternoon out.

The evening meal and barn dance was held on site and members of staff from the camp site served us copious amounts of alcohol throughout the evening. The food was very nice: chicken of some sort followed by pie for desert. The barn dance band were good as always and the accordion players seemed to be enjoying themselves a lot. The highlight of the dance was when 3 members of Scogui started dancing Saturday Night to the barn dance music, only to find after a revolution that all 227 dancers had decided to copy them. Afterwards they proceeded to start a conga round the building which at one point emptied the dance floor.

Unfortunately the fancy dress competitons were not won by Scogui although many people commented that our miner’s strike costumes were excellent.

After the music stopped, everyone made their way down to an improved camp fire where much singing took place (often being run by Scogui and Medic Mike) and almost record breakingly long renditions of Chicago department store and a song about animals..

Sunday was showery which meant all our kit had to be packed away wet and covered in bits of forest. Many people did not make it to breakfast so everyone that did turn up got seconds, and thirds and the rest was served up as extra lunch. After an exciting EGM where the new SSAGO constitution was approved, silly games took place in which many people ended up getting very wet, very blue and very floury. The closing ceremony was held afterwards with many thankyous being said and modified mascots being returned before we all set off home. After an excellent weekend, it was nice to be able to have a nap on the bus home!

Written by Pete Everett

Saturday 13th March
A nine o’clock start with a tasty cooked breakfast followed shortly by a scramble for the mini bus, and off to Hull. Once in Hull we made our way to “The Deep”, the deepest aquarium in the UK. An amazing place with some very unusual fish, including the Finding Nemo tank. Scogui Bear took some deep sea adventures as well. After a quick packed lunch and a short drive we pulled up in a country park which opened out on the Humber Bridge and the river. After a brief and very cold photo section with the local life boat team and a nice walk, it was back to the bus for the return trip to the camping barn. After an interesting vegetable bolognaise we made our way out into the cold to sing and shout around the nice warm fire. The perfect end to a great day.

Sunday 14th March
Another nine o’clock start was followed by another yummy breakfast and a complete blitz of the camp site and barns. The morning activity entailed visiting Lincoln and some people looking around the castle. Then setting off after lunch we arrived back just before 4pm to unpack and minibus and go home to a nice warm shower and a fresh change of clothes. To round off a cool weekend away, we all had dinner at EHB to laugh at the funny events of the weekend and to talk about our next trip into the outdoors!

Written by Richard Brewer