16 Scouts, 1 Young Leader and 7 Leaders left 1st Winlaton HQ at 6.30pm on Friday evening (3rd February) and we’re at the site and unloading the minibus and cars by 7.15pm. After being assigned bunk rooms the weekend’s activities then started with a ‘Family Fortunes’ competition to get everyone together.

After an evening meal the Scouts then enjoyed some free-time. On Winter Camp this means the opportunity to play games, including electronic games (the only camp on which they are allowed) while the Leaders had their supper. Just before bedtime there was a run through the remainder of the weekend’s programme, with lights out (supposedly!) at 11.15pm.

Saturday morning dawned bright and cold – it was Winter Camp after all. The overnight temperature had fallen to -7 degC but the wood burning stove had been ticking over all night and soon came back to roaring life after the addition of some wood.

After a full English breakfast it was time to make packed lunches for the day hike, which started around 10am. Allowing for the cold weather and the forecast snow, the length of the planned walk was reduced to around 7km, which took the parties east from West Hall and to the coast just north of Sunderland, walking from there to Souter lighthouse.

The morning was mostly clear but it was penetratingly cold in the southerly wind, which was at everyone’s backs for most of the walk due to some cunning route planning. The walk took us down to the beach where there was the chance to explore, do a little scrambling on the rocks and eat lunch in a sea cave (Leaders were carefully keeping an eye on the incoming tide!).

At Souter lighthouse (unfortunately closed until March) there was a quick chance to look around, including the site of the (now disappeared) Marston village. Half of the party then returned to West Hall in the minibus and half walked another 3km back to the site, taking in a visit to the local children’s playground on the way!

After getting back to the site it was time to warm up with a hot drink and biscuit before getting on the rest of the indoor activities. For some of the Scouts this meant working towards their Creativity Challenge Award, which is a required part of the Chief Scout’s Challenge.

The forecast snow had failed to amount to anything more that some sleet and freezing rain, so a couple of Leaders took the Scouts onto the site to play a wide game outdoors. Shortly before the evening meal all of the Scouts took part in a paper airplane competition, to see who could make the paper plane which would fly the furthest, for the longest or most accurately.

After a lovely hot dinner Saturday evening was taken up by the race night, with the whole Scout Troop on their feet, cheering on their favourite dogs to see who could make the most (imaginary) money ‘betting’ on races – the valuable lesson being that the bookie always wins.

At some time during the evening a rumour had circulated that the Scouts would be going on a night hike – so the Leaders duly obliged by getting everyone into their outdoor gear and briefed for a night-hike that was promised to be “less than 4 miles”. The actual ‘hike’ lasted less than ten minutes, consisting with a quick walk through the woods to the end of the site and then back up the drive. We still have no idea how the rumour started, but it was

Towards the end of the evening a DVD was shown, but by then the Scouts were getting tired and we’re all off to bed before Harry Potter even found out who the Prisoner of Azkaban was.

Sunday was a slightly later start to the day and since the overnight snow had headed south and missed South Shields, the morning was all about fires – making waterproof matches, learning about the ‘fire triangle’ of oxygen, heat and fuel and then practising fire building on the small camp fire sites. For most of the Scouts the morning ended in toasting marshmallows, but it was a lesson hard learned in the cold and damp conditions.

After lunch of a warming bowl of home-made soup (and other tasty snacks) there was time for a brief ‘Scouts Own’ and a brief session of prayer writing before it was time to pack up and tidy away before the traditional group photo and then getting into the minibus and cars for the relatively brief journey home.

Winter camp is meant to be a relatively relaxing camp for both Scouts and Leaders, before the real outdoors season starts. Everyone had a weekend of enjoyable activities and is now ready for another busy year of Scouting.

For more photos of the weekend visit the 1st Winlaton Gallery pages

On Friday 3rd February, Members of 1st Chopwell Scout Group went for a woodland walk in Chopwell wood. In total their was 6 Scouts, 1 Beaver, 3 leaders and 6 parents who attended the event. The moon looked lovely without any artificial lights, however there was a lot of cloud cover which meant no stargazing  - something that many members enjoyed last year. It was a wonderful, but cold evening which was enjoyed by everyone who attended.

Getting the can as far as you can - without your feet crossing the line

There was a cooked breakfast at about 9am, followed by a variety of different activities on offer. Some of the members went to assist with the scenery build of Blyth Valley Gangshow, which takes place in February. Other members left after breakfast to go and take part coasteering, the equipment for which was hired from “H20 activities” at Durham Scout County.

Having arrived at the beach in South Shields the ‘coasterers’ changing into their wetsuits, there was a quick safety talk explaining what would happen, and what all the equipment was used for. After a warm up and running into the sea to get used to the water, it was time to start. To begin with there were a few small rocks to either climb over or walk around in the water.

Running into the sea - coasteering

After that it started getting more difficult, with rocks that had to be climbed over and caves that had to be swum through. At one point there was an opportunity to swim out into the sea to another large rock. After one more cave to swim through – that rapidly filled up with water with each wave – it was another climb round the cliff and a scramble back up to finish. For a few of the people that went it was a completely new, but massively enjoyable experience.

Going fishing

After a nice lunch of corned beef hash or minced beef pie, the members who had not been coasteering left to go and try fishing for the first time. For everyone who had stayed behind, there was some site services work that the warden wanted doing. A number of the Network members set to moving wooden pallets from the lower car park to the wood pile next to the campfire circle and digging out some foundations for part of a building.

There was then a quick trip to Morrisons to get some ingredients for that evening’s dinner, after which there was a film on the new projector screen in the lodge, watched sitting around the fire. During this, the members who had gone out to the Blyth Valley scenery build arrived back. After the film had ended, there was a bit of social time before the gorgeous lasagne.

After the evening meal, there was a variety of different things going on, including more chats around the fire, a very competitive game of snap, and a poker tournament for actual money (50 p per player). Everyone was tired by this point so most were in bed by 2am.

There was a “less early” start on Sunday morning. After breakfast, there was still some site service to be done, including moving the rest of the pallets from the bottom car park to the woodpile, and digging a trench at the top of the camping field to improve drainage in the event of poor weather. After lunch people started to say their goodbyes and leave. Overall, a fab weekend!!

Special thanks have to go to a few people: to Dennis Dutton (Site Warden) for allowing us to stay at the site; to Mrs Sue and James Hughes for the catering; to James Heron for leading coasteering; and finally to Mr Cousins for leading the fishing.

If this sounds good to you, and you are interested in joining Durham County Network, then either check out the Facebook group to learn more about what we get up to or get in touch with me (Vice Chair) by commenting on this article.

The Troop had our own special tour guide who was an ex coal miner from the famous Grimethorpe colliery. We were take 150m down in the lift to the bottom of the shaft, followed by a tour of the mine. This included seeing some of the equipment used down the pit and experiencing real darkness when we turned off all of our head lamps.

1st Winlaton Scouts preparing for their tour of the mine

Although this was a long day, it was enjoyed by all and it certainly gave the Scouts an insight in to an industry which was once a major part of life in Blaydon District.

11th-12th February 2012 – Frostie @ Moor House, Durham

26th February 2012 – Country Climbing Competition

10th March 2012 - District Swim @ Water World

17th March 2012 – Beaver Craft Day @ Gibside

23rd-25th March 2012 – Geoffrey Gordon Cup

29th April 2012 - District 1st Aid Competition

12th-13th May 2012 - Beaver Sleepover @ Dipton Scout HQ

May 2012 – District Cubs Funday

15th-17th June 2012 – County Camping Competition

23rd June 2012 – County Cubs Funday

24th June 2012 – County Beaver Picnic

23rd-24th June 2012 – District Scouts Kirby Shield

13th-15th July 2012 – Family Camp

20th-22th August 2012 – County Explorer Monopoly Run

6th-7th October 2012 – District Thunderbird Competition

12th-14th October 2012 – County Confido

October 2012 – District Cub Competition

10th November 2012 – Country Sanctuary

This started several years ago when we held a Christmas Party on a summer camp, so on the flip side we held the opposite. A beach BBQ in December.

This year we were up by Craster and Dunstanburgh Castle area. With a circular walk along the beach and back along a path inland. This was finished off by a BBQ and a game of cricket on the beach. Although the BBQ had a few problems, the chips in sea houses made up for the situation.

With an increasingly busy programme of activities, this will allow the Explorer Scouts to take part in a wide and varied Unit programme, to take part in Scout County activities and to undertake their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award programme as well as work towards their Chief Scouts Award and Explorer Scout activity badges.

At this evening’s meeting Explorer Scouts were presented with a variety of participation badges for up to nine year’s membership in the Scout Association as well as staged awards for nights away (camping and other residential experiences) and hikes away.

For full details of the Unit programme see the on-line calendar for meeting dates.

Although it was quite overcast, for the first time in three years a winter night hike was dry, reasonably warm with no snow or ice, which made a very pleasant change.

Despite the lack of warm soup, everyone still had a warm drink before setting off again for the final third of the hike, down into Baybridge and back to Blanchland. Everyone had an enjoyable evening out on the hills, learned or practiced some useful skills and the Scouts were dropped off at home around midnight.