Category: Events

This weekend, 18 of our Explorers braved Stanford for a survival themed camp. On Friday, they pitched hammocks and started fires to cook their evening snack. On Saturday, they had to cook all of their meals using only fires and no utensils. They also had to build a Bivi to house their group which would be their home for the second night!

On Sunday, they had to build a survival gadget and then watched a demo around how to skin and prepare a rabbit. Unfortunately this year the other rabbits didn’t defrost in time for the explorers to have a go!

We unfortunately didn’t get to complete some of our other activities as the bivi’s took longer to build. We also water tested the bivi’s today with varying levels of water tightness!!!

Congratulations to both of our groups who successfully completed their D of E expeditions in the New Forest this weekend. Walking around 60km over the 3 days, the teams also demonstrated teamwork, navigation skills and excellent camp craft.

We had excellent weather and both teams actually looked like they were having fun most of the time!!!

A few photos are below.

This year 23 Explorers from Shackleton ventured to Yorkshire with Drake ESU for a joint summer camp. In total, we had over 50 people in our party!

We set off in minibuses on Saturday 22nd July and on arrival at Thornthwaite Scout Camp, we setup our site and had a quiet evening on site and cooked our first dinner.

On Sunday, we sent out our D of E Gold practise expedition. Others on site did some onsite activities including crate stacking, caving ladder and wobbly pole!

On the Monday, we had a day trip into York before setting out on on overnight expedition on Tuesday and Wednesday passing over Whernside Ridge. This turned into an eventful day where a medical incident resulted in us summoning mountain rescue to extract a party member (they are safe and well and undergoing further medical tests to understand what may have caused it!)

Later in the week, the groups split into 3 groups, one canoeing, one cycling and one climbing. This continued for 3 days and before we knew it, it was time to pack up and come home.

Summarising the camp as a challenge is probably an understatement – all of our Explorers did us proud and showed true resilience through some difficult situations. They adapted and just got on with what was needed – they were a credit to the unit.

Congratulations to our explorer team who completed their Duke of Edinburgh Award Bronze expeditions in Ashdown Forest this weekend!

The Duke of Edinburgh programme gives young people aged 14-24, the opportunity to develop themselves in scenarios they would not normally experience. The fun but challenging expeditions take young people out of their comfort zones, whilst building confidence, teamwork, life skills and friendships.

If you interested in joining us, get in touch today.

10 Explorers and 4 Leaders have just returned from the New Forest on a D of E practise expedition. Both teams successfully completed the three day expedition during which we had beautiful (if slightly cold) weather. We stayed at Ferny Crofts Campsite and Wilverley Campsite which gave a varied experience.

Well done to both teams and here’s to the assessed expedition in August.

From Thursday 6th April to Sunday 9th April, Shackleton ESU held our Mountain Activity Camp in the Peak District. After departing Crawley at 10am, we travelled up to Gradbach Scout Campsite where we pitched our base camp before eating dinner and preparing the activity days ahead.

On Friday after waking up and eating breakfast we headed to Windgather Rocks where we spent the day in glorious sunshine doing single pitch top rope climbing. We also set up a speed climb to see how quickly they could scale a simple climb with times between 8 seconds and 16 seconds. After a full on day, we returned to the site for dinner and a well deserved rest!

On Saturday we headed out bright and early to Edale to setout on our day of hill walking on Kinder Scout. 2 groups scaled up Grindsbrook Clough with some introductory scrambling. The third group headed up a slightly easier ascent so they could familiarise themselves with hill walking. After another glorious day of walking, we returned to the campsite for dinner and started to strike camp.

On Sunday, we had our earliest start yet so we could leave site at 9 and be fully packed. Needless to say, Explorers dont like early morning when we woke them up at 6.15am! After striking camp, loading the minibus and trailer, we travelled to Poole Cavern for a cave tour before eating lunch and travelling back to Crawley.

The camp was a great success, all of the Explorers behaved well however if we would have asked for one thing, that was warmer temperatures over night – having ice on tents and sleeping bag outers in the morning isn’t too pleasant!

From 2nd to 4th December, Shackleton Explorers enjoyed a winter camp at Bentley Copse Scout Campsite. Staying inside in Palmer House, the cold didn’t bother us! Activities including a night hike, zipline, crate stacking, climbing, abseiling, rifle shooting, karaoke and lots of food!

It was a nice relaxing camp to celebrate a successful year with successes at the Downsman, Rifle Shooting Competitions and D of E.

Thanks to the leaders for supporting the activities this year, here’s to a successful 2023!

On Sunday 2nd October, West Sussex Scouts held their first inter-district Explorer shooting competition. 3 teams entered after a 4th had to withdraw at short notice.

They took part in various events including 6yrd rifle and pistol, 10yrd rifle and pistol, crossbow and sprint and shoot.

Congratulations to Crawley Scouts Team for scoring the highest combined score across all of the events which consisted of Freya, Olivia, Jack and Mirjam.

We wish our team luck for the national championships in a few weeks time!