As ever arranging the travel became one of the more complex tasks.  It was made no easier by the Ventures who couldn't make up there minds as to weather they should come or not until the last minute.  Even then they didn't know what they wanted to do till they got there.

Still the SL and the scouts weren't complaining.  Post Hatfield and foot and mouth train tickets are cheep.  And unfortunately Andy could only get 1st Class tickets!

At Euston the Scouts chatted to two children from Kendal who's older brother had camped at Great Towers.

The Scout kitchen area had a small stream babbling by with a bridge leading down into the forest. The main camp facilities were about ten minutes walk along a hilly track through the forest. The Scouts managed to get a game of Jenger at a quiet moment.

On the first night whilst on woodfag the Scouts and Mark discovered a curious carved face in the ditch which was manhandled up to the scout kitchen and used to ward off evil spirits and Vampire Badgers and funnily enough it worked.   Mostin as he became known on account of his mossy beard stayed with us all camp.

After the cramped conditions in Kandersteg last year, Great Towers is palatial. With more than enough room for a game of rounders between the tents.

One evening we spent an hour shooting at targets with the air rifles and another evening was spent in the Archery compound.

The Scouts had asked that we do some shelter building and survival skills so we looked at the syllabus for the Survival Skills badge and used that for a basis of our activities.  Here the boys are finishing the structure of their three person bivvy.

Kebabs were also cooked with lumps of chicken breast, mushrooms, chipolatas and red onion, and there was an odd sausage just in case the spit roast didn't work. But as the Scouts cooked sausages in the dying fire on the right, the chickens are looking good. After two hours of careful turning we were able to try them.

Much to our surprise, the chicken turned out excellent as did the bananas with melted chocolate that followed.

We mixed with the 13th Wimbledon for Rock Climbing.  We climbed on three different crags on the camp site.  One was tall but easy, one was short and more challenging and another only one Scout got up. Even the leaders struggled.

We succeeded in getting all the Gidea Park Scouts and a good number of Wimbledon Scouts through the Climbers Badge. Scout Leader Mark's cousin (right) was disappointed that at three, he was a tad too young to qualify for the Scout badges.

The Climbers badge takes more than good climbing. The scouts have to learn about the equipment and how to look after it too.

Towards the end of the first week of summer camp we switched focus, from the lakes, to the mountains. The leaders during their winter trip tested some interesting routes around the Langdale Pikes.

But that was before foot and mouth.

The leaders had been receiving weekly bulletins from the Lake District National Park authority and so were well briefed of the access situation.

Weather: Hot and sunny

Route:

New hotel car park
Go along stikle gyll
To Stikle tarn
Scramble up pavey ark
Go to harrison stickle
Back to car park by langdale pikes

Notes:

We got pulled out of bed 8 am to walk up stikle tarn and get sun burnt. We Scramble for the only time on the camp it was fun we had moldy bananas for lunch and stale crisps.
We was not happy bunys then slid down the stikle tarn
To the pub and had a drink and tell jokes.

The pictures are from the second group that Hiked up to the top of Thorn crag with a bit of easy bouldering and scrambling at the top. The group then progressed along to Loft Crag and Pike of Stickle before double backing and climbing to the top of Harrison Stickle. We finally descended back to the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel.

The second group departed from the top of Harrsons Sticle shortly before the first group arrived.

The Hotel by the car park was able to sell us drinks and ice creams which were exceedingly popular as the sun had come out on our way back down.

Most of us managed to fit into the Landrover for the Langdale trip.  The leaders and Ventures however have to squeeze into the back.

The Burger challenge. 

An incentive was needed to focus the scouts minds for a day.  They were set a collection of challenges and successful completion of each task would win them an extra ingredient for dinner.  Complete enough tasks and the leaders will cook it.

Task one was orienteering.  The less said about that the better. For the second task the patrol was split into two teams.  They had to follow a course of compass bearings. If either one got to the end they would be given a huge pile of mince meat.  After a questionable start one team sped up and looked as though they would meet the time limit.  The second team took the slow and careful approach.  When the time limit arrived, there were no Scouts to be seen.

 After about 15 minutes team 2 turned up with the correct answer, winning them an almost full bag of mince meat.  The enthusiastic trio of team one arrived soon after. 

Helvellyn

Due to the foot and mouth outbreak restrictions were in place.

For our Langdale and Helvellyn Hikes we used the green fell access map.  The maps are picked up from the tourist information centers and showed which parts of the fells were open and where we were permitted to access the fells.

As of August 1st and in time for our last Hike the countryside was opened up and the blue map was made available. More but not all of the fells were opened up and the fell access points were abandoned.  We are still warned to observe local signs etc and avoid contact with wildlife.

Low cloud at 600m made navigation a bit more of a test. The Scouts led off using both map and Compass from the lunch break and quickly found the ridge at Hole-In-The-Wall.

We then started the climb to the start of the infamous Striding Edge, the Arête that leads up to the summit of Helvellyn.

On arrival at the Edge, Mark stops to assess the conditions before deciding that the more interesting route could be attempted.

At the end of Striding Edge we pick our way up to the top. We break out next to a memorial for a climber who's body was found below with his dog still guarding him. This just after we stopped to read a memorial for a local who died on Striding Edge whilst chasing the Glenrideing Hounds who presumably were chasing a lethally cunning fox. We decide that this is not a place to hang around especially in fog and quickly make our way to the summit. 

We were pleased to see clear skies for the day of our Scafell trip but this meant we had to carry extra water. As it happened, it wasn't too hot, in fact conditions were ideal.

We nipped into the tourist information in Ambleside on the way because Mark had seen some people carrying a new fell access leaflet whilst he was purchasing cold remedy in boots. The fells had been opened up and we were more free to chose our route up.

For this hike we once again split into three teams. Andy J. led the RVU up at a reasonable pace as he hoped to be in Birmingham that evening. Mark Followed up with an assortment of Scouts and Leaders. The fitter Scout team were led up By Nikki and Andy.

It was difficult to climb without continually stopping to admire the clear views of the Isle of Man.

We stopped for lunch just before the last great climb up the scree to the ridge South Scafell Pike. 

Part of the fun of visiting Scafell Pike is driving the twisty roads through Hardknott Pass, Wrynose Bottom and Wrynose Pass. Andy and Mark reminisced about a similar journey they had made on the same road back on an icy January morning and Andy's empty fuel tank incident back in 1994.

The picture on the left was edited for the website in 2001. If you look closely, you will notice Dave's head is slightly larger than normal. That's because he is so tall, his head was cut off in the original. Twenty-two years later, we are refreshing this page and enlarging some of the images. So now you get the happy band in the original below.