Brownie Camp

Hello,

Well the first thing I haven't told you about was Brownie camp.  It was great!  We had sunshine all weekend - not a drop of rain.  That's a rarity round these parts.

On Friday night we arrived, did safety stuff, set up bedding (tents had been put up Thurs night by Guiders), had soup and roll, made pretty bags for crockery & cutlery (wish I had a photo) then wound down for bed.

They did not sleep.

On Sat we had a fun day with loads of Brownies, which I was co-ordinating, so I had some work to do for that.  I went to the tent at around 1am.  They were not sleeping but didn't spend too long making noise.  Then at 3am they got cold.  They hadn't brought the kit they were told to bring, so they were cold. 

Now what I didn't know was that there were blankets in the Guide hut.  It seems this was mentioned by other Guiders but I think it must have been when I was having a meeting in Brownie House.

Oh well.  I just donated out all my kit and then shivered outside as I was sleeping in the porch.

Saturday - gave up trying to sleep at 6am.  Found another Guider setting up the shop in the Guide huts so popped round for a chat.  Went back to tents around 7.30am and left Brownies sleeping til they started to make noise of their own accord....at a fairly late 8am.

Had breakfast, tent inspections, then fun day.  Was great - deserves it's own post!

After the fun day we had rest hour.  I tried to get them to rest, as we had a campfire that night.  They did not.

Campfire came and our girls were knackered.  Gave them minor lecture about gratitude for efforts Guiders running campfire had put in.... oops.  Wasn't feeling sympathetic as they'd not slept and had had opportunity to!!

Sat night they went down MUCH more easily, though our Unit Helper who was trying to have an early night was still not impressed with the getting to sleep routine.  Both nights they had a story but night 2 I did it, and sat there til noise stopped (after making them repeat Brownie Promise and Law and pointing out that they had to sleep to keep that promise & law.  Swear you can make it fit ANY situation!!).

Sunday - I woke up feeling midges biting my face.  We were up, dressed, breakfassed and then down to Loch Lomond for some fishing before we returned, made some kites (REALLY good) then packed up properly and left them to play while we cleaned out our solid shelter before HOME time (not a moment too soon).

They had a great time.  We had one minor incident of home-sickness (which was from the youngest Brownie only) and no incidents of sickness sickness.

One girl told me it was her best camp EVER.  I stupidly asked how many camps she had attended... This was her first.  Still it was really nice to hear them saying they'd all had fun.