Windermere 2008 - An Account by Jordan Phillips The 4th West Bridgford scout troop had an early start on Saturday 24th May. At 9:00 we all had to meet down at the Methodist church to pack our bags onto the equipment van and to get onto the minibus. There was a convoy of vehicles and trailers that left the church. It took us 5 hours to get to the campsite in the Lake District because of the bank holiday traffic. All of the scouts were divided up into three activity groups on a rota for the week. In these groups we did the activities and the site jobs like Cooking General Site Washing up Latrines At 7:00pm that night we had our first water activity on Lake Windermere. We had a kayaking capsize drill just to prove that we know how to get safely out of a kayak if it capsized. At 10:30pm each night we would retire to our tents for some well deserved sleep.  Sunday was our first full activity day. In the morning the cooks cooked the breakfast and after breakfast one group washed up and the other did latrines. At 9:30am our first activity session started. The 3 groups all did different activities. These were canoeing/kayaking, sailing/rowing and rafting. These morning activities ran for about 3 hours. At 1:00pm we had lunch before returning back to the water. The groups rotated so that we all had chance to do a different activity from the morning. In the evening the cooks cooked the tea on an open fire. After tea the group cleared up. Later that night we burnt off some energy by having a game of volleyball that allowed the whole troop to take part. Then once again we went to bed at 10:30pm. Monday was much the same as Sunday. We had swapped campsite duties so a new group was cooking, a new group was washing up and a new group was doing Latrines. We had activities again in the morning. Each group did the activity that we had not yet done.  Tuesday was when we went on our 10km walk. We all loaded into the mini bus to take us to our starting point for the walk. We set off from Clappersgate which is almost at lake level and climbed to a height of 335 metres over Loughrigg Fell. From here we could see the big mountains of Scafell in one direction and Lake Windermere in the other direction.  We had lunch at the top of Loughrigg Fell and it was windy up there. After lunch we marched down the other side of Loughrigg Fell and returned to our starting point at Clappersgate. We all loaded back into the mini bus and it was back to camp.

In the evening we had a campfire where we got to choose and lead songs for the whole group to enjoy. Wednesday was another activity day at Pull Wyke. The groups did another round of the same activities but to a higher level. In the evening one group did camp cook which means cooking on an open fire. They cooked beef stew and dumplings, Yum. To round off the night we all had a game of volley-ball. On Thursday we went, as a troop, on an expedition.

We had a choice of craft from, Sailing toppers (Small) Mirror (Larger) Kayak Double canoe Powerboat The people on the kayaks went further than the people on sailing boats because of the lack of wind. The kayakers went to red nab and back to wood close point. The sailing boats just went to wood close point straight away. In the evening we had a wide game.

On Friday we went for a morning out in Bowness-on-Windemere we split off into groups and had 2½ hours to look around and buy any souvenirs and supplies (Sweets). In the afternoon we had a troop regatta where we had fun and played about with the craft, like how far can you climb up a sailing boats mast before it capsizes? To end our last full day on camp we had a campfire and all sang songs as everyone got involved. Saturday was our last day on camp and everyone got involved into striking the camp and packing all the equipment into the equipment van.  Just before we left the campsite we had a presentation. After the presentation we packed the flag into the van and loaded everyone onto the mini bus ready for the journey home. We arrived back in West Bridgford at 5:00pm. We all helped unload the equipment from the van and into the equipment store. We thanked our leaders for making it a great summer camp and then we all went home, to remind ourselves of electric showers, bubbly baths and flushing loos, ahhhhh !

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