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.

Anyway on the Friday I only just made it to the swimming pool for 6:00 in time as I decided it would be a good idea to start packing at 5:15 but I made it. I was driven to the oaks campsite about 10 minutes from Loughborough by rich and I have to admit I was feeling very apprehensive about the whole experience. When I got there I found that I was sleeping in the nice big new 12 man with mostly other fresher’s. Once we were all unpacked Wilsher decided to come and introduce himself in the form of fresher’s poses, embarrassing stories and a game of I’ve never. (So the drinking began). After this we went over to the alpine hut to have ourselves some very nice pizza after which we played a few more games and generally got to know each other. I ended up going to bed around 4am quite merry (after a brief period of gazing at the stars in my sleeping bag).

On the Saturday morning I walked into the alpine hut to the nice smell of a cooked breakfast thanks to some of the committee and associate members. After which we had the chance to do archery, mountain boarding, black hole and table tennis. I myself just did archery and table tennis. I was going to do the other activities as well but a football match against the explorers on site was arranged in which scogui fc did very well and despite being outnumbered about 3 to 1 only lost a very respectable 3-2. Soon after this it was time for a very nice dinner of spaghetti bolognaise again cooked by a mixture of the committee, returners and associate members. The final event for the evening was the highly anticipated scogui campfire which was absolutely fantastic! And after hearing some of the best campfire songs I have ever heard, (seeing a rather funny dance from Megan) and making a couple of new friends I went to bed very happy and quite jolly around 5ish. (Last one to bed again! Serious lack of sleep)

On the final morning I was awoken by a ringing in my ears, oh wait that is just Wilsher standing over me with two metallic objects smashing them together rather quickly. Thanks for the wakeup mate! After breakfast we did shooting and climbing before having lunch and starting to take down camp. I would like to say I helped here but the one of the best thing about fresher’s camp as a fresher is you actually get shouted at for trying to help which is very hard to get used too after being a leader by the way. I got home around 3 o’clock after being driven home by Megan and found myself missing all my new found friends.

There was no need to worry though as we all went for a nice dinner at the amber rooms that evening, although I did scold my hands which kind of put a dampener on things.

All in all I can honestly say that in all my many years in scouting this was the best camp I have ever been on and would like to thank everyone  that helped run it, committee, associate member, returner or otherwise I had an amazing time and would do it all again in an instant.

Written by a true fresher

David Hendy

Where to start, I think I can sum up the camp for me in three words: beer, cold, and new. (As opposed to “New cold beer”)

On the Thursday evening before the camp I was thinking to myself what I was expecting the camp to be like. Eventually after much though I decided it was probably best likened to a venture scout camp. Was it? B******s! Noting like it. A SCOGUI camp is individual in the way it is run, the atmosphere and nothing like that I’ve seen before.

Anyway, Friday came. Promptly at 6 I arrived at the beam engine ready to depart on an adventure, my first SCOGUI camp! I was one of the first people to set off for the campsite with Jen driving, on the way she was kind enough to take us the scenic view through parts of Loughborough that even she hasn’t seen! When we arrived at the campsite we were warmly welcomed by campsite people who told us roughly where to pitch the tents. Erection complete, we started drinking around the campfire, at about 10:45 Mike was sent out for pizzas. Now campfire songs! How do people know them all? I’m sure i’ve sung most of them during my years as a Cub but I just can’t remember them! Frolics over, beered up, I resided to my tent.

Jen accompanied Saturday morning with a frying pan and another metal object singing a song to the words of ‘get outa bed’. Good song, but not at that time in the morning! The day’s activities included a trip to watch the rugby at the local student-vil pub, assault course (cleverly called the jungle gym for some reason) and the bouldering wall. After the activities, it was time for food curtsey of Mike and Simon! Thanks both of you for the food it was excellent! Saturday night’s activities comprised of another campfire again with songs. NOTE: Simon + cider = 1 man band!

Sunday had far more of a French attitude to it, laid back! Breakfast was eaten and the tents came down. We also had a game of hunt the flag, slightly more bias towards Kate, as the flag was hidden in the lady’s loo! After that it was a case of pack up and go!

Don’t worry, later we were all found in EHB!

Written by James Richardson

Friday the 25th of October, we the SCOGUI massive assembled at the union “beam engine” (the gateway to another dimension known as camp) at 18:00. After a discussion with the one and only helmet we boarded the bus and went to the oaks where we met the advanced party who put up the mess tent and several other tents.

The first job of camp is to get the tents erect. This was not done with the use of viagra or porno mags. It was done with a lot of hard work and talk of putting things in holes. Andy (one of many) decided to let Angela and myself sleep in his tent as “we” helped him put it up. He was soon to realise the mistake and says he will not share a tent with us again.

Tents now up and people assigned to them, the next job to do is to get warm by the fire. Once lit it was very warm so warm helmet burnt his hand, whilst trying to out do a female (we have all done it). I went to bed early and was up bright and breezy (the wind started gently) the next morning.

The day’s activities included climbing, mountain boarding and archery. The climbing was fun and I felt unfit. Angela is convinced by the prusik loop yet. The mountain boarding was brilliant we seam have a natural in amongst us Leon. I found it ironic that you put all these pads on and fall on the bits that are unprotected. Then it was over to the archery range for an attempt of archery (Attempt being the operative word), I scored around 4 points. I then ended up with several hair bobbles in my hair. I only put 2 in her hair and she put 10 in my hair (female multiplier effect, same as put little bit of water on her head she pours a lot of water on you (Can I apologise again, you know who you are)). What was worse was some random brown owl took photos of it. I now have nickname Barbie

After a pasta dinner it was back to the campfire (SLUGS did a good job of the food) the night was pretty eventful but I do not want to discuss it hear.

The next morning we were woken up by get up I want to take the tent down before it blows down. This is when the fun started. The things I learnt from the morning was do not sleep on someone’s roll mat as you have to put it away. Tip of the day do not break the bag as you put it away.

I had a great time and had so much fun. I know this does not cover everything and would like to see a freshers view.

Written by Lee Dunnett