At the start of February, Bonaly played host to the annual Pentland Brass Monkey camp which was attended by 240 Scouts and 80 adults. This year’s event saw troops from West and East Lothian taking part for the first time, as well as the usual suspects from Pentland.
Strong winds were the first challenge on the Drum Field for the participants as tents were hastily erected after arrival on the Saturday. All four subcamps managed to succeed without any tents becoming airborne.
After a welcome meeting at the campfire circle, all the Scouts took part in Saturday afternoons “International Themed” activities. This consisted of teams of 3 or 4 attempting to complete 36 activity bases to earn points. Activities included dizzy football, giant chopsticks, mine sweeper and hoop horns. The winning team was Japan from the 100th Pentland.
After a sing song at the campfire and a filling roast beef dinner it was time for the evening activities such as a very muddy game of four-way football, a hectic ‘minute to win it’ competition, a challenging Simba’s game and a captivating game of sit-down bingo.
In the morning after a wet night, with all the not so dry tents packed away and a hot filling breakfast it was time to head up to Bonaly Country Park for a selection of wide games. Despite the miserable weather spirits were still high and it was brilliant to see everyone taking part in the activities. Once they were over it was back down to the campfire circle and just as the sun began to shine it was time to close the camp (typical) and everyone headed back down the road to go home and dry off.
Well done to all the Scouts who braved the Scottish February weather and survived the camp. Also, a huge thank you to all the adults who took part in the camp especially the core team of Kirsty, Ross, Stewart and Sue.