Getting ready for winter

Above : Local explorers suddenly realise that there are slightly more tyres to be moved than Barrie had told them about...

Hopefully we should have an update and photos from last weekend's Jamboree On The Air very soon, but in the meantime here's a quick review of the past few weekends.

The winter's definitely well on its way and with the reduction in campers there's been a wee shift from all-activity weekends to maintenance and project work. There's been loads going on both outside and indoors, including...Dingly Dell being reclad in the same style as the staffhut and reception (see below), ongoing work in the staffhut and the biggest task - moving all the tyres from the quad track.


Above : Taking no chances in case the trailer gets a puncture on the way to scout camp

Although the centre has been running quad bike sessions for a few years now, it's been decided to stop offering this due to the high maintenance costs and problems with both reliability and the state of the quad track, expecially in bad weather (plus the rising fuel costs!). The plan now is to turn the quad area (next to the zipline) back to a camping area, which should be very useful for big events. Last weekend, phase one of the project was started when a big group of local explorers led by Fellowship member Barrie popped along to help out as a service project. Phase two will involve working out the best way to either use or dispose of the tyres in the best way, and we're already talking to a few local companies about the options.


Above : Add your own caption

Another task which needed to be carried out before the winter was the annual turning-off of all the outside water taps in the field a few weeks ago. Armed with radios, a crack team of staff were sent out to all the taps in the site to make sure all the pipes were properly emptied. All went well, except for Ali who (accidentally of course) was sent to the only tap which wasn't connected to the same water system as the others, with a radio which didn't work. After standing for well over 15 minutes with his tap still pouring out torrents of water, it became apparent that something was wrong as the rest of the staff had long since disappeared back to the hut to get a cup of tea.

Anyway, more news very very soon but here are a few photos for now...


Above : Nice new-look Dingly Dell


Above : Huge new notice board or small Craig?


Above : Britain's inflation problems start to hit Fordell after the global credit crunch


Above : Rare photograph of cloud-to-cloud rain refuelling phenomenon

On the air

As mentioned in one of the previous posts, Fordell are pleased to welcome along the local Kingdom Amateur Radio Society (KARS) who are using one of the old static caravans near the reception area for their club meetings. The club was only formed at the beginning of the year but has quite a few members already and looks set to be very popular locally.

The club are keen to get involved with visitors to the site and are in the process of setting up various activities which will let groups learn about and use the radio equipment in a fun way (eg a 'tracker' game which will let groups track each other around the site in a number of ways). The first big event of course will be the worldwide Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) next month - and more information can be found on the club's website here.


Above : Some of the club's equipment


Above : Desperately trying to tune in to Radio Scotland to find out the result of the Cowdenbeath game.


Above : According to legend, the old caravan is haunted by the ghost of a curious little boy who occasionally appears during the evening.

The club's arrival has also been warmly welcomed by the volunteer staff, who quickly spotted an opportunity to sort a longstanding problem. For quite some time now the TV in the staffhut has had terrible reception, despite the best efforts of numerous good-meaning members to fiddle about with it. Up till now, socialising tended to be rather frustrating as the TV tended to cut out every few seconds (usually during something good but often during X Factor or Scotsport which was a welcome relief) and there appeared to be a strange connection between the signal strength and the number of cars parked outside.


Above : Typical staffhut TV picture prior to help from the radio club.

Luckily last weekend a crack team of aerial experts popped up to have a look at the situation and within a mere hour or so had installed a new aerial and wiring and tuned everything up for a great picture. The old aerial (a sad looking thing, which was found pointing in completely the wrong direction from the local transmitters) was sadly confined to the bin after many years of mediocre service.

Many thanks to KARS for their help, which is sure to be appreciated by the staff on the dark winter evenings to come.


Above : After retiring as SHQ quartermaster, Pete was offered the position of honorary chimney on the renovated staffhut, which he gratefully accepted.


Above : Making sure the big aerial is in good order before next month's JOTA.

Anyway, that's all for now - there should be a normal weekend update very soon, and more news from the JOTA event next month which should be pretty popular with local groups and site visitors going by the interest so far.

Drying Out

Above : The heavy rain has left some parts of the site slightly damp.


Above : One of the drier bits.

Well, that's both big camps of the summer over now - the Festival camp which was quickly followed (a few hours later!) by the national Young Firefighters camp, both for around 650. Whilst the Festival campers had some pretty decent weather, the firefighters weren't quite so lucky and after some torrential rain midweek a fair number of them decided to head home a wee bit early.

After the last survivors had left, it was pretty obvious that large areas of the site would take a while to dry out, the worst being the area behind the flagpole which has a historic habit of flooding. Despite the soggy conditions, there were no shortage of new groups arriving on site to camp, most taking the sensible option of camping on the high ground near the top of the caves.


Above : A Scout's brave attempt to escape from the rising floodwaters is cruelly ended.

Over the past few weekends since then, the staff have been very busy with the usual activity sessions and also tidying up a bit after the big camps. Jobs have included drying out tents, tidying up rubbish and fixing the odd piece of equipment (such as the BMX skills ramp, which sadly broke in two after being mistaken for a seesaw by some big heavy people).


Above : Making BMX seesaw version 2... longer, wider and much, much stronger.

There's also been a big effort made to tidy up much of the site, including the infamous tractor compound, which is home to a weird and wonderful collection of ancient machinery and strange wildlife. Taking advantage of the fantastic rates for scrap metal, the team have been scavenging for all the useless metal they can find and popping along to Inverkeithing to exchange it for something more useful.


Above : Fordell Olympic Team practice weightlifting for 2012.

The woodpile predictably took a bit of a battering during the two camps (the Firefighters using lots, even though they're supposed to put out fires!), so a donation of some scrap wood from a local business came at just the right time.


Above : A kind donation of scrap wood by a local company was gratefully received.


Above : Mystery photo competition - what's this?

Finally, we present the first in an occasional series of random competitions, the Mystery Photo. If you think you know what the strange photo above is or where it was taken, then simply write your answer on the back of a new £20 note and send it to the centre - the winner will be drawn from a hat and will receive a £5 voucher for the shop.

Festival camp

Above : Helping set up one of the marquees before the groups arrive.

Currently underway at Fordell this week is the Festival Camp, a joint Scout/guide activity event for approximately 650 participants (including staff). Hopefully we should have a good few photos from the midweek activities soon, but for now here's a quick look at what happened last weekend during the preparations.


Above : new stage looking good (complete with fancy lights inside)

The camp has scouts and guides from throughout the UK and Ireland, and a few international groups too (including the USA and Sweden) - much more information can be found on the official website (click link in the first paragraph), including photos of the previous camp in 2004.

Although the participants didn't arrive until sunday, a huge number of staff (service team) turned up a day ahead in order to set up a lot of the facilities. Approximately 300 staff were involved in this and most chose to arrive on the saturday morning.

The Fordell staff had also been very busy over the past few weeks getting ready for the camp too, for example coaxing the old toilet block into life (which hadn't been used since the last Festival camp...)

Above : At last, the TV reception problems in the staffhut were solved.

Since the last blog update there are a few obvious changes onsite - the biggest being the radio mast near the flagpole which has been erected for the local radio group (who are meeting on site regularly and providing activities for groups). A few more flagpoles have also miraculously grown, just in time for the extra flags which are needed for the Festival Camp.


Above : All the fun of the fair - Callum and Willie competing in the tentpeg-throwing competition

Saturday was fairly busy but with no shortage of staff from either side - the Fordell staff spent the day cleaning toilets. putting up a few marquees and generally moving things around with trailers. The Festival service team meanwhile were busy setting up the 10 subcamps which each included marquees, store tents, gateways/fences and sleeping tents.

By around 5pm most tasks were finished and it time to unwind for a while with a great barbeque provided by one of the Edinburgh Scout Fellowships. The food was great and although there was a huge queue to start with it moved quickly due to the impressively efficient serving team.


Above : Look who managed to sneak to the front of the queue :-)

Onto sunday and it was time for the scouts and guides to arrive on site. Everyone arrived by bus which made things easy - kids and bags being dropped off in the main carpark and the luggage moved to the subcamps by a big convoy of site vehicles and trailers. It was obvious that some of the kids had been given a bit of a hand to get their bags on to the bus at the other end as a few of them couldn't physically lift them :-)

A couple of hours later and everyone was settled in - and it was time for the first meal, a fire drill and the opening event.

Bob and co meanwhile spent a good while trying to work out how to run the big water pump which had been borrowed from the local fire service. The plan was to mount this on a trailer and use it to empty the huge plastic containers on each subcamp which were being used to store dirty water from dishes, etc. Previous experience had taught the staff that it wasn't a good idea to try to move such heavy containers with the tractor...


Above : Fordell Fire Brigade testing out pump.

Despite the best efforts of nine staff, the pump wouldn't work so a quick phone to the fire station resulted in a visit from a fire engine, control vehicle and several curious fireman who quickly showed us how it was supposed to work.

Next week of course, there's another similarly big event taking place - for young firefighters - so there shouldn't be any problem keeping the pump running then.

That's it for now, but all going well we should have a few more photos of the camp (which finishes saturday) soon.

Bumper photo update from last weekend

Above : Ian bonds with his new friend at flagbreak

Despite saying last weekend that there would be no more quiet weekends (visitor-wise), one more managed to sneak in. Saturday was exceptionally quiet on the activities front (see photos) - with a total of four paying customers and a staff/participant ratio of over 2!

Like last weekend though, lots of activity elsewhere on site. Flagbreak on saturday got off to a bizarre start when someone sneaked up and tied on a furry toy (fox?) in place of one of the flags early in the morning. After flagbreak, most of the groups onsite packed up and left, having been there all week, and it was time to sort things out ready for the next groups arriving.

Photos from the weekend below - including the major task of the weekend which was removing a huge amount of soggy toilet-roll from the inside roof of the toilet block (male and femle); a fairly regular occurance as kids seem to find it fun, despite being told not to do it at every flagbreak...


Above : Scottish Fellowship loading up equipment for Blair Atholl jamboree next week.


Above : Busiest activity sheet of the year!


Above : The Explorer group had slightly lower numbers than expected.


Above : Work is well underway to reclad the office/reception building in the same style as the staffhut.


Above : Finished stage with partially-finished gazebo


Above : High drama on saturday afternoon when thieves ramraided the staffhut and stole the sausage rolls!


Above : In the absence of spare ropes or pulleys, Ian and Craig have to function as tent poles for 2 days while the canvas dries off.


Above : Stevie and Bob playing 'toilet gladiators'

Shut that door!

Above : Stevie and Henry fall for the old 'superglue on the doorframe' trick

Despite being right in the middle of the summer, last weekend (5th-6th) was unexpectedly quiet, the likely reason being that it was the start of the school summer holidays locally...where kids foolishly choose to go on exotic holidays or down to Alton Towers rather than coming to Fordell and having a shot of the pedal go-karts and spacehoppers :-)

However, although there were only a handful of activity sessions to run, the weekend was definitely not wasted and the respectable turnout of staff got stuck into a big pile of maintenance and DIY jobs around the site. After repainting the lines in the carpark, trimming bushes, strimming, moving wood to the woodpile, taking loads of old scrap metal away to the local dealers and doing a number of small jobs in preparation for the big camps coming up (and all before saturday breakfast...!!!), attention turned to the ongoing work inside the staffhut.

Next on the list of improvements was to install an interior door midway along the corridor. Reasons for this are...to stop noise from the lounge reaching the bedrooms, to keep the heat in when the front door is being opened frequently...and obviously to hide the hideous mess inside from the campers, who occassionally venture inside the hut to check the activity board.


Above : Young-at-heart Henry works out the trajectory for his skateboard ramp


Above : Yet again, Stevie falls for the old 'pound coin superglued to the floor' trick

After finishing the door, it was just a matter of hoovering up the mess on the carpet and carrying out the regular urn-checking ritual which must always be adhered to rigidly.

This is definitely the last quiet weekend for a good while - the two huge camps are just around the corner so keep watching the blog for updates and photos from both these events soon.


Above : No comment required :-)

New Facilities

Above : New 10-pin bowling alley

Observant visitors may have noticed a few wee changes on site recently - one fairly obvious and one hidden away discretely.

The old rifle range, which has been lying dormant for the past decade (this activity not taking place anymore) has been converted into a 10-pin bowling alley to provide a new self-supervised and all-weather activity.

The range (at the side of the main store) has been used for a variety of purposes since then, mostly storing wood, random bits of metal and lots of useless things. The roof had suffered a bit and so this has been mostly replaced to make it weatherproof again. With help from a number of volunteers, the range has been cleared and converted into the bowling alley, complete with fantastic hand-made skittles.


Above : Beavers entranced by spooky glow from outer space

A couple of local beavers were happy to assist with the obligatory opening / photoshoot, and achieved very respectable scores too.

The 10-pin bowling is now available for use by site visitors and can be booked by the hour, often at short notice...and Ian has added further details and rules on the main website (www.fordell-firs.co.uk)


Above : After a hard day's work, Bob finds out that some young scallywags have stolen his house and are removing the floor joists for a campfire

The more obvious change is near to the reception / vending machine area - you may remember the old triangular house (The Sheiling) which was used by various full-time staff and which was demolished several years ago. Well, nearly demolished - the foundations were left and it was suggested that they could be used to make a wooden stage which would both provide a useful facility and also make the area look a bit nicer too.


Above : Nearly finished - service team working on stage

As luck would have it, there happened to be a very large team of explorers on site on the weekend the wood arrived who were super-keen to take part in a service project. The team were from all over Scotland and are training for a trip to Malaysia, where they will take part in a number of large service projects, including building new buildings to help local people.

After an amazingly short time, the huge stage was finished and the troops had well-deserved break. It's planned to use the stage for the first time during the big Festival camp in a couple of weeks (Guides) so we'll put up some photos here. After that it's planned to erect a small marquee/gazebo on top and use it as a tea-tent / relaxation area for the campers.

That's all for now, but here are a few piccies from recent weekends - with lots of groups enjoying the great weather.


Above : Leader cheats by using perspective and standing on a tree to get past tricky bit of route


Above : Young scout is sent up to carry out weekly fire-bell test


Above : Fordell crate thief caught red-handed