In September, 7 th Headstone Brownies combined the County Brownie Skills Builder Day at Paccar Scout Camp with a weekend away for the ultimate Brownie Adventure! In addition to the Skills Builder day, we stayed in the Tipis in Roy’s Reservation and did some of the onsite activities.
We started off the weekend with the Brownies exploring their accommodation in the tented village and Veggie Spag Bol for dinner before rushing off to our first activities of the weekend! First up was abseiling followed by crate stacking, lots of fears were conquered and it was a great first evening. We then headed back to our camp for hot chocolate, a Brownie group hug and bedtime.
On Saturday, we had an early start ready for the County Brownie Skills Builder Day. We had a few more Brownies join us for the day and then we headed to pick up our schedule for the Skills Builder Day. We were paired up with 4 th Harlington Brownies for the day and it was great for the Brownies to meet some new friends.
First up was ‘Can you see in the dark?’, an activity from the skills builder all about learning the skills needed to be able to get ready for bed when sleeping in a tent. The brownies were tasked with ‘getting ready for bed’ as quickly as possible while blindfolded and being guided by their groups. It was a great lesson in teamwork and resulted in lots of laughter. After this the Brownies
had a go at the suction cup crossbows, this was great fun and there was some amazing perseverance and improvements from all the Brownies.
We then headed to the fire lighting area when all the brownies had a go at lighting a match and starting a fire with a Flint and Steel. It was so great to see some Brownies conquer their fears of lighting a match and also work so hard at mastering the Flint and Steels. Next was lunchtime, we invited our new friends from 4 th Harlington Brownies to come to the tented village with us and have lunch. We all had a lovely time sat around the fire pit and enjoying the sunshine.
After lunch we had a go at Paccar’s Nature Trail. The Brownies were great at following the clues and the directions to lead us through the woods and complete the trail. It was a really nice chance to explore the woods and for the Brownies to learn more about different types of trees and plants.
We then headed back to the main field where the Brownies got to cook a sausage over the fire and do an activity called ‘get packing’ where they had to determine what were the right (and wrong) things to pack for a trip away with Brownies! After this it was our turn on the Pedal Karts, with all the Brownies enjoying racing round the track.
To finish off the Skills Builder Day we had a massive campfire with all the Brownies who attended the day, it was so great to have all the Brownies in one place, all signing at the top of their voices and having such an amazing time! A massive thank you to Jane, Brownie Advisor, for organising such a great day.
Once the Skills Builder Day was over and our day visitors had headed home we headed back to camp for some rest time before dinner. For dinner we had Fajitas and ‘Eton Mess’ for dessert! We then headed out on a woodland walk in the dark, which was a lot of fun for the Brownies and a new experience for some of them as well.
In the morning, we had breakfast and then headed to the Zip Wires where all the Brownies (and leaders!) took part! It was definitely one of the favourite activities over the weekend for all of us. We then headed to the adventure playground before heading back to camp for lunch. After lunch the Brownies worked on their teamwork skills on the Nightline before we all had an ice-cream and said our goodbyes.
We all had such a great weekend, Brownies and Leaders alike, and it was great to see all the Brownies get so much out of the weekend. It really is what residentials are all about!
7 th Headstone Brownies