Scouting is Adventure in Action

2006-10-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

JOTI / JOTA WEEKEND

We attended our normal Friday Troop meeting where we played a few games and Tyrone happened to break the hall light with a tennis ball - well done Tyrone!, and we also made a Ham Radio signal for Joti.

Some of us slept over in the hall getting ready for Joti by setting up all the computers for a LAN.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early and the camp opened at 8am. There were about 60 scouts in total that came from the District to camp.

There were different bases that needed to be completed - some of which were the Ham Radio, Markmans, an Electronic base, a base where you had to navigate through electrical cables and lazor beams - these cables would shock you if you touched them and you would have to start all over again. If you made it to the other side without the lazor beeping, you had to collect a "diamond". There were also some water bases to do. All great fun.

We could travel to Willomoore School to go onto the Internet to talk to other scouts around the world. We managed to make quite a few contacts and spoke to scouts in Australia and Czeckoslovakia.

Most of us got our Joti Contact Badge.

2006-09-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

Meeting - 8th September

We spent quite a bit of the evening building chariots. These were built by using small, thin poles and criss-crossing them and securing them with cable ties. Once completed each patrol raced each other around the hall. Kingfishers were the ultimate winner but we managed a second place. Kudus managed to take out a car with his chariot!

A Link Camp was on the go and we joined in for the camp fire at the end of our meeting. We contributed by adding in a couple of our own songs and a few skits. We did the "Hello my name is Pebbles" skit which I am sure everyone knows!

That's all for this week.
Luke

2006-09-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

UNUSUAL EXPEDITION Over the weekend of the 26th and 27th August, I took my patrol on an unusual expedition. This was part of my Explorer Advancement. We went to a farm called rocky Range out near Machadadorp which is approximately 2 hours drive from Benoni

While out horse-riding on Saturday we came across some buck which the 3 dogs found very interesting and could not resist chasing.

Because a fire had damaged most of the property, the shower pipes had been burnt so there was no hope of a shower for anyone that evening. So it was early to bed after a quick braai.

Sunday we spent the day investigating the ruins as well as the graveyard on the farm.

We had a great time and everyone enjoyed the weekend - especially because most of the guys had not been on a horse before!

2006-08-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

CHALLENGES OF THE 25TH AUGUST

Last night at scouts we played a scavenger hunt game to find natural items for each letter of the alphabet. This game was really fun although it became quite a challenge to find each item. Leopards Patrol finished last with only 20 points. FishEagles won with 25 points. Some examples of what we found were Y for Yougheta Stick!

After that we went into a game and played soccer but this was no ordinary soccer. Nor was it crab soccer! We played soccer while being wheelbarrowed by our partners! Yes, there we go! It was real painful when you fell on your face or when you ran into someone else and dropped your barrow.

The team of Adrian and Alastair made up the awesome move of speedboat... you do this move by pushing on the ball and being dragged by your partner.

We then went into an educational session where we were taught to make 3 simple survival snares. These were pretty easy to understand - then we were sent outside to built our own out of fish gut and wire and any other natural resources.

We went into another game where each patrol was given a picture of a dangerous snake. Leopards Patrol was given the Puff Adder. Once given your picture you had to work a rally in order to find the necessary information on the snake which was basically how big it was and where it lived, which venom it had and its shape.

We all had a great evening.

2006-08-19T01:31:00.000-07:00

PATROL MEMBER
This is Graham Griffiths and he is busy with his Adventurer.

2006-08-19T01:09:00.000-07:00

MEETING ON FRIDAY 18 AUGUST
The whole Troop started off the evening playing Kim's Games. We also learnt about 4 of the dangerous snakes in South Africa. I then taught my younger patrol members the six basic scout knots - which are Clove Hitch, Roundturn and 2 Half Hitches, Reef Knot, Bowline, Sheepshank and Sheetbend. Adrian Verheyke did his talk on a famous leader and he chose to speak about our very own Madiba - Nelson Mandela.

2006-08-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

PATROL OUTING
My whole patrol came around to my house for a braai at the beginning of August. We made the fire and while we were cooking we discussed what we could do during the term.
We also talked about what kind of hike we could do for my Explorer Expedition. It was agreed that we would go on a horse-back expedition in Machadadorp in Mpumalanga. This will happen on the 26th August.

2006-08-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

I am the Patrol Leader of Leopards and my patrol members are below. The only one missing at the moment is Graham Grifiths but I will get a photo tomorrow and post it on the blog. Graham is also busy with his Adventuerer Badge.

and this is Jordan Barbaravich who is also on Pathfinder.

Scott Bungay is on Pathfinder.

Adrian Verheyke is 15 years of age and busy with his Adventurer Badge.

This is Patric Ngubene and he is 12 years old and busy with his Pathfinder.

2006-08-13T03:40:00.000-07:00

PATROL MEMBERS

There are 5 Patrol Members in Leopards. They are Adrian Verheyke, Graham Griffiths, Jordan Barbaravich, Scott Bungay and Patrick Ngubene. They vary with their Advancement Levels from Pathfinder to Adventurer.

2006-08-13T03:19:00.000-07:00

PATROL LEADER OF LEAPARDS

Hi this is me - Luke Hutchinson. I am Patrol Leader of Leopards Patrol at 9th Benoni. We meet every Friday night at 6.30pm till 9pm and as I said Scouting is Adventure in Action.

Here we are river rafting down the Sabie River. Last year it took about 2 hours to get down the river - this year, because of the heavy rains, we were down from start to finish in about 45 minutes!