Gilwell 24

The rain continues, but it didn’t dampen the spirits of 5,000 scouts who turned out for the Gilwell 24 event.

The idea is for the scouts to experience as many different activities for 24 hours. Actually, according to the noise on Friday night, it was probably Gilwell 48! I know, I must be getting old!

Woodlife Trails’ contribution was to set up our infamous Table of Death full of nature exhibits (mostly dead things, scat, and other sign) for a hands-on experience of all things natural and to do a couple of demos.

We were hosted by Austin Lil, a keen scout leader and bushcrafter who, with a couple of other scout / bushcraft enthusiasts set up The Bushcraft Zone for people to experience different aspects of Bushcraft, which, after all, should be the scouts Alma mater. Unfortunately there were much more err shall we say more appealing activities on offer for the modern scouts and we were mainly passed by in favour of Brush Boarding, Blowing up lemonade bottle, rotating climbing walls, and a fun-fair (a funfair??) amongst other things.

Nevertheless, we had a few keen punters to our tracking sessions and JP’s impromptu fire-lighting demo that never fails to attract passing traffic.

Our new Event Tent withstood the elements (the last one was seen flying over Hatfield Forest lake with Pablo on the end of it!) and the Hellesport Tipis (courtesy of Tamarack) proved there water-proof worth.

Back to our Bushcraft Zone and we were pleased to have a visitor to the camp on Friday night. This chap wasn’t too shy and promptly hoovered up all the left overs from our stew.

Next weekend – more scouts at Hatfield forest. This time it will be full on Bushcraft and Tracking!

Thanks for the visit.