North Face Explorers - some of our past activities

Thursday 13th January 2005 : New year meeting

Our first meeting of the new term started with the introduction of two new Explorers— Jamie and James, who came to us from the 103rd Morningside. We played a number of games and generally chatted about what we had been doing over the holidays.

Thursday 20th January 2005 : Group Environment Award and Gimmie-5

This was the second meeting of this kind, when we split into three working parties. The first party, with Martin, went down to Longcraig and met Ian Harrower who introduced them to sea kayaks and set them to work repairing them, helping to complete the work started in November. The second party, with Alan, met at Kyle's house and set to work removing rust from the kayak trailer, including a coating that had developed since the previous attempt. Again there was no time to put on any primer (Alan said he would go back the next day to do this). The third group met, with Mikael and Caroline, to work out a programme for Cubs as part of the International Friendship Award. They also each gave brief presentations of an international nature.

Thursday 27th January 2005 : skiing weekend preparation

Alan and Martin ran a number of games for us. Each group had to elect a member to either cut cards or play pontoon, the winner getting double points in the games. These included relay races and memory games. The winners were the ones who cheated least.

28th-30th January 2005 : District Explorer Scout skiing weekend

On Friday 28th January, ten Explorers from the North Face Unit and two from South Morningside met at Fairmilehead for the annual District Explorer Scout ski weekend. We loaded the kit and skis into Alan's camper van and then all bundled into cars for the journey north. We arrived at Pitlochry Scout Hall, set up our beds and made ourselves at home. The Explorers went out on their traditional walk into town while the leaders sat and chatted in the hall. After supper, we went off to bed though sleep took a long time coming.

On Saturday morning, the cooks were raised early and started to make breakfast. We then set off for the slopes, all arriving before Alan who though he had set off first had managed to miss the turning in Pitlochry. We bought ski passes and hired skis and set off up the tows to near the summit of Carn Aosda. Forgoing the opportunity to tick of a winter Munro, we traversed around to the top of Butchart's Corrie, some with more skill than others whose technique had become rusty over years of no snow. After a photo-shot of the whole group, we spent the day on the slopes in this corrie, with a trip to the café for lunch. Some stayed on there while the intrepid headed back up the Carn Aosda tow to see whether their skills had improved after the short rest. Some of the Explorers waited by the tow ready to throw snowballs at leaders. One leader took the precaution of sharing the tow with a stranger but this did not put the Explorers off and he became an unfortunate victim too. Although there were very few tows open at Glenshee today, the queues were virtually non-existant as the general public had stayed away — and we had the best day's skiing in three years of expeditions.

The following day, we had a longer lie. On the Saturday we had virtually skied all the snow off the slopes and we decided that we would go for a walk instead. After clearing the hall, we set off for Dunkeld to walk up by the Hermitage. After a pleasant walk by the river we found the 'hermitage' which was a pretty rudimentary shelter. We wandered around the paths for a while until we arrived back where we started. We then had some lunch and some of the group headed back to Edinburgh with Brian. The rest of us went swimming at Perth Pool, spending time on the 'river rapids', the flume and the spa pool, which eased some of the aching muscles from the previous day.

Thanks in particular go to Shiela, who was the ski party leader recruited for the third year running. The photos below show Brian and Louise resting after a wild descent, the photo shot at the top of Butchart's run, and walking by the Hermitage on the Sunday.

All the skiers near the top of Carn Aosda

Thursday 3rd February 2005 : Urban safari

We were sent out into Morningside in groups to collect points on a number of urban projects — wildlife (name five trees in the graveyard and three businesses with animals in their name), ghettos (describe people hanging out outside a chipshop), graffiti (spotting it, not creating it), landmarks (a rubbing of the Bore Stane), and religious beliefs (including naming five streets in Morningside with a religious connection to their names — can you do it?!).

Thursday 10th February 2005 : Environment Group Award

Tonight, we met for the first time with our partners, the Juniper Green Explorer Unit — and discovered that some of our Scouts knew some of theirs! After a quick introductory game where we had to find out about each other, we then had to visit a number of bases and at each we had to dicuss the pros and cons of several environmental issues. Click here to read a full report on the Group Environment Award.

18th-20th February 2005 : Aber'iginal

On Friday night we drove north and, after stopping at a dreadful transport café and shopping for food for the weekend, we arrived at Templar's Park. There was a little confusion as to how to get into the site but we persevered and eventually made it. We pitched tents in the dark while it was snowing — a first for some Explorers! We gathered and were divided into groups for the weekend's activities. Apart from a few Aberdeen Units, there were several from Edinburgh and Fife. We then played a few games so that we got to know our groups better and then to the Chalet for supper.

Overnight it continued to snow but sunshine cleared most of it by the afternoon. We took part in a number of activities including construction of land rafts, an amazing ball race and jousting (see pictures below), together with archery, building sand castles and creating Joker cards for the evening's game of Jeux sans frontiers. We met up for lunch but apart from that, spent most of our time in the mixed groups. The evening provided a communal meal in the Chalet, followed by the famous game. This was interrupted by a power cut, which created a little extra excitement. We finished off with a sing song and hot chocolate in the Chalet.

On Sunday, we woke to find that our tents had been all but covered with overnight snowfall. The morning's trading post was cut short at lunch time because more snow was forecast and it was decided that it would be better if all groups could get home before dark. Everyone (except, luckily, Alan and Martin) fell asleep on the way back down the road after a very enjoyable but thoroughly exhausting weekend.

Thursday 24th February 2005 : Giant Cranium

We met in Braid Centre for a highly expanded game of Cranium. We were divided into teams on arrival and each team had to nominate a team mascot who would be the counters on the 'board' that was laid out on the floor of the Hall. Whenever we moved forward, our team had to answer questions related to the colour that we were on — general knowledge, spelling backwards, entertaining (singing and miming) and creative stuff (modelling and the like). While Martin was running the game, Alan took a few of us out to discuss expeditions, Award work, camping and the like. We ended up with the investiture of James and Jamie from the 103rd, and Shona, who has completed her Membership Award.

Thursday 3rd March 2005 : Preparation for the weekend

Those who were going away for the weekend met in Braid Church Hall. Three of the group went of to Cluny Centre to look out the tents and camping equipment. The remaining Explorers devised their menus and then went off to Morrison's to buy the necessary provisions.

5th - 6th March 2005 : Group Environment Award and Gimmie-5

We met at Bonaly at midday on Saturday and set off straight away with the Pentland Ranger up into the hills. There were too many of us to fit in the Land Rover, so some were detailed to walk, told that the vehicle would come back and pick them up. We drove up the track but soon became stuck in snow drifts despite the four-wheel-drive. Eventually, we all met up and after a safety briefing, set off up the hill to dismantle an old fence. Some worked on the fence itself and others moved a pile of fence posts and wire left by the previous volunteers. It was hard work in the mud and snow but by the end of a few hours we seemed to have made a significant improvement to the hillside. We returned to Bonaly, pitched out tents and had dinner, making use of the Baronial Hall to get out of the cold.

On the Sunday, we had breakfast and cleared up camp (rather slowly, much to Alan's aggravation!). The sponsored cyclists set off early and the multi-legged racers were left to clear their tents as well! At last, they set off and some time later, greatly knackered, crossed the finishing line in a variety of styles. The cyclists finished at South Queensferry at 3 o'clock. Click here to read a full report on the Group Environment Award.

Thursday 10th March 2005 : Basic transport night

We all headed off to Blackford Hill where we were divided into two teams to build a chariot from Scout staves and a stretcher from a cllimbing rope (only). The chariot race had to be abandoned because the chariots were not available at the same time. The rope stretchers were made with varing degrees of success and despite various disagreements, were not eventually needed to take anyone off the hill..

Thursday 17th March 2005 : The Morningside Eisteddfod

This meeting was postponed from the beginning of the month, which was near St David's Day. Nevertheless, a few budding musicians brought along their whistles and guitars and we almost brought the house down — well, Craig's amplifier for his electric guitar almost brought the house down. Craig was the star of the show and played us the introductions to many famous rock songs. If only we had known the words, we could have booked a recording session.

Thursday 24th March 2005 : Ten pin bowling

We met up with our new-found friends in the Juniper Green Unit for a game of Ten pin bowling at the old meat market.