A Mountain Ash was officially ‘dedicated’ at 6:45pm on Monday 23rd April, St George’s Day, marking 100 years of scouting, by the Mayor of Fareham, Councillor John Bryant and Mr Alfred Breeze the President of the Fareham District Scouts.
The tree, a Mountain Ash has been provided by the council, together with a plaque and sign to celebrate the centenary year of scouting. The tree and plaque are located on the Civic Walk between the Civic Offices and the Library.
Executive Member for Community, Councillor Brian Bayford, said: “As a Queen’s Scout, I am pleased to congratulate all those involved in scouting on celebrating their centenary. I am delighted that the council has been able to pay tribute by planting a special tree, and erecting a plaque and sign to mark the occasion.
I thought it should be said to all those Scouts that attended St George’s Day Parade yesterday, that you all did yourselves proud.
I think we had the biggest attendance of any section….again, and we were the best presented…..again!
It’s not the most fun of activities, and the church service can be a little bit nauseating. Most of you know that I am not a Christian, but one thing I do love about the Church is the music - some of the finest pieces of music ever written were made for the church, and it is a crying shame that the modern church seems to disregard this wealth of wondrous music for some of the drivel that passed as songs yesterday. Gimme ‘Jerusalem’ any day of the week!!!
Anyway, my point was that it’s not the most fun activity, and I know that some of you are going through that phase of caring what anyone thinks of you, and fearing the embarrassment of being seen in public in uniform. So thanks for being there for each other, and remember - if somebody takes the rip out of you for doing something you enjoy, and that is worthwhile - their opinion is not worth listening to, coz they’re a complete……oooops! Can’t say that on here!
Well done lads.
The one caption that made me laugh out loud was “Whilst digging the Bog Pit, someone forgot to tell Limpet we were only on Summer camp for a week!!” thought of by Gareth.
Good luck with the next caption.
A reminder that it is St.George’s day parade today! Unless you have already spoken to Dave about not being able to come, EVERYONE is expected to attend. No feeble excuses will be good enough to excuse you from this one of two days a year that you have to spend representing 1st Fareham.
We will be assembling outside Lloyds TSB bank at the latest time of 14:30. Pick up will be at the Trinity church at 16:00 as there is a church service after the parade.
Full uniform is required, that means -
- Clean ironed uniform and neckerchief rolled up tightly.
- Clean, black leather shoes which are polished and should be shiney!
- Black scout belt if you have one.
- All buttons should be done up.
People who do not attend will be noted.
Just to inform you that Joe is firmly in the lead of the press up scores (see “Press Ups. ‘If we get them … you suffer the consequences’” ), having reached a grand total of 6!
Time is running out, with only a few months left to summer camp, so we need all the suggestions of what to do with the main offender. (See Press Ups)
Will Joe sustain his lead or will Harry catch up with him? Only time will tell…
Day 1 Sway Train Station- Bragger’s Wood Campsite (16-18km approx, not including train journey)
The team got up early on the Saturday morning to get to Fareham station for 8:00am. I arrived with Joe at about 7:50am and the others gradually turned up after us. However, the biggest surprise of the morning was the unexpected appearance of Dave - yes the Dave – just before we headed onto the platform. Something which, I think even he would agree, was a feat of mammoth proportion.
We said goodbye and I handed round the train tickets for the outward journey, waited until 8:24 and then boarded the train to Southampton Central. Very soon we were in Southampton and heading up a flight of steps to the footbridge over the platforms. With our heavy packs on it was like walking up a steep hill. At the top we stopped to look at the departure television screen – Joe pointed out that the train to Weymouth was on platform 4 – and we headed on to the platform and boarded the train.
So far so good … sadly it was time for the first of only a couple of minor mishaps over the weekend and I put the entire blame on to the train service.
It had to happen to me … the South West Train Service Muck Up
Inside the carriage there was no room for our bags so we all stood up in the gap by the doors. It was two stops later when I realized that something was up. The lady on the intercom had not said “calling at Sway”. It was natural to think ‘God we‘re on the wrong train’ and I mentioned it to the others. Adam said that it might just be a mistake and if it didn’t stop at Sway we would get off on the next station and board a train from there to Sway. We never got to that point because as the train pulled in at Brockenhurst, she piped up again “All passengers for Sway, New Milton and Christchurch please change here.” We got off the train and looked up but there was no train that went to Sway. The platform intercom then sprung into life: “This is the South West Train Service to Weymouth. Calling at (the train was pulling away) Sway, New Milton…”
“Hang on a minute!” came our cries of disbelieve, as the train disappeared round a sharp bend!
Beside us a woman was experiencing the same problem, so Turnip and I decided to ask at the Information Point. We were told that the next train to Sway was in 1 hour …Great! Within that hour Joe filmed two trains on his camera, Paul ate the remainder of his lunch, (then brought some chewing gum and ate that too!) and between us we also managed to consumed about 20 Mint Imperials. Turnip and I spent our time mucking about with an umbrella
10:30am – Sway at last!
The sun was shining brightly down on the road, reflecting off the car wing mirrors, birds were chorusing there merry little tunes, all was peaceful and calm. 3 travellers walked round the bend with great packs on their backs, big grins on their faces, basking in the mid morning silence. Then from the pits of hell, the Son of the Devil rounded the bend shouting at the top of his, too often used, voice … “THE ANTS WERE MARCHING ONE BY ONE, HOORAAAH! HOORAAAH! THE ANTS …” The birds died, the cars crashed and the sun even went behind a cloud to avoid him, the calm was shattered. All this destruction caused by a single individual. His name…? JOE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After a few bag adjustments and the first of several attempts at killing Joe we were at the first checkpoint and well on our way to the second.
11:00am – A boot full of water
All was going well, the sun was up and there was a nice gentle breeze blowing across our faces. We had headed into a dense patch of trees which was now starting to thin out. Then, much to our surprise, the path turned into a river! The rain on the days prior to the expedition had caused a nearby river to burst its banks and the route had been flooded. It was at this point that Paul made the mistake of crossing at the muddiest point and got both feet and half of his legs submerged in water. Doh! It took all three of us to pull him out.
12 Noon – Lunch and Turnip’s welcome relief!
About 15 minutes later when we made the big decision to alter the route by walking along Burley Road. It was a long, long, road but eventually we reached the end and stopped for lunch in a circular car park surrounded by trees. Lunch was good but we were soon back on our feet and walking again. A little while later Turnip announced he needed the toilet and so we stopped at a lovely old station that had been transformed into a Tea Shop. We all had a little rest and then continued down a footpath where there were cyclists, families walking and horses. A little way on, we entered another wood.
2:00pm – and onto Bragger’s Wood
We left the wood and stared out into an open wilderness, like a desert, with the occasional green plant with yellow flowers. The area was quite difficult to navigate and we had a few disagreements but, for once, my way was the best way and soon we were sitting by a road resting and drinking lots of water. It was now time to walk down the final road to the campsite. It was 10 minutes later when I spotted a green patrol tent poking out over the tops of the trees.
2:45pm - Where’s Warden?
We had made excellent time and it was still mid afternoon when we entered Bragger’s. However, we now had to play a new game … ‘Where’s Warden?’ We asked around and soon we found the assistant warden locked up in his caravan, he told us that we could camp where we liked and that we should pay him in the morning. Our site had picnic benches on it so we placed out all the food and cooking equipment on one. Within 10 minutes the tent was up with all our kit inside and dinner was on.
4:30pm – A great feast was had by all
Dinner was cooked and we tucked into a dish of noodles, sausages, tomato ketchup and finger rolls. The only trouble was washing up. The sponge we had used, the cooking oil and the water had merged into a goopy mess. In the end we had to use the other sponges to clean the grubby pan and all our plates
6pm – An early night
By 6pm the food was eaten, the pans and plates were “clean” and we were all bored. As it was getting chilly we decided to get an early night! After a long talk and a few scary videos filmed on our phones we finally got to sleep by 11pm
Day 2 Bragger’s Wood Camp Site – New Milton Train Station (16km approx, not including train journey)
7:00am – Another day, another 16kms
The sun was behind the clouds and it was slightly chilly as we awoke in our tents. It took a little while to wake up but soon even Paul was awake and dressed ready to help cook breakfast. For some reason, the bacon took a long time to cook and in the meantime we all packed our kit ready to leave. In the next few hours we ate bacon sandwiches, packed up our tent, paid the warden and started to walk the second day of my expedition.
10:30am – House hunting
We arrived in the lovely village of Bransgore where we stopped for water and a top up on snacks for the day ahead. There were some fantastic cottages in the estate agents windows; one was for £750, 000! Soon we were moving once again and were out of village and walking along Harrow Road. All was going to plan and we were looking forward to heading into the forest again after spending a long time on the roads. We passed a large cottage and nice woman came out to warn us that route up ahead was on private property. Groan … the map didn’t say it was private property. This meant another quick rethink of the homeward journey … open roads all the way.
12 Noon – the road to Ringwood
Ringwood Road was long tiring and dangerous as there was a steep dip on both sides of the road and no pavement. The cars were doing at least 60 miles per hour as they sped past us. However, our spirits weren’t dampened and we made up a song to help pass the time. We were a little slow though so I insisted on having hardly any breaks.
1:45pm – the final stretch
There wasn’t long to go now! The sun was extremely hot and we were all hoping to be on the train soon. We passed a School at about 2:00pm which meant there was only about 1km to go. Hurrah! Paul came across an injured bird sitting in a bus stop and carried it for a little while. We left it though for nature to take its course
2:15pm – The train journey home
Had Lunch on New Milton Station and then took train to Southampton Central. No problems with the connecting train this time but we did have to sit on it for about 45 minutes before it pulled out for Fareham. We all ate another packet of Mint Imperials as we travelled closer to home. By 5.15pm we were back at the hut and unpacking the tent and kit. All in all everyone had performed excellently and had a brilliant time.
(No animals were harmed during the making of this expedition. Paul’s deadly fart almost killed us all and Joe was murdered out of sheer desperation. Apart from that there was nothing.)