Camping Weekend

Back from a weekend at Lochgoilhead with the Cubs. Lochgoilhead is at the top (or head) of Loch Goil which is off Loch Long, just to the west of Glasgow, about 70 miles drive from Troon. Our dorm was the one in the middle of the three. There were 12 cubs, one scout training for his leader badge, me and another parent (pseudo-leaders) and the 2 official leaders. Because of the school holiday in England the week before we had the place to ourselves (apart from Friday evening and Saturday morning but we then got a better breakfast as the English scouts had a long drive home).


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It was really great. The weather was perfect (actually bordering on the too hot, but I don't want to say that too loud in Scotland). Its incredible to see scenery like this this close to a city. Glasgow is the 3rd largest population in the UK but this is barely out of the city centre. These are the bonny bonny banks of Loch Lomond as seen from the bus at 50mph.

Activities were archery, bell boating - 8 of us in a twin hulled canoe trying to beat the breeze and the waves, despite some of the smallest cubs I know, team building - which was a lot of fun; it started out as simple games and ended up with all of us getting pretty wet, and 3 stack on Saturday. On Sunday we had abseiling - where we were eaten alive by midges, a ramble - about 4 miles in all, and power boating.

The 3 stack was the most frightening thing I've done in ages. Basically its a 40ft high arrangement of logs and wires. One side, the wooden side, consists of a log ramp up to a vertical pole. You climb the pole to stand on a log suspended by chains from the layer above. You have to walk across to the other side - of course its too wide to be able to hold on to both ends. Once you get to the other upright you climb to the next level and 'simply' walk across and ring the bell. Once you've done that you just walk back to the middle of the top row and abseil down. Hiking boots and small staples done work too well and by the time I got back down my arms and fingers were sore from holding on so tightly. (also called for dear life).
The other side, the wire side, had a cable to walk across. You held onto a barrel suspended from above for balance. Once you got across you went up to the next layer and went back across on the cable this time using swings for balance. The third layer had knotted rope to balance with. sadly time meant could have a go on this one (this is the official position, being scared s*@#less had nothing to do with it)

Saturday night was a long one though. Once we got the cubs to bed and things quietened down we decided to get to sleep ourselves. Just after we had all settled and were falling asleep there was a retching and splashing sound. Sadly one of the cubs was violently sick all over his room's floor. We got him out and into the toilet and started the clean-up as he continued to be ill. We were just about done when a second cub came out, asked what was going on, and vomited all over the floor. We finally got that sorted and put them back to bed with spare sleeping bags, a bucket at each bed side and a towel on the floor. Once we were all back in our beds we were like gunfighters with hair triggers, pouncing on the slightest sound. Finally we were right as a third cub was ill. By now we had our patter down pat and it didn't take too long to get him back into his bed. The 2 ladies went back to bed while the 3 lads stayed up drinking tea and eating biscuits. Finally at 0400 we decided that there wasn't gong to be any more drama and headed off back to bed. Sunrise is 0410 and that's when the birds started so it was about 0430 before I got to sleep. We all slept in til 0830 when we headed for breakfast. It was the worst hangover I've ever had without the pleasure of actually having had anything to drink.

We did implement a new rule - no more sweets til they got home. It was unpopular to say the least. We wanted parents to see just how much their kids had been eating, other than the supplied meals. It surprised the 5 of us.

Another fine day though and we went abseiling. Good fun but a lot of waiting about for something that was over quite quickly. One thing about Scotland is the midgie - a vicious predator that lives in Scotland. Being about 1mm long they don't get the press that say bengal tigers do, but thay are nasty. We were eaten alive. As we had all morning there, most cubs had as many goes as they wanted while the others were being eaten. It finaly went to a vote but then Cubs isn't a democracy as they were soon to learn.

The rest of the day was a ramble along the southern slopes of whatever hill that was, ending down by the jetty. The cubs went onto the boat and I escaped back to the lodge for a feets up rest.

The trip home was quiet and uneventful We stopped for chips which we all enjoyed but got stuck in traffic which was appreciated somewhat less.