Archive for April, 2009

We were pleased to welcome two new Scouts to the Troop today.

As well as investing them, all the Scouts who went on the recent hike got their first Hike Away badge. We hope these will be the first of many!

Just back from our District’s St. George’s day Parade. It is quite impressive to see so many young people from both the Guiding and Scouting Movements in one place. When we were parading, we couldn’t hear the band at the front for most of the time as they were so far away from us!

When we got to the Church, we filled it!

The theme of the service was working together. The service was mainly a few hymns, including the Scout Hymn and the National Anthem, some songs, a sketch by the Beavers and the presenting of a Queen’s Scout Award. And, of course, we all renewed our promises.

A couple more photos are in the Gallery.

There are more photos of us on 14th Basford’s Gallery – see here.

Don’t forget the parade on Sunday!

We’ve now got a Group page on Facebook. Search for ‘porthill’ and you’ll find us under the Groups section.

We’ve also got a Twitter feed set up here.

Come on and join us and get your news and info as soon as it’s announced!

We took the Scouts hiking for the first time recently. This was the first time they’d been on a serious hike and they also had to carry all their kit with them. Because this was the case, we split them up into two groups. The under 12s did a slightly shorter route of around 3 miles and the 12s and over did about 4.5 miles. Not a great distance you may think, but quite a haul when you’ve no previous experience! As well as walking, the Scouts were using their recently learnt mapping skills with a little prompt here and there from us Leaders!

We arrived at the Scout Hut of Golden Hill Group who are just on the edge of the countryside and set up the tents and had lunch. After lunch we were able to use their indoor climbing wall and do some indoor archery. We have been there before to do climbing and it’s an excellent resource for all Groups in the area. As we brought along a climbing instructor (non of our or their Leaders are certified yet), we invited their Scouts to do some climbing while we were there.

Tea was cooked on Trangias by the older Scouts and on the fire by the younger ones and the Leaders. After tea the Scouts worked out the route plans for the next days walk home and then did some bouldering on the climbing wall and then it was bed time.

Saturday evening’s sunset (a great photo even though I say so myself!)

Next morning we packed up and walked back to where we started.

Photos are in the Gallery.