Events

Some members of Shackleton ESU joined Drake ESU for their annual mountain activity weekend in south Wales for three days in the Brecon Beacons. Having travelled down on Thursday evening, Friday they enjoyed hiking across Bannau Brycheiniog ridge. The cloud was below the summits so visibility bad, but YP navigated well and reached the finish ahead of schedule. Whilst the young people and mountain leaders were up in the clouds, the support team made use of the area with some cycling along the Brecon canal while others walked in the Dare Valley Country Park. Friday evening following dinner they enjoyed …

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Well done to our Explorers who attended the County Award Presentation at the weekend. We had members collecting their D of E as well as their Chief Scout Gold and Platinum. We also had several collect their young leader belt buckle. The CSA Gold is the highest award a Scout can earn. To complete it, you need to complete all nine of the Challenge Awards, plus six Activity badges. The Chief Scout’s Platinum Award is open to Explorers and is linked to Bronze DofE. As well as completing some time volunteering, learning a new skill, getting better at a physical activity …

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This year, we entered 2 teams into the annual Downsman Hike Competition. Both teams completed Class E and managed to finish in record times for our unit. A big congratulations to you all and hopefully it doesn’t take too long for them to fully recover! Some details are below: Total Route Distance 38 miles. With the rest sections, each person will hike less than the total distance Route Steyning Bowl to Eastbourne Start times Between 07:30 & 08:30 Time allowed Up to 18 hours to complete the hike Age restrictions Minimum combined team age of 48 years and a maximum combined …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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!