The Unit's New T-Shirts - January 2006
The proud first 14 'Stuffed Penguins' - Shurdington's Explorer Scouts


Olly(11) - Ollie(04) - Johnny(13) - Tony(07) - Simon(02) - Kate(01) - Jessica(06)
Callum(05) - Tom(09) - Sally(12) - Rachel(14) - Emma(03)
Matthew(08) - Will(10)

BROWNSEA RELOADED - 1 to 4 AUGUST 2005
(A report by Emma & Kate)
See also full report on the Scout Association website

Day One- 1^st August
Took a bus up to Eurojam .Was put in Tagus group, Emma was in Pyrenees. Given Eurojam Necker and a Brownsea Necker (see photo). Was quite scary at first no-one knew ANYONE in our groups. We played some games in our sub camp group to get to know each other. Then, we spent as much time as we could with around 10,000 young people trying to do as much as possible! The whole day that we were there, there were hundreds of activities to do. I did things like swapping badges, went on the radio, painted, made woggles, did circus skills, and even tried Hungarian food. Because we were only at the camp for 1 day, all our tents were made up for us, and we had hosts for the evening meal. I went to an American group with four others for our main meal which we were the guests of honour for! Evening entertainment was amazing, quite overwhelming, there was so much to do. There was the main stage, which had lots of loud music every night, then there was a disco tent, and lots of Café/bars. At about 11pm I went back to the camp base, it taking me about half an hour because I got so lost in a sea of tents!

Day Two- 2^nd August
Had cooked breakfast with the Americans . Bus journey over to Brownsea took AGES! But was good got talking to lots of other people and there were games and competitions to do. Got over to Brownsea was really good weather walked up to our campsite. Were split into even more groups I was in wolves, Emma was in Curlews. The idea of the sub camps was to split us up from the people we knew so that we could make new friends. We got to know people in our groups and then explored the site. The dining tent was ginormous, and the food was really good!

Later, we had our dinner and then went to have the evening entertainment. . We were given straw cowboy hats decorated with our sub camp colours to wear, because we were going to be barn dancing! I didn’t expect this to be much fun, but it was amazing. We were all dancing on the top of the island with a live band with people we didn’t know! This was a real icebreaker for most people and it got everyone geared up for the next day

Day Three- 3^rd August
We were woken up by loud music and banging pots and pans at 6:30 in the morning to go to have breakfast. The aim of the day was to do 12 activities in 10 hours! The day was really good and exhausting! It didn’t help that the temperature was around 90 degrees and there were many people with heat exhaustion and sunburn. We did activities like kayaking, sailing, shooting, archery, laser quest, fair trade, and environmental work, team building and inflatable!

In the evening we had a fame academy singer come to perform and then a disco. At the end of the day there was a slideshow of photos of us with the new friends we had made. Amazing Day!

Day Four- 4^th August
Woken at 6:30, had breakfast and then packed up. Had a long journey ahead of us. Got e-mail addresses and had flag down. End to an incredible camp.

  Clearing out Room 101 - Feb05 

And The Venture Den

  Narrowboat Experience - Oct 2004 

A Collection.  November 04 - DESC / ESL / Jess invested at St Paul's Church, Shurdington. Pudsy collection, an evening with the Vicar, Rev. Richard Mitchell.

When we hear the expressing Trading Post it no doubt takes our mind back to cowboy films and log cabins filled with everything the Pioneers needed to set up a new home or business in the Wild West. Well, not quite the Wild West but more like South Cheltenham on 22nd November 2004 where our six Explorer Scouts hosted their idea of a Trading Post. Some two dozen Explorer Scouts from Cheltenham District met in the Century Hall and proceeded to trade. They formed new companies and traded for one hour under such names as Chicken Heads (655 Shurdies), Kej & Co (675 Shurdies), Kalora (710 Shurdies) and Sexy Mandy (winners with 775 Shurdies profit). They bought articles from the Leaders present, went off to their tables, and came back with something indescribable made up and ready for sale. Leaders bought back whatever they thought was well enough constructed, adding a bit of profit. A typical example was buying a cardboard box, piece of wood and a rubber band for 20 Shurdies, the local currency, and selling back a cardboard guitar for 100 Shurdies; a neat profit. They all had a great time and the winners were Sexy Mandy - whoever she is! Sadly Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley could not make it. Instead we had the pleasure of Pat Hopes, District Commissioner, and Paddy Langham our new DESC, to judge the event.

Buffalo Bill

Annie Oakley

The old Trekcart was finally brought out of mothballs in July 2004 with a hope of its being renovated this summer by Shurdington's Explorer Scouts. The Trekcart was rescued and fully refurbished in 1975 by Prestbury Venture Scouts. In the early 90s, and due to lack of space for storage, it was taken over by Shurdington Scouts, and used on several occasions, in particular for the collection on hundreds of blankets and clothes during the Romanian crisis. It was also used as a saulting base on St George's Day Parades. It now requires major repair, especially to the two cart wheels.