A list of activities with a small explamation and a few photos:

Commemoration of Baden Powell

Baden Powell founding father of scouting and scouts around the world posthumously celebrates his birthday with something special.  Boksburg in the past have had marches, camps, and swimming galas to have fun in February and to show the surrounding community that scouting is alive and well in the District of Boksburg.

So if you see a long parade of marching boys and girls with flags in hand, and smiles on their faces in the middle of February it is more than likely that it is our scouts saying in their own special way HAPPY BIRTHDAY BADEN POWELL!!!

 

The Vaal Water Adventure Week

This camp to put it mildly is the fun spectacular of the year.  The district is invited to spend a week on the Vaal river (the stretch of water between the Vaal Barrage and the Vaal Dam). At this tranquil and beautiful spot the scouts learn how to canoe (both tubs, K1's and K2's), sail (Dabcheck, Laser, Mirror and GB14), Row, Tube and attempt to Ski.  Once the scouts master their vessels then they go on canoeing and sailing trips exploring their beautiful surroundings while having a good ole jol.

While on land the scouts will be doing badges and skills work, punctuated with sport and games and other fun physical activities.  The patrol system is turned upside down on this camp, because Pl's, Apl's and seniority is put on a daily rota system where each scout gets their turn to be in charge and take responsibility for the patrol.  It is at this camp that the younger scouts realise that being on the top is often harder than being at the bottom and just taking orders.

There is no free time on this camp, it is completely filled with one activity after the next and is the kind of camp where you need a holiday to recover.  If you are going to miss one thing this year, this is not it!!!

Check out the Pictures!!!

Inter-Patrol Camping Competition

Scouting and camping have always been linked together.  But there is a right way to camp and a wrong way to camp.  A fun way to maintain high camping standards is to run an Inter-Patrol Camping Competition.   Here patrols representing all the troops in Boksburg compete to see which troop has the scouts that camp 'best'. 

The important thing here is that each troop must know what to expect from the markers so that they can learn from the experience.   Often, spirit, hygiene and courtesy are as important in a camping competition as tight lashings and a good alter fire.

There are several different sorts of things that are tested in a camping competition:

Gadgets - Gadgets are pretty much all the things that are constructed either for a practical purpose or to spruce up the campsite.   Gadgets can be large constructions like gateways, eating tables and preparation tables, or can be smaller like wash stands, hat racks and notice boards.  The position of gadgets are also important as they should all relate to one another for convience, practicality and looks.

Some non-pioneering gadgets include a cooking fire (most often an alter fire or a trench fire), wet, dry and ash pits, and of course the tents, which need to be put up as correctly as possible in a suitable position.

Food - Meals are also marked on a competition camp.  Meals should be cooked well, and hopefully tastily.  The menu should be balanced, for scouting also emphasises a healthy lifestyle.  In the planning of the camp, food lists, and price lists are prepared to teach budgeting and planning.  At the end of the day the greatest test of the food is its edibility and although there have been mild food poisonings in the past nobody's died yet and we like to take this as a positive sign.

Campfire - At any good camp there is a campfire and so often at camping competitions, patrols prepare skits and songs for everyone else's enjoyment.  Scouts generally don't like to sing and can't act, so it is sometimes a little tricky to tell the skit from the song but fun is had by all and it is more the effort and spirit that is rewarded as compared to voices and acting ability.

At the end of the camp the marks are spread around and the winners congratulated but if it is a successful camp then all the patrols will hopefully have learnt at least one thing, and everyone will be satisfied that they competed under fair conditions for the betterment of the district and camping in general.

White Stripe Adventure

This is a camp for the seniors where they can get away, treat each other as fairly equal and where everyone knows what they are doing. This allows more time being spent having fun and less time training the inexperienced along the way.  This is the fun camp where the scouters put in some work to thank the senior scouts who put in the effort throughout the year to make our district a great one.

It is an unfortunate circumstance that when the scouts hit puberty and their social lives become more demanding that there is a steady drop out rate and so the White Stripe Jaunt is basically to reward the white stripers both for their dedication and persistence. 

Each Jaunt will look to push the PL's, APL's and TL's a little further than they'd gone before and to experience something a bit different and loads of fun.  This is the one where you bring some money to buy the t-shirt you haven't got yet.

THANK YOU GUY'S YOU DESERVE IT

District Night Hike

The District Night Hike is basically an incident hike at night where the patrols in the district compete to see who can follow directions best and who has the greatest scouting skills.  An incident hike is a hike in which patrols need to hike from base to base, where at each base there is either a fun activity or a skills-based activity to be completed in a limited amount of time, before proceeding to the next base.

One may think it is more difficult to hike at night and in many ways it is for there is a greater chance of stumbling and getting lost without realising it.  However, usually in remote areas where these hikes are set there are very few lights and so if one can just identify the light attached to your next base it isn't as tricky to hike as one would first imagine.

Some bases that have been done in the past:

Alternative Cooking - boiling an egg in a paper bag, an orange skin or a plastic bottle - to make twisters or scotch pancakes on an open fire or any other tricky culinary delight that can be performed on a small open fire.

Kim's Game - A memory game that tests any of the five senses of taste, sight, smell, hearing or touch.

Mapping - a variety of compass work, map orientating, alternative navigation using the stars and table planing.

Haunted House - take a guess.

Monkey bridge/Aerial Runway.

Shooting - relax, only with air rifles and paper targets.

Pioneering - often building a quick gadget to solve a problem.

Codes - Mostly a form of a displacement code, but sometimes morse code and signalling are thrown in, and on special occasions a crossword too.

Simulated First Aid Scenario - take another guess.

Stalking - Sometimes recognition of spoor if the scouts are lucky but also sometimes going through the physical process of stalking a light or scouter.

There are a lot more bases and often some bases just present themselves because of the area where the hike is being held. There are often several physical obstacles to shimmy along, and squeeze around, to climb over and zip through. Comraderie and challenge join creating something that can at best be described as very worthwhile.

Old Boys Reunion

When you get a little older, a little slower, a little pudgier, a little greyer then one wants to spend a little time with those that knew you when you were just that bit younger.  Ex-scouts are no different and so an Old Boys Reunion is held for all those who want to reminisce about the good old days, or perhaps how much harder it was when they were young, or even just remembering when the had fun. Scouting is full of wonderful, life-altering experiences and it never hurts to dust off the old stories every now and then over some good food in a comfortable atmosphere.

Kontiki

Kontiki has been an area event for as long as most scouters can remember.  The concept is fairly simple, each troop builds a raft friday afternoon to saturday morning and then they launch the rafts at noon Saturday and the scouts and guides stay on the water for twenty four hours.  This is meant to be an obvious collaboration between skills and fun, where the scouts put their pioneering skills to the test, creating a vessel that will not sink and will take the required weight.  At the same time, they are rewarded with twenty four hours of freedom away from scouters and parents where they can just chill and relax, knowing that the really hard work is done and they can enjoy the fruits of their labour.

There are a comple of in-jokes when one refers to Kontiki, these are just things that a Kontiki would not be complete without:

A storm - Kontiki is always held on the first weekend in March, and unfortunately it almost always rains on the first weekend in March.   Therefore all rafts have to equiped with adequate shelter and of course some hardy scouts and guides.

The get togethers - This is one of the few scouting events where scouts and guides camp together.  The reason for this is not from the scouting side but more because of the severe restrictions put on guides.  However, it is a Kontiki tradition for scouts and guides to get together on the water, usually just out of sight of parents, scouters, and the great worrier guiders.

For more information on any one particular Kontiki go to www.scouting.org.za and look for Kontiki information.  It has become a little less popular in recent years because of the cost but it is something different and every scout should experience it at least once in their scouting careers.

Rafts from past years to check out:

Knock Out

Knock Out is First Boksburg's annual district event and fund raiser.   Basically they design and build many fun obstacles (cargo net, slippery pole, monkey bridge, bobbing for all sorts of things etc) and teams consisting of scouts/guides/parents/siblings/friends/and pretty much anybody else who wants to participate, who try to complete the obstacles in the best way possible. This can be very fun and is really worth a look-see.  It is usually somewhere around May, and although there are some activities in chilling water and in the dirt it is really a fun event and hopefully it raises a couple of bob for First Boksburg's coffers.

SO CHECK IT OUT! - FUN AND PRIZES, WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT?

Cycle Rally

The Annual Cycle Rally is held at Owls Nest by Second Boksburg as their annual district event and fund raiser.  The day usually starts with a couple of heats in age groups with anyone who wants to participate having a dice around the rugged and challenging bicycle track that is cut through the 'forest'.  However, the main event of the Cycle Rally is the endurance race where teams of six (for cubs, brownies, guides and junior scouts) and teams of four (for senior scouts) duke it out to see who can get the most amount of laps in a few hours.  If you like a tough enduring ride and you don't mind working in a team, then this is the event for you.

SO GRAB YOUR BIKE AND CHECK IT OUT!

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