1st Sticker Scout Group

Tim’s Blog

Letterboxing, Bodmin Moor, November 07

The thermometer in Sarge’s Land Rover showed 3 degrees as we stepped out into Rough Tor car park but, with the wind, it felt a good deal colder! There was a board which contained a map and outline of the route. I left the Scouts with the instructions to get an idea of their bearings and a general idea of where the route went while I booked us in and paid up. When I returned they were truly masters of their surroundings, one of them pointed to the massive 400m hill which dominates the skyline and asked, “Where’s that?”

 “That’s Rough Tor.” I replied.

“Oh! That’s Rough Tor!”

 With Navigators like that, how could we go wrong?

The route started from a National Trust sign just outside the car park. As we walked towards it we could see a group huddled a few hundred yards off to the left. “Shouldn’t be too difficult to find the first box” we agreed and the Scouts had caught on to that as well. Our compasses pointed off in the opposite direction though and since that group were laying out the second to last box it was a good lesson in not cheating!

We quickly knocked off the first few boxes and, given that there were several hundred Scouts there, we were soon moving along with several groups behind and in front of us. Being off on our bearings caused us to be about a hundred yards away from the box. As we were working out where we were, the groups behind were following their eyes rather than their compasses and we had soon collected several groups, all wandering around looking for a box in the wrong place. The clue was ‘under a large boulder’ which, since we were stood in a field of large boulders, was not particularly helpful. Luckily it was John Peck to the rescue, he soon found it and rather than keep it to himself he demonstrated how to be a model Scout and was soon surrounded by ink pad waving teenagers.

After a few more boxes we stopped for some lunch, the Scouts had gotten a bit confused with the clues and we’d tried to do box 12 several times. Still, after lunch there were only a few more boxes to do and we quickly whipped through them pretending we couldn’t see the group in front of us when they found them first.

Back at the start (if you see what I mean), we ate well deserved pasties and sausage rolls, had a cup of tea and headed home. The event was well organised, well attended and more importantly top sausage rolls! Kids behaviour was excellent, as usual, and a good time was had by all.

Tim’s Blog

Friday 

My pleas to pack light clearly went unheeded as we had to jam the kit into the boot of my car. Once suitably cocooned, the kids day bags giving a new meaning to the words ‘crumple zones’, we met Par scouts at their hut and then headed up to the moor. The fog was thick between Princetown and Whiteworks bunkhouse but despite that, we arrived in good time. Bugle Scouts arrived before us and Luke had the fires going so the Scouts settled into their room. They spent the evening, apparently, redecorating their room using most of the kit they had brought up (that’s the only explanation I could come to after seeing it the following morning).  All was quiet by 11pm.

Saturday

Clearly the Scouts have developed an unhealthy fascination for hot dog sausages and both groups had… interesting breakfasts.

Chris walked in a group with the two Par Explorers and the elder of the two Bugle Scouts, Mike. They were supervised by leaders from a distance meaning that they did all the navigation and planning themselves which was very impressive. Perhaps even more impressive was their pace and they could have been back at Whiteworks shortly after lunch but decided to take it easy in case they were given another leg to walk – sensible lads!

Ben, Joe and Liam walked with two of the Par leaders Stuart and Ian. They covered a very impressive distance and the leaders were very complimentary about their navigation. It’s good when the kids behave for you but it’s great when they behave so well for another leader so I was really pleased.

All of the groups were back before 5pm and after a spot of running around upstairs, slamming doors, screaming and jumping off bunk beds it was tea time. Dinner looked much more appetising than breakfast had done and mercifully not a hot dog sausage in sight.

Sunday

The Scouts were painfully slow cooking breakfast, perhaps trying to postpone the inevitable, but we did manage to leave before lunchtime. All four walked together the mile or so to Princetown where the leaders were financially supporting the local community café by purchasing breakfasts. (It feels good to give).

After the Scouts arrived we headed over to an area between King’s Tor and Merrivale Quarry. We spent a few hours teaching navigational skills called ‘micro navigation’. This is the art of using navigational techniques over a short distance to find features on the map. We started off with a few easy features such as a stone row and a hut circle and then Gav decided we’d all try and find a cutting (a sort of scar on the moorland either a raised ridge or a small valley, perhaps caused by mining). This was because the Scouts had done so well with the other features, he thought he’d give them a challenge! We ended up stood up to our knees in a marshy riverbed only slightly less confused than the Scouts and with little idea what we were looking for and even less idea where it was. After a while we took an estimated guess and stood on what we thought was the feature. Thanks to triangulation and about 15 minutes work we managed to prove conclusively that we were in completely the wrong place. Still, at least the Scouts had the chance to learn how to triangulate!

We stopped for lunch and then ambled back to the car and headed home. I was really pleased with the Scouts’ ability on the moor. It makes it worthwhile to see them enjoying and using something that you have taught them, especially with such skill and enthusiasm.