CRAI activity centre

Dreigiau’r Mynydd

Prep Camp 1- January 5th-7th 2018

By Tomos Watkins

After arriving in a cold wet field on a Friday night the one thing on everyone’s mind was getting their tents and sleeping kit up and ready. Once this was done (taking longer for some than others) we all went into the main activity hall to do a few different icebreaking activities to get to know everyone as this was only the second time we were all together. After we all met each other we split up into our patrols and started what we all needed to do. My patrol was in charge of setting up our projector and making sure we could watch the film. While we were doing this another patrol was slaving away in the kitchen preparing a nutritious meal of wieners and buns. This quickly became the but of all jokes and Joe’s love of fried wieners. Having filled ourselves up with oven rolls and hotdogs we settled down to watch Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Once we had finished it was an ‘early’ night (filled with lots of chatt(er)ing and laughter) to prepare for the next day’s activities.

The next day we were woken to an alarm of classic Disney from Joe’s subwoofer. After a slow process of steadily getting more and more layers on, it was freezing cold, the entire unit were out of their tents and lining up for breakfast (with yet more wieners) which was eaten in the even colder activity hall. After everyone had eaten it was time for the day’s activities. We started off with climbing up the small wall and abseiling down while controlling ourselves with a belay device. Once we had proven our skills on the small wall it was time for the big wall. It was a challenge for everyone but we did it. After we had summited we were feeling on top of the world we came back to earth and had a quick kick around with the rugby ball.

It was then time for activity number two which was writing up our code of conduct. While it seems boring it is a vital part of an effective jamboree unit and will ensure us the best Jamboree experience in North America 2019. We reviewed the basics that we all already knew, like always give a hand, and make sure everything is done before sitting down. We all decided on a set of reasonable rules and agreed that these rules only act to improve not take away.

Then it was my personal favourite, backwards cooking (or backwoods cooking depending on who you ask). We all started lighting our fires before knocking up a batch of damper bread mix and started cooking. Some went for frozen Nutella that was slightly burnt from being defrosted in the middle of a roaring campfire while I went for the unit 95 classic at this point with damper bread wieners.

After we had eaten our starter of our Michelin stared camp meal we had our free time while another patrol cooked the mains. Spicy chili con carne with nachos and all other kinds of condiments. We dug in. Once everyone was stuffed to bits with delicious spicy (some would say painful) chili my patrol and the envious job of washing up. Thanks to a thirty second lapse of concentration we had the mighty task of scraping burnt kidney beans off the bottom of a Dixie.

We were up to the challenge though and the washing up of the messiest meal was behind us we had mine and most people’s favourite part of the weekend (and most good scout camps) was the campfire. We had a plethora of songs ranging from ‘oh you’ll never get to heaven’ to ‘fluffy sheep’ and ‘baby shark’. Having developed sore throats from all the singing, the eventual camp romance needed to be publically mocked by an entire huge group cwtch forming around the two of them. After this we all, for small moment of scouting insanity, thought it was TOOOO COLD!!!! We apologize for this as we momentarily lost all scouting respect as it is well known that all beavers, cubs, scouts and explorers (and especially our leaders) do not feel the cold, rain, mud or occasional tent flood-age. As soon as we realized this we swiftly embarked back the campfire to carry on scouting. After this went on even beyond the flawed logic and reasoning of explorers we retired to the tents. With even more chatting and giggling than the night before (my patrol would learn to regret) we eventually fell asleep.

With only one patrol that had not yet cooked my patrol slowly rose from their slumber to cook a full English (welsh) breakfast. During this experience which we learned that I cannot cook bacon but raw eggy bread is my specialty. We served our full Welsh breakfast to hordes of hungry and tired scouts with a side of yet more wieners and oven rolls. After this another patrol had to endure the same pain we went through of scraping burnt bits of baked beans from a saucepan (moral of the story is don’t make the shortest member have to reach over the tallest to stir the beans.).

We had four more things to do that weekend and the worst by far was having to put all the tents away and the ominous feeling of the oncoming English Lit GCSE was setting in but we would grab onto as much of the precious camp as we possibly could. We hastily packed all the tents away just so we would have more time to enjoy the great company of each other. The patrols then completed their last activity. Ours was to come up with unit names; from the silly to incredible we had a wide variety of options. Only one idea vetoed as a definite no we were off to a good start. Once we had exhausted all possible ideas we convened in the activity hall. Through a complex system of standing next to chairs we eventually decided on Y Dreigiau’r Mynydd or The Mountain Dragons. We loved it so much we couldn’t help but break out into dance as we synchronised into an incredible rendition of the “Chaa-Chaa-Slide” which can be viewed of the Welsh Scout Jamboree Contingent YouTube page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRj4Z3dFmk4

Then began an intense brainstorming session for the badge design and any possible item of clothing, stationery or souvenir we could smack our branding onto. We went from normal run-of-the-mill t-shirts, hoodies, neckers and softshell jackets to the more adventurous psychedelic-paisley bucket hats with our unit name stitched in hot pink on them. We still haven’t decided on the exact shade of pink.

The final part of the weekend was electing our two Media Champions and our one Youth Chair. All those who wanted to run went off into a separate room to prepare our statements for our electoral speech. It was an incredible electoral campaign with just as much sabotage and backroom deals as the election for the country were going to next year. The Media Champions are in charge of our social media like our Instagram page @themountaindragonswsj. At the end of it all we were sat down in the tense small room we were all huddled into like penguins with the suspense so tight you could cut the room with a knife. After a seemingly never-ending knee-drumroll Joe eventually said “Maya Williams and Tomos Watkins!!! We of course had to give our victory speeches and thanked everyone involved. After that stress-fest we had the one more election for the Youth Chair, with even more mystery and disbelief than the one before. The Youth Chair’s job is to make sure that the leaders take our views into account. After an even longer knee-drumroll Joe shouted “Kyle Hewett!!!!”

After we had done this we all savored the last fifteen minutes of an unbelievable weekend by having one last rugby passing practice session and an overall chat before our parents arrived to pick up familiar looking tired sweaty creatures that they love so much called scouts.

We would like to thank our incredible leaders, each deserving an insane amount of thanks for each individual role they are providing in taking us on the amazing journey to North America and the 24th World Scout Jamboree. From Rhian patching us all back up and making sure were all well fed and watered to Jimmy in providing us with more jamboree experience from 4 (yes 4!!!!) World Scout Jamborees than anyone else we know. Matt with providing us with a great management base to help us with all social media and being a cool guy, to Jasper with providing us with a great knowledge of the international scouting system. And Finally, Joe Holmes with being our unit leader, keeping all jokes leader approved and most importantly making sure we will always have an endless supply of hot dog wieners.

Thanks for reading our first write up of the prep camp. Stay Tuned for more write ups of our adventures leading up to and including the 24th World Scout Jamboree. You can follow our progress on Twitter and Instagram

Twitter @DreigiaurMynydd
Instagram @themountaindragonswsjRead more