The Beast of the Night took place over the weekend of the 20th/21st October 2012, It was billed as a 24 hour explorer scout event for all explorers in the Gloucestershire Scout County. I am not sure where the BEAST name came from it was there before I got involved with Gloucestershire previous events have been BEAST of the Forest and Beast of the Lake. As this was a 24 hour event we decided on BEAST of the Night The event opened at 12:00 on the 20th segways slack lining, cardboard box caving prusicking face painting, T-Shirt Printing, Music and other activities. The activities kept going until about 18:00 at which point day time activities switched over to evening activities, with a Disco kicking off a Mocktail bar opening we even had a Wii with Wii dance on which proved very popular and rather amusing to watch everyone dancing in sync [...]

Backpacking Infographic from REI – Useful

Then suddenly there would seem to be a problem, there is a mix up with dates Bear in the Air is not the last weekend but the first weekend in May – errr Oh SH*T

There was 120 explorers at the event which for a county of 1000 explorers is pretty good seeing how it was the second year and even established event only manage 300.

Hello Dear Reader The other day I had a conversation where the phrase “that might be too hard for them to complete” was used. It was with reference to an explorer event we are running this year. The event is a night exercise where explorers must complete 15km hike and arrive at a location for 7:00am for breakfast. It is up to them to plan their route, decide what time to leave etc the closer to 7:00 you arrive the higher your points (that is the easy bit). However as a further challenge while on route they must take photos, last year we gave them item e.g. A sigh with the letter Y on it, a phone box etc. this year I suggested that we should make them take photos which make up the word AvonScouts so A= Arch etc. and you are not allowed to us the same photo [...]

Hello Dear Reader So what have you got planned this Weekend, I am heading to Manchester to participate in the Explorer Scout Leaders (Young Leader) Training weekend being run by the Scout Association. Umm…. but Chris your not a ESL(YL) are you??? And I you would be correct I am not, but I believe the Young Leader scheme is a great scheme and something thing that I would like to understand more about. I think if it is done well it can provide a young person with some key tool for later in life, not just in scouting but in business too. However if it is done badly it could put young people off ever considering being a Leader as and adult. If we look at the young leader scheme from what I can see (will know more after the weekend) it offer a chance to So in order to [...]

Hello Dear Reader It has been a long while coming be here is the final part of my recent trip to Germany with the scouts Incase you need to catch up you can find parts 1, 2, & 3 at the links provided. So where had we got to, yes Friday. Friday 30th July This was quite and important day for the scouts from Hannover this was the day they actually finished the E1 through Germany, the last walking group finished there walk at lake Constance however the very last section was to walk from the lake across the German/Swiss border a grand total of about 1km. Before this walk took place we gathered in what appeared to be a band stand in the park in Constance. We hosted the Mayor of Constance at this little gathering where we discussed the journey to get to Constance and presented awards to [...]