Charnwood 2019 - The Girls

The Rangers worked really hard leading up to Charnwood and I think their gateway was the best on their sub-camp.

I took 5 of my own girls and 5 girls from another unit, their leaders helped them make this gateway, the photo is only part of it as when it was finished I only took photos with them in the pictures!
 I was not with them, they were registered as leaderless and I had a full time job to do on a different sub-camp.

The girls from the other unit were older and more mature and settled in quickly and sensibly.  My own rangers had a more rocky start and had to be spoken to very seriously about their behaviour.  For the last 3 Charnwoods I have taken girls this way.  Part of me thinks it's not worth the effort, it would be easier all round if I camped with them, fed them etc. They would have much closer supervision and they would have a 'tighter' camp.  But I also know that giving them enough rope in this sort of environment tends to follow this journey of them going OTT and then turning a corner to finding the happy ground and the independence they have is what makes it such a great experience for them.


After setting some firmer ground rules about boys, curfews etc and tidying up they seemed to sort themselves out better and this is what I discovered the next day.  I was impressed.

Their tents still looked like bomb sites but, you know, you can't have everything!

So what is important is that whilst I saw nothing but mud in my own sub-camp crisis, the Rangers were out and about doing activities and having a ball.

In fact it's only the things they have told me that has kept me realising that all the effort is worthwhile.

I found this image on Twitter, it is taken on the sub-camp my Rangers were on.  A beautiful reflection of a tent in a lake (that did not exist when we arrived!) And it sums up the whole camp for me.  There is fun and beauty in the mud, you just have to look for it.











And the backbones of the real Charnwood in amongst the mayhem were there.










Goodbye from Charnwood 2019




Roll on 2023

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Charnwood 2019 - The Mud Edition

I love Charnwood, it is an international camp in my county backyard that whilst it is a lot of work to organise for it usually feed me a Guiding high enough to limp me through some otherwise saggy years.  And so Charnwood 2019 started, a hot week leading up to it and a scorching 37C on set up day.

Note the grassy path to the right of this picture dear reader, it matters.

Over the course of the first 3 days of camp we had a months worth of rain.  Rain that had us bailing out collapsed tents with bowls.

 Rain that had us paddling in sleeping tents.

 Rain that started to affect the paths.

 Was flooding the main walk ways on our sub-camp.

 And started to turn mud to soup.

Rain that had us evacuating children on more than one night, carrying kit, helping children move to emergency tents and marquees. Some going home late at night, 100s sleeping in rows in event marquees and even car runs to tescos at midnight to buy up all the (dry) sleeping bags they had.

And on no sleep I was digging a mini trench in the pouring rain around my own tent to divert the stream that was about to flow through it.





 My tiny trench was nothing compared to some of the big ones that some of the scout units dug to try to stem the tide.

 We even had 1 dry day but the mud did not even begin to dry up.

 Cars could not get in or out.  Emergency straw and wood chips were laid to create roads so the parents could pick the children up













And the whole camp was called off 3 days early.

 The mud was just too unmanageable.

The areas where the activities were happening were not too bad.  The marquees could hold 1000s of children but ultimately the sub-camps where the sleeping, eating and toileting mostly happened were in a sea of mud and it was becoming increasingly hard to do anything about it.

 and so in rather a flat end they all went home leaving behind the international participants that could not be 'rehomed' to scout huts around and about and were happy to stay












I was there Thursday until the following Friday and exhausted I went home, but straight back again on the Saturday morning to litter pick our sub-camp field.  Many units had left in a hurry and sadly I picked 3 dustbin bags of rubbish but a lot of it was soggy cardboard that had been soaking up mess tent mud.
















 This was the main walk way for about 3000 campers to get to the activity areas.

We really did try to clear up the mud to make it work but it was like Canute.

On the night  after most of the children  and their leaders had left I took my camera on a walk to the toilets.  The toilets were clean and did not smell but the mud was everywhere! 

It's such a shame it ended this way as so much work goes into making this camp absolutely amazing and activities are incredible.  The evening parties, bands, discos.  The daytime climbing walls, inflatables, zorbing, carting, crafts, culture, so much, so many, too many to list. So many volunteers working tirelessly.

I have never been so tired in my entire life, we did the jobs we went to do and dealt with the conditions on top of it.

I'm torn between never wanting to go on another camp ever again and desperately wanting to get on another camp to show that nothing will ever be this hard again!

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A birthday amble - Allexton

 I decided it was time to go walk something I was unfamiliar with, alone and with nothing but a map in hand.

I had previously stumbled across a lovely looking walk on a website

It started at Allexton, a quiet village with not much happening.















 And I headed out uphill and within a mile decided I was on the wrong road!

But I took heart that my favourite hill walking club walk leader always says getting in and out of villages is the hardest part.

I'm also not stupid and I'm intelligent enough to know I'm stupid enough to get myself in a right twizzle reading maps.

So I had downloaded the gpx file of the route (you can plot your own on OS maps) and put it on my watch with an app called dwmap.  I wouldn't rely on this entirely.  When paths are close together your gps can think you are 'on route' when you are very much on the wrong path but when you are wondering if you should have walked a mile in the other direction then seeing this was very reassuring and I knew I was on the map where I thought I was.

So I was on my way.

 Even with the walk vibrating at me that a turn point was  I was very careful to be following the proper OS map (paper variety).

This is the right way to do it.  When your technology fails you for lack of signal/battery/smashed in a fall it will be the paper map that gets you out of the wilderness, it's important to be able to read them properly and that was my plan for today.

 To learn to follow the map square by square recognising the contour lines as a "yes, I should be walking up hill right now" and a "that building there is that mark there on the map"

And the reassuring glance at the watch occasionally to see I was getting it right.
























 In the walking group there is always someone else to bounce off, alone you only have you and your map.

And sometimes I felt a bit vulnerable and wondered how sensible it is to be alone but hey-ho once you are in there there's only one way out!


Back to the map.

If you plan to follow this route let me warn you about Knob hill farm.

The path does go through the middle of the yard, past the signs warning about guard dogs through the high gates that look locked and no, there are no signs on any of it.

There is no decent sign posts on any of the few field taking you towards the road, there are lots of barbed wire gates and prominent bridle path and 'private property' signs to discourage you from following the footpath.

I walked a long way round.  Sigh.

But onto Blaston.




A beautiful village clearly having a lot of wealthy inhabitants.

I had a brief rest at the tiny church.

And headed onward towards Nevill Holt.

Nevill Holt is extra specially wealthy!

And extremely well placed on the north side of the Welland Valley

It used to be a school, the school closed amid a huge scandal and was bought by David Ross.

It has a 400 seat opera  house there too

I walked the tree lined avenue out towards Medbourne.

I was high up but there was no wind.  It was lovely.

I went off the route plan as I spotted a path that cut past a house and into a fields and it was worth the minor detourand it caught back up with the intended route.

Through Medbourne.

and out again, I did head out on the wrong road for a few hundred yards (with the watch quite happy about it) but I knew it felt wrong so I turned and had another go and headed up the Slawston Road and back on route.

To Hallaton on the Macmillan Way.

Hallaton is very familiar territory and the Leicestershire round comes into it.

The route home was quite clear.

Although the marker for this part of the path was no better than it was in 2017!

The views stayed good

But it was past my tea time, the clouds had cleared and it was getting hotter not cooler.

With a long grass final haul
















I was back into Allexton.

15.5 miles  and 1700"

It as a good walk, I was pleased with myself for doing it alone and using the maps (OS233 and OS234).

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Tideswell

We started on the A619 outside Baslow.  This was my first time doing anything since Scotland and my bad back so I was nervous.  So maybe a little doddery, within the first mile I was flat on my face with cut hands, knees and a very sore ego.  But you can only go onwards when walking in a group!

On Birchen Edge there was Nelson’s Monument and Three Ships.

The monument was erected in 1810 by John Brightman, a local business man, in honour of Admiral Lord Nelson after Trafalgar in 1805.  It was erected before Nelson’s Column in London.

The ships are three gritstone boulders which have Victory, Defiance and Royal Soverin etched on them.














And then we came across a companion stone, a set of stones by local artists and poets.















On Baslow Edge  was Wellington's monument. A celebration of victory at the battle of Waterloo 1815. It was erected by a local army man, Dr Wrench, to counterbalance the memorial dedicated to Admiral Nelson on Birchen Edge.

And onto Eagle Stone, which is becoming a familiar sight to me now and I could tell the others in the group about its stag association.

 This was turning into a beautiful and interesting walk.

 The baby Highland cattle didn't care to be bothered by walkers in the heat of the day.

 We went over Curbar edge to Froggatt

 Which is always stunning

 But we turned off and down a steep route towards Eyam.

 Past the Riley Graves

 If you haven't visited Eyam you should.

 It is a beautiful and interesting village with an incredible history to be proud of.

 The hay making had begun

 and the newest little calves staggered to their feet











Cressbrook dale was extraordinarily beautiful and I'd like to walk through it again.

 Maybe the weather helped.

 But it really was stunning and the flowers that covered the hillsides endless.

And whilst we were distracted by its beauty we missed a path and added an extra mile to the route!










Through Litton and onto Tideswell.

15 miles of the best walk I've had with the walking club.

Just a perfect day.

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