Sean Edwards 
On Monday the explorers finished the year with a few games of bowling at Hollywood Bowl. 2024 has been a great year for the unit with our international expedition to Sweden, over 20 top awards and record growth of the unit. We wish you all a restful break and look forward to our 2025 adventures!
Well done to all the Explorers who took part in this evenings music performance evening. We had several members bring in and play us live music with their guitars, bass guitars and even a recorder! We also had a large number of Karaoke Songs which everyone took part in. A great evening of confidence building!
Last night the explorers held a drama / improvisation evening run by Damien. Initially many of them were a bit shy however after a few warmup activities, everyone was enthused and actively participating. Well done to everyone who attended and a big thanks to Damien who ran the evening for us!
On Sunday at the West Sussex Scouts awards reception, our young people were presented their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Chief Scout Awards. Congratulations to:
Last night our unit members competed in badminton and table tennis. Well done to the leader team of Elliott and Ben who emerged victorious! Some photos are below:
Well done to Charlie, Tom, Freya, Nathan, Franklin, Dylan and Joe who have all just successfully completed their Gold D of E Practise Expedition in Dartmoor which involves a four-day, self-reliant expedition with three nights camping. The Gold Expedition is considered the most challenging part of the DofE Award, but it is also the most rewarding. It can help participants develop skills like self-confidence, initiative, and problem solving. That concludes our units D of E expeditions for 2024 – stay tuned for our D of E programme for 2025! Thanks to everyone who has helped this year including Ben, Clair, Phil, …
On Monday, we had a Halloween themed evening. The Explorers carved pumpkins and played some traditional Halloween games including Stringed Donut Eating. The Explorers also wore varying levels of fancy dress – well done to all who won a best dressed prize!
On Monday, we held a unit version of Hunted. This year was the first year all teams were caught and the hunters were victorious! You will need to use guile and cunning to avoid the hunter force who roam Crawley searching for your teams. You will be considered captured if a hunter team is able to gain a clearly identifiable photograph of one of your team whilst you are on the run. You will not be notified if you have been ‘captured’ until you reach HQ. Therefore, keep moving and stay stealthy and don’t assume you’ve been captured even if you’re seen, you may …
We are pleased to share our 2024 Sweden expedition with you all below to download and keep if you so wish. Stay tuned for more information on our next international expedition in 2026…
Last night, the Explorers started the meeting with an Explorer run debate night – well done to Chloe and Franklin who prepared and ran the first hour of the meeting. We then held our annual D of E Expedition Presentation evening which included our summer expedition to Sweden Video, several Chief Scout Awards, a young leader belt buckle, 2 investitures, explorer of the year and Downsman Hike Competition Presentations – all in all a very busy evening! Well done to all our Explorers who received awards: We also welcomed two new members – David and Saxon The final three awards, …
Well done to both our teams who took part in the Downsman this weekend. Shackleton ESU entered 2 B Class Teams – one completed coming 4th however the other had to withdraw after completing about 45 miles at Alfriston as they didn’t have enough time left in the 20 hours to get to the end. Class B is targeted at older Explorer teams with good hiking skills, experience, fitness and endurance. Total Route Distance 55 miles. With the rest sections, each person will hike less than the total distance Route Bignor Hill to Eastbourne Start times Between 0600 and 0630 …
Over the past 2 weeks, the unit has been split over 2 activities. Half have been doing Archery at Stanford Scout Campsite – big thanks to Craig, Adam, Allen who instructed for us. The other half have been wooden spoon carving with varying results!