Our 2024 Summer Camp was held at one of our favourite sites on a greenfield site at Ardtalnaig on the south shore of Loch Tay. On the Thursday evening, we packed the van with hundreds of pieces of kit including the kitchen sink. We travelled on the Saturday morning and arrived at camp to find the advance party had managed to do a great job putting up two marquees, three mess tents and numerous leader tents. The 35 Scouts, supported by some of the Leader team put up the patrol stormhavens and dining shelters as the rest of the Leader Team prepared the remainder of the camp.

On the Saturday night after, a communal dinner, we introduced our “Olympics” theme and assigned Patrols to the Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. The Scouts spent the first evening learning about their Continent and created montages and patrol signs – they were all superb. We had our first campfire of the week, and we knew, based on the singing, it was going to be a great camp. 

On Sunday, after the first breakfast cooked by the Scouts, we had our initial patrol inspection (to set the camp standards) and then we had our Regatta Day on the Loch. The Sea Scout Leaders facilitated an excellent day of raft building, water games and power boat riding. The weather was brilliant during the day and the Scouts honed their sea scout skills whilst having a fun time. We then had a BBQ on the shore followed by our “Olympic Camp Opening Ceremony” – it was awesome to see the Patrols parading their flags and outputs from the previous evening. We also gave out our first Olympic medals on the podium, followed by a campfire and songs.

Monday started in great sunshine, and the Scouts spent the day developing a range of Scout skills including first aid, ropes and pulleys, knots, tarp shelters and cooking. We had the outputs for the cooking base for lunch. We also had a “silly Olympic games” evening led by Emma where the competitive nature of our Scouts came to the fore especially with the “catapult chicken”. We finished the evening off with another camp fire.

On Tuesday we did Canyoning with the Rafting Company – the older Scouts set off early and really enjoyed jumping into plunge pools, sliding down waterfalls and having an enormous amount of fun. The younger Scouts spent a couple of hours transforming the garden of David and Jo our hosts, who given the time they spend supporting people in Ukraine, don’t have time for gardening. The Scouts were entertained by Jo’s dogs, Digger and Dougal. In the afternoon, the younger Scouts did canyoning, whilst the older Scouts removed over 400 pieces of “ragwort” which is dangerous to cows and horses, from a field on the site. Our hosts were very pleased with what we had given back to the community. After another evening meal cooked by the Scouts, we had more Olympic based sports games in sunshine which kept the midges away.

On Wednesday morning we had an “axe and saw” skills session where the Scouts learned how to saw and axe wood in a safe manner. It also allowed us to accumulate a lot of wood for the campfires during the remainder of the week. We also painted the flags of over 50 countries on flat stones, in preparation for our banquet later in the week. After lunch we headed off to Aberfeldy in our Olympic themed t-shirts, where we went on a walk to the Birks of Aberfeldy. We then played in the local park and had supper from the local fish and chip shop before returning to camp to do some whittling. Unfortunately, a small number of Scouts were sick during the evening. The Scouts were very brave and understanding as they were isolated, and the leaders did a great job in reacting to a difficult situation.

On Thursday, we had to rethink the day as we decided to cancel the overnight canoe expedition. With great support from our sea scout leaders, we organised a brilliant kayak expedition along the loch, where James provided eggs rolls and marshmallows, before returning to camp where we created our own “expedition island” so the Scouts could complete their expedition.  The younger scouts did some Scout skills in the morning including whittling and learning how to use trangias before going on a walk to the lower hills above Acharn where they visited a Hermits Cave, a historic Stone Circle and did some cherry foraging before returning via the excellent Acharn falls. In the evening the younger Scouts searched for “unlabelled” tins for their dinner including tomato soup, beef stew, tatties, and they made crepes to go with pears and cherries.

On Friday morning, we visited the newly opened Crannog Centre where the scouts were shown outdoor skills from ancient times. They also met Dom, the blacksmith from The Repair Shop who was doing some filming at the centre. In the afternoon, we had our final “Olympic Games” with much competition to try to gain those points which would win the prizes including throw the welly, javelin, relay racing and dancing, all in very hot weather,

In the evening, Karen and Anne, our superb camp cooks, prepared a brilliant Olympic banquet meal including Italian Salami, African couscous and kofka, Asian sweet and sour chicken followed by Australian caramilk mousse!!!  40 portions all made in the middle of a field in a marquee.

At the banquet we gave out the camp prizes as follows:

• Best Newcomers – Evie and Hannah
• Happiest Scout – Conal
• Olympic Games Medal Winners – Oceania Patrol
• Best Patrol Leader – Charlie
• Best Patrol – Asia Patrol

We closed the evening by presenting the Chief Scout Gold Award to 3 Scouts – after four years of attending Friday Scouts, engaging in activities and challenges, and attending Easter and Summer Camps – massive congratulations to Charlie, Daniel and Lucy (who unfortunately had already returned home) on achieving the highest award in Scouting.  Our guest of honour Martin, Lead Volunteer for South East Scotland Scouts made a special “Award for Merit” presentation to Mike, the Camp leader for outstanding services to Scouting over 17 years. We finished the evening with a campfire and a few renditions of our camp song “Scout Camp Rhapsody”.

Unfortunately, we had another small outbreak of sickness and the Scouts, leaders and parents responded brilliantly once again to minimise the impact.

On Saturday morning, we were able to strike camp in good time, returning to the Kirk in the afternoon where lots of parents were waiting to help unload the lorry.  

So, despite the sickness, a great camp, in excellent weather, in a wonderful location where the “skills for life” mantra were certainly on show, The Scouts were very well behaved, engaged in the activities, challenges and camp singing and gave the leaders very little bother. We hopefully created memories that will last for many years. They were supported by an extensive and committed Leader team to whom I say a massive thanks.

Scout Camp “really matters to me”.

Mike Treanor
Scout Leader