Rangers online Escape rooms

A few weeks ago we started with a quite quick and fairly straight forward Harry Potter Escape room freely available at:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSflNxNM0jzbZJjUqOcXkwhGTfii4CM_CA3kCxImbY8c3AABEA/viewform

It took the Rangers maybe 20 mins to get through it.

So another week we moved onto the www.saintmichaelsscouts.org.uk/escape/

They enjoyed this one more, it is really well done and you moved interactively around rooms hunting for objects and solving clues.

You need to register in advance, and it would be good to make a donation.



We had 4 working on it all together as a group, they said afterwards that maybe it would have been more controlled if they still all went in as individuals but only one person was doing the typing.  

Do look at the hints (I printed them out and used them to guide a little at the beginning.) Also note that you cannot start the meeting and join it from the same computer it does mess it up.

It took the Rangers about an hour to do this escape room challenge. 

To pad time out to the end of the meeting they did the Camp Mystery.  You can download it from here

This is not my resource, I cannot remember where I picked it up from and if you want to claim copyright of it, please contact me

This took the Rangers about 15 minutes as a group, with me screen sharing it and reading the clues and them telling me what to type in to help them solve it.

It's easy for this age, but everything in life doesn't have to be hard, as long as it is fun!

So where we are headed next if they fancy another night at it is one of the following:

https://www.escapedurham.co.uk/mr-x

https://www.escapedurham.co.uk/thehunters

A Scouty one:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdFLHw9zTCyOAP5AbgQlJwC9b4_k_F3qx1bltOaF5vOjxV48w/viewform

And a what-3-words trail :

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSepBDLBp9dDgAI_uYTYNOdxXJa4YqWz3wiKujvSGZofV2cbGA/viewform

So plenty of resources to keep any group of Rangers keen on this type of activity going through a couple of virtual meetings.

Have Fun.

Welcome to our Escape Room Experience. I created this escape room experience for my scouts to play during the Covid-19 lockdown in the UK as part of our virtual meetings. It proved a great hit with both the scouts and their families so I have decided to release it to the wider scouting community to....

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Rutland Round Section 3b - Ketton to Empingham

 Picking up at Ketton which was our half way point on the last walk  we headed out for the last part of the 3rd section of the Rutland Round.

 Many of the main routes mix, some parts of the Rutland Round are also the Macmillan Way and the Hereward Way.

 This route heads out through Ketton Quarry towards Rutland Water.

There were plenty of red kites up in the sky.  There have been even more of them around this year, they really are breeding well around this area.

Rutland Water was very busy at Normanton. The car park was close to full, I assume it was ok as long as everyone was staying alert (which is all we need to be now)

To be honest on some of those paths the full 2m social distance is not going to happen but it was very blowy - you'd have to be unlucky to 'share air'

 I pushed my luck a bit further with an ice-cream.

So I guess I'm on a 14 day health watch again.

 The sailing club was running, the small boats were out and we watched some 'sailors' trying to right an up-tipped catamarang for a while.

 We left the crowds on the dam and headed off towards Empingham village.

 With a meadowy stop along the way for lunch.

 Empingham is another village straight out of the Cotswolds that the tourists have never discovered.

 I assume the locals like it that way.

 Lots of the houses had this on them

 Having got to Empingham, we circled back towards Ketton.

We thought this would be an interesting paddle.

 Until we saw the bridge a bit further down.

 The last few miles were on the same path we came out on.

 Back through the quarry

But at the end we found some stepping stones to finally have a go at crossing a stream!


It was a lovely 12 miles in perfect weather.

And with that Section 3 was complete.

Of course each section is having to be done in two parts as a circular or an out and back because at the moment we cannot share cars.

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Guiding Wetspurs (Canadian Vespers)

Softly falls the rain today

As our campsite floats away

Silently each Guide should ask,

Have I brought my SCUBA mask?

Have I tied my tent flaps down,

Learnt to swim so I don’t drown,

Have I done, and will I try?

Everything, to keep ME dry?




One of My favourites alongside 'Barges'

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Rutland Round Section 3a - Barrowden to Ketton

We started the Rutland Round on Section 2  in March and were immediately scuppered by Covid-19 lockdown.

So it was with trepidation that we ventured out again in June as the rules started to relax.

Not wanting to car-share obviously 4 of us drove independently to Barrowden and walked at a socially distanced pace.

Because we couldn't leave cars to share at either end of the section we walked half a section and turned around and walked back to our cars.

It was wet which kept away the crowds and we pretty much had this part of Rutland to ourselves.

 We skirted Wakerley

 The cygnets were quite big and there was also seeded rape seed in some fields which shows how long I'd been inside, I never saw a single yellow field this year!

 We went along a dismantled railway line for a while.

 Into Geeston

 Over the main railway line

And onto Ketton

Lunch sat socially distanced on the church wall watching the local publican delivering Sunday lunch time takeaway flagons of beer to local residents.

And then back we went the way we came.

 But took the time this time to have a wander around Tixover Church grounds.

 The village is no longer near the church but it seems to be well used all the same and I would like to go back to look around inside.




















So we did a 14 mile walk to cover 7 miles of the Rutland Round but it is a truly lovely part of the country even on a wet day.  It's like someone placed Cotswolds villages in the area and forgot to tell the tourists!

It was good to be 'back on it'

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Rangers Expect the Unexpected and Alphabetical Scavenger hunt - online meeting

We started the online meeting night with the UMA Expect the Unexpected.

The girls were basically doing  improvisation and we followed the card fairly well until they needed to 'stay in character' for a wacky part and some of my quieter girls were really struggling.  Luckily another Ranger came to the rescue by randomly talking about a childhood book she'd been reminded off during the course of the activity.  The little Mole who knew it was none of his business.  Which basically led to each ranger being an animal and stating why they knew it wasn't their poo on the moles head.  Yes bizarre but it did set the ball rolling, the girl's imaginations working and them in fits of laughter.

This led very nicely into a meeting idea from a Ranger leader in a leader's online forum.  An Alphabetical scavenger hunt. I sent the girls off to find something starting with each letter from the work ALPHABETICAL.

They all showed their article for each letter in turn.

If they were the only one to have the object then they got a point.  If anyone else had the same object, neither of them got a point.

It was also really good fun and I felt it tied in nicely to the 'improvisation' skills night as they tried to justify why their object was totally different to the other girls, despite them being the same thing!!

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