Thanks to everyone for making this year’s camp one of the best we’ve ever run. Yes we were lucky with the weather, but the campsite was in such a beautiful position that even if it had rained every day we would still have had a brilliant time….

Quick summary of the week:

Saturday. Arrive at camp after 6 hour journey from Sheffield. We were held up by slow moving traffic and several sets of roadworks, including Station Lane at Oughtibridge being closed and completely foxing a couple of people – Mark included. He should never have gone to Stocksbridge to buy those sandwiches…

Sunday. Back into the cars and minibuses for a day on the beach at Broad Haven. A lovely sunny day, spent body boarding, rock pooling, playing football, digging holes in the sand, kite flying, swimming and that other important activity – spending money in the shops!

Monday. Hiking Day. Scouts and some Explorers did a 10 mile route, the rest of the Explorers 14½ miles. It was another beautiful day, and the views on the Pembrokeshire Coastal footpath were tremendous, even if the going was hard.

Tuesday. After the hard work of the day before, we decided to take it easy and have a day out in Tenby. Cue more spending money in local shops, buying inappropriate gifts, fish and chips and ice creams! Also seen; a huge ‘KIT’ drawn on the town beach in Tenby, and underneath it? A small ‘Nowt’ of course! Cheers Joey.

Wednesday. Coasteering and Kayaking. What a tremendous day! When we arrived at Abereiddy beach it looked a bit of a dump; grey skies, a rough, empty car park and no sign of ‘Adventure Beyond’. They arrived a couple of minutes later, and started handing out wet suits and buoyancy aids. Split into two groups, half of us went kayaking and the other half coasteering, swapping over at lunch time. The kayaking was fun, if a little bit uncomfortable for the older members – Kit, Mark, John… Playing tiggy with a ball, falling in, getting stranded on rocks and waiting to be washed off, falling in, realising how far we’d gone and that we’d got to paddle all the way back (thanks Alex J)…

The Coasteering was absolutely fantastic; scrambling, swimming, belly flops, cannon balls, getting bashed around in the ‘toilet’, and finishing off for some with fantastic 35ft leaps into the water in the lagoon.

Thursday. Off to Oakwood theme park. More eating junk food, getting wet on, and watching, the ‘Hydro’, nearly being sick on some of the rides; but why did no one repeat kit’s trick from 2 years ago on the water slide? J  In the evening we head down to the beach as usual, but this time take the dinghy. A few trips around the bay, often finishing with the occupants taking an involuntary swim – well done Frankie for pushing Jared in, and to Steve and Kit for overturning the dinghy when Frankie was still in it!

Friday. Wake up in the morning – and it’s raining! Our first spell of daytime rain, but it finishes before most of the Scouts and Explorers are up. We decide on a few hours in Milford Haven; more shopping, but also the chance for a prolonged spell of crab catching. Thirty odd crabs and one fish later, we head back to camp for our evening meal and breaking camp. A quick spell of bivvy building later and it’s time for our last stroll down to the beach, where everyone just seems to revel in the sheer joy of being with a great bunch of people in that place at that time. It’s a fantastically clear night, there’s no light pollution so we tilt our heads back and can see the Milky Way, constellations that aren’t normally visible, passing planes and satellites, and then just to cap the camp off nicely, a series of shooting stars!

Saturday. Up nice and early for the trip back to Sheffield. Kit gets nicely stitched up by Steve and Alan on the journey…

But still beats them back anyway J

Congratulations to Explorer Scout Leader Andrew Hindley and his Beaver Scout Leader wife Julia, on the birth of their 3^rd child, a girl named Rebecca Leigh.

Rebecca was in such a rush to be born that she couldn’t wait for the midwife and was delivered by Andrew at home – at 4.55 in the morning!

Congratulations again from all members of Don District Explorers.