Regional Hike

Five Waverley Guides joined the Regional hike at Rustig in Magaliesberg, including three that are not yet enrolled. We had luxury accommodation for Guides - beds with mattresses in dormitories instead of sleeping in a tent on the ground. The first day was a 5km circular hike and much tougher than I bargained for but the girls managed fine. Then we could go on a game walk in  afternoon, followed by yummy supper and campfire.

The second day was only three kilometers and not nearly so steep although we did enjoy going into and out of some gorges where possibly streams used to be..
All together a lovely weekend with all the Guides behaving like Guides and making new friends, learning, being responsible and learning to lead.

Campfire

The Campfire was supposed to have been last term but the girls had decided to have patrol dinners instead and do the campfire when there was more chance of darkness.   We invited parents and friends and had very good support with nearly all the parents attending as well as several brothers and a friend.   We had invited the Rosebank Scouts but had had no reply.
It had been a mission to get permission to light the fire but with excellent teamwork we prevailed.   Honey Bear brought a fire pit, I used a spade to make a clearing and we had four buckets of water to hand.
We started the fire using a chemical reaction where water is added to a mixture of chemicals which were surrounded by firelighters to catch the sparks.

 

We had started Campfire song books the previous week and shared with our visitors.

The patrols performed skits in true Guiding and Scouting fashion and then some of the girls and even parents led us in some different songs.

We finished the evening by toasting marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate which was sold to raise funds for the Randburg SPCA.   We managed to raise R320 for the new cattery.
Thanks to everybody for your participation and help.

Cookout at Delta Park

Overall it was a successful day. A couple of challenges but then isn't that what serving the Lord is all about? Six girls arrived. There had been no sign of Stella when the driver had called for her.

First I demonstrated how we were going to cook rice in the solar cooker in the sun. Only Jeanette believed it would cook. Then while the Blue Crane Patrol made pancakes, the Flamingoes decorated meskit bags.

The gel stove that we used for the pancakes was challenging as the wind kept blowing the flame out and the gel would finish just as a pancake was half cooked. Nevertheless, they all got eaten.

One thing the girls were pretty good at was collecting wood and making fires. For a group who are brand new, to light a fire without any paper, using only one match was quite impressive. I taught them to wrap chicken in tin foil and cook it in the coals and I introduced them to banana boats - bananas with chocolate and marshmallows inserted and wrapped in foil and cooked. The rice was beautifully cooked, not one chicken piece was burned and they all enjoyed the banana boats.

After washing up, the fires were still hot enough to toast marshmallows. Nellie, my new asistant was very impressed with toasted Marshmallows.

I asked Amanda, who had missed the enrolment because of a funeral, if she wanted to be enrolled at closing colours and she said yes, so we did.

The girls enjoyed the day but their good behaviour couldn't last so long and they became very challenging towards the end. Next time I'll go for a shorter day. Seven and a half hours is quite heavy for primary school children.

Please pray for the selection of patrol leaders.