Beaver Sleepover / Indian Rope Trick

Above : The Beavers set up their base camp in the wet weather hall, where they would rest overnight before starting their expedition to the site tuckshop the following morning.

The main event of this weekend was the national Beaver Sleepover which saw over 30 beaver scouts plus their leaders and some parents arriving on saturday afternoon for 24 hours of fun and games, including the chance to camp in proper tents, albeit within the safety of the wet weather hall. This turned out to be the best option by far, as saturday night saw some wild weather which soaked the outside campers; a SSAGO group from St. Andrews University and staff member Henry's scout group from Dunfermline. Apart from this brief spot of bad weather, the rest of the weekend was good with all activities going ahead as normal. Despite having had a relatively sleepless night due to the novelty of having their first camp (and no doubt too much fizzy juice and sugary sweets), the beavers were out of their 'campsite' early sunday morning for several hours of activities including archery before being picked up mid-afternoon to go home for a proper sleep to ensure they didn't spend the next day at school sleeping.















Above : Indian Rope Trick. Ali amazes Dave with his levitation skills.

As there weren't too many activity sessions over the weekend, the Fordell staff were unsure what to do work-wise instead, but in a moment of inspiration on Friday night someone suggested that it would be good idea to enhance the climbing tower a bit by adding a 'rope ladder' of some form to the overhanging side (as if it wasn't hard enough for some already).

On saturday afternoon a suitable hefty rope was soon found in Ye Olde Rope Store and after a few experiments a knotted rope was added to the tower. Unfortunately none of the staff present were fit/agile/light enough to try it out (the best attempt getting 2 feet off the ground), so it was left to a birthday party group to become the first to try it out, most of the kids climbing effortlessly to the top. Feedback from them was good - they enjoyed climbing the rope more than using the holds on the wall - so the new addition looks set to stay.













Above : (Left) Bob wonders how he is going to carry out the necessary weight/stress tests on the new rope. (Right) Problem solved!

Zulu

Above : Rare archive photograph of Zulu warriors preparing for battle.

After a few fairly normal weekends, campers at Fordell had a bit of excitement this Sunday as Bob the warden laid on a flagbreak with a difference. It is a fairly well-known fact that his favourite film of all time is the epic 'Zulu', which tells the true story of how a small group of Welsh Guards overcame a huge Zulu army in South Africa in 1879.

Enlisting the help of dozens of cubs and scouts, Bob managed to perfectly recreate the final battle scene on flagpole hill (AKA Rorke's Drift), after telling them all about the history of the battle and the lessons which they could take from it. The Welsh Guards were made up mainly of Scouts, who treated the bystanders to a very out-of-tune-but-vaguely-recognisable version of 'Men of Harlech'. The Zulus, in contrast, were made up of Cubs who seemed to have spent most of the Saturday making spears and shields for the event.
















Above : Standoff between Zulu warriors (left) and Welsh Guards (right) at Rorke's Drift.

In keeping with the historical records, the Welsh Guards managed to successfully defeat the Zulu army, with the exception of one cub who refused to give up and crawled across flagpole hill to assault the Scouts with his cardboard spear, much to everyones amusement. Those who missed out on this exciting event will be pleased to hear that it will run again on a random sunday, next year sometime.

















Above : New self-fastening neckie, being tested by beaver scouts.

After the battle had died down, the cubs and scouts swapped their battle gear for bows, arrows and climbing harnesses and spent the morning taking part in more normal site activities.

Later in the morning, a huge army of Dunfermline District beavers arrived on site for a funday which lasted all afternoon. The beavers were split into small groups with an adult helper and went round the site taking part in lots of different bases. The most popular by far seemed to be in the wet weather hall, where a local pet shop had brought along a selection of reptiles for the beavers to see. Unlike most of the leaders, the Beavers seemed perfectly happy to handle the reptiles, especially the snake which seemed to be showing off by tying herself in some complicated knots, all without referring to any knot/pioneering books!

That's all for now, though visitors to Fordell next weekend should note that on Sunday morning Bob will be re-enacting the classic film '20000 Leagues under the Sea', so please bring full diving gear and cardboard submarine with you.

Gilwell Reunion

Above: Main exhibition area in "The Lid" at Gilwell.

Each year a few staff and Fellowship members travel down to the Scout Association's headquarters at Gilwell Park, outside London, to take part in the Gilwell Reunion and promote the centre and Scottish Scouting. This year was the 81st reunion and was well attended by many current and former scout leaders from all over the UK and beyond.

After rising at the ridiculous hour of 4am the team departed Fordell just after 5am armed with a car-load of display materials, some refreshments and vague directions to Gilwell. Many hours, stops and the odd unintended detour later, they arrived at Gilwell mid-afternoon just in time for the event beginning.

The campsite was already very busy but after a brief walk around a decent camping area was found. Any complaints about the length of the journey down quickly paled into insignificance when a dutch scout leader in the next tent introduced himself and mentioned that he'd cycled all the way from Holland to attend the event! (Photo below)















Above : All the way from Holland...tired bike having a rest before the return journey.

Saturday morning and another early start in order to set up the Fordell display stand for the exhibition area in "The Lid" (Gilwell's version of our wet weather hall). After a few power problems and trying to optimise the space available a reasonably functional display was created and manned from 10am till 4pm. The event was very well attended and there was a good deal of interest in the centre from many groups. A common complaint was that Fordell was too far to travel to from the south of England with young children, but it was pointed out that some groups choose to hire all their camping equipment from us and can then fly cheaply into Edinburgh with only their personal equipment where it is a short journey to the centre. Overall the event seemed to go well and many groups took away information packs and booking forms which will hopefully lead to them visiting the centre soon.

An early departure from Gilwell was made on the sunday in order to avoid any major traffic problems, ironically the roads were competely clear until the last 50 miles, with huge delays at both the Forth and Kincardine bridges. Arriving back at Fordell just after 6pm, there was little sign of any campers who, it must be presumed, had all left the site and were now sitting in the same traffic jams at both bridges.















Above : "Come to Fordell! We've got a laptop!"

Activity Overload

Above : Bungee trampoline - best to try this before lunch, not immediately after, as some scouts quickly found out.

An earlier start than usual on saturday for the staff due to a day visit from over a hundred members of a West Lothian scout group and some of their parents. Fordell staff rushed down their breakfast of gruel and diluted water and headed off to set up all the activities and assist with parking the many cars in the car park.

At 10am everything swung into action with most site activities being run by the 13 staff present. Weather was good with some activities (such as abseiling) being very popular with the kids and their parents alike. Due to each activity lasting only one hour instead of two there was a mad rush between bases on the hour, but everyone soon got used to it. As usual there was a good competitive and friendly atmosphere between the older and younger generations, particularly at the climbing wall where some of the dads almost caused themselves injury by proving they could get to the top of the overhang.
















Above : A horrified Coco looks down nervously as a huge angry spider slowly climbs up his abseil rope.

After a brief lunch break, there were a further 4 hours of activities in the afternoon, followed straight away by some more bases, food and a campfire before everyone headed back home around 9pm for a good night's sleep, staff included.

Bushcraft

Above : New backwoods shelter area - staff pretending to be really busy for the camera!

Despite the widespread availability of cheap, waterproof tents, many campers at Fordell prefer to sleep in much more basic conditions - no doubt having been inspired by Ray Mears and others. The site has had a backwoods cooking area for many years which is well used, but this weekend the staff started work on a new backwoods area elsewhere in the site where groups will be able to bivi overnight in minimal style and hopefully still keep fairly dry.

The new area is in an unused part of land near the abseil wall and will have a large open-sided shelter (see photo above) using a big tarp, with a smaller wooden-framed shelter for sleeping in next to it (bottom photo). Although not quite blending in with the trees (since you don't tend to get pink and green trees in Fife) the tarp shelter looks like it will do the job and will also enable groups to have a small fire underneath on top of some slabs.

After numerous ideas for the smaller shelter were discussed and rejected, it was decided to build a timber-framed structure which would then have canvas stretched on top - hopefully then allowing perhaps 10 people to sleep underneath. After a few mis-measurements and non-linear sawing from the less DIY-skilled members, in stepped woodworking pro Henry to finish things off and teach the youngsters a thing or two about hammering nails in without them bending!

By sunday evening most of the work had been completed with a few more things to finish off - photos of the final shelters will appear soon and they will no doubt be thoroughly tested by groups shortly.















Above : Due to a shortage of posts, 4 of the staff had be sunk into the ground to use as uprights for the new shelter.

Activity of the Week - Climbing Tower

In the first of a series of occasional features on the many activities Fordell has to offer, one of the most popular...the climbing tower.















Above : Fordell tower on rare sunny day (or have rainclouds been digitally removed with Photoshop?)

Fordell has offered climbing as an activity for over 10 years - the original climbing tower was situated in the main field and saw many years of use by visitors, but several years ago the much-improved climbing tower was constructed between the wet weather hall and SHQ building.

The tower stands approximately 40 foot high in total, with the actual routes being just below 30 foot in length. 3 walls of the tower are used for climbing with the other being used for access (there are stairs inside to allow instructors to setup ropes before the session). There are 6 routes at present, ranging from the fairly easy to fairly hard (overhanging). Since most users will probably not be regular climbers (and most climb in trainers or boots), the routes are designed to be challenging but not so difficult that everyone can't manage at least some of them.

Rather strangely, despite the tower being completely open at the top, it also has a couple of double-glazed windows lower down! The benefit of these is somewhat questionable...















Above : doing things the hard way - doesn't the young lad realise there is a nice easy staircase on the other side which goes right to the top?

Climbing sessions generally last 2 hours with a maximum group size of 12 - the first part of the session consisting of safety/technique briefing and issuing of harnesses/helmets before actually climbing. Participants climb one at a time and are belayed by a staff member using a top-rope which ensures maximum safety for those taking part. All staff are trained and assessed by our external climbing instructor and are encouraged to take part in regular in-house training sessions.

A novel feature of the tower (apart from the double glazing) is that at the top of each route there is a good old-fashioned fire-bell. The purpose of this is to provide a means for each climber to prove to everyone that they got to the top by ringing it, something which is fairly straighforward on the 2 vertical walls but which requires unusual effort or extreme flexibility on the overhang (or freakishly long arms).

The climbing tower is also very popular with day visitors (particularly birthday party groups), and the centre is happy to provide shorter 1-hour sessions which give visitors a quick taster session of climbing and leave plenty time for other activities too.

Next time...the children's favourite and the parents' least (due to the mess)...the Challenge Course.

Family Funday

Although not a busy weekend for camping, there was lots of work to do due to a few day visits from groups on the Sunday. The largest group was from local bus company Stagecoach, whose drivers had organised their annual family fun-day for around 200 people. Arriving early on sunday morning, some of the members of their organising committee spent the whole morning setting everything up for the rest arriving, assisted by the Fordell staff.















Above : Challenge course - participants crawl through a pitch-black tunnel for 20 feet and are then dazzled by an annoying man with a camera and flashgun.


Lots of activities were set up including grass sledges, soft play area, volleyball and a slippery slide. After extensive testing by the adults (just to make sure they were safe of course), everything was ready...except for the bouncy castle. Due to a mysterious power problem with the generator, it wasn't possible to inflate the castle so Bob and the staff tried to rescue matters with a monster collection of extension leads and safety circuit breakers which were run round the perimeter of the whole main site back to one of the accomodation buildings. One hour later, the leads were all set up but still no power! Despite numerous checks and re-checks, it was decided that it would be easier to use Fordell's own bouncy castle in the wet weather hall, especially as it was starting to rain a bit.

Despite heavy rain in the afternoon, there was a good turnout for the funday, with the adults sitting under shelter and the children oblivious to it all, enjoying the slippery slope and other activities. Some of the bus drivers spent the whole afternoon manning a barbeque to make sure that everyone had enough hot food and drink.















Above : The traverse net - a collection of holes tied together with rope.


Sunday afternoon also saw a flying visit (:->) from an Air Cadet group from very far away up north, who had been at the Edinburgh Tattoo and had popped in to take part in a few activities. Despite getting thouroughly muddy everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, although some who had forgotten to bring spare clothes were forced to borrow clean clothes/binbags/anything from others before they were allowed back in their clean minibus.

5pm and the site was back to being fairly quiet again for a few days, hopefully giving the grass a chance to dry out a bit before the next lot of visitors arrive again.