Gilwell Park is the home of Scouting and last weekend Pickering Explorer Scouts were lucky enough to spend the weekend there as part of our County Explorer 10^th Birthday challenge.

After a gruelling six hour journey our group of 14 (12 Explorers and 2 Leaders) arrived to put up our tents in the dark. It wasn’t until 1am on Saturday morning that they were fully assembled and ready for bed, however due to excitement and anticipation for the day ahead we only had around three and a half hours sleep before waking up at 6:30am to prepare for the day.

Together with the help of around 300 other volunteers, the Gilwell Park Service Team ran a weekend of activities for Cubs and Beavers, mainly from the South East. Throughout the weekend a massive 7000 young members of the Scouting fraternity came to partake in the wide opportunities on offer. Our Explorer group helped run the bouncy castles and grass sledging which were made even more exciting with the arrival of unexpected heavy downpours and lots of mud!

On the final day the number of Beavers and Cubs remained high in spite of the unsettled forecast. Unfortunately, as we had a very long journey back to North Yorkshire, we had to leave early.

It was a great weekend and an enjoyable experience, one in which we would all like to participate in again next year.

Emily Barr, Merissa Foxton, Victoria Ahern, Charlotte Hornby