November 2016

Friday 25th November


Present: Berno, Raven, Colin, Elisabeth, Finn


Absent: Ludwig, Dryden


The program was in preparation for campfire and nothing els. At the start we played two inside games wile the PLs planned how we would light the fire. We first decided on shooting a flaming arrow from a tree at a pile of chemicals that would ignite but for some odd reason finalised the decision on having a zipline with a flame and have that ignite the chemicals instead, mainly because of "safety". Every patrol was required to contribute two songs and one new scit for this campfire since the cumbs will join us and we have been the same songs and scits for a wile. Elisabeth came up this our scit (the rich man and the dam) and our songs will be "my sargent major" and " Mr. Jonny..." Good songs I believe... We were not able to perform because of time this Friday but I am sure that the Albatrosses are ready for next week.


Program run by: John


Patrol on Duty: The Albatross Patrol (TAP)

November 2016

Friday 18th November


Present: Berno, Dryden, Finn, Collin, Ludwig


Absent: Elisabeth


The program was centred around stalking and we were not able to use the hall because of the parents meeting which took place. A few rounds of canned sardines were played . The game works as follows... Normally there would be one persone who would go out and hide and everybody els would go and look for this person. Once you found the persone you should hide with him without alerting the athers thus it is an individual game and there is always one lost chap that would still be looking for the persone wile everyone els has already found him. On the way back the Penguins (Guan and Sam) picked up rubbish that inspired athers to do the same. The Albatrosses also planned there hike together which will take place this holiday for three days and two nights.


Program run by: John


Patrol on Duty: Penguins

November 2016

Friday 11th November


Present : Berno, Dryden, Collen, Fin, Elizabeth, Ludwig, Raven


Absent: none


The program started with a game of british bulldogs on the highschools field and lasted a round. Afterwards the scouts went to the hall were they had a session about stalking , done by Jhon, followed by a yaan and then a  tracking scenario set up by Frans, Jana, Rachel and orchestrated by Berno. The  Albatrosses and the Seals teamed up to follow the tracks Frans made, the Penguins followed the tracks made by Rachel leaving the Seagulls to follow the tracks Jana made. The Albatrosses and Seals were the first to finish followed short after by the Penguins and finally followed by the Seagulls who went off following the wroing tracks. The scouts gathered at the Scout Hall before hedding off to there final wide stalking game in the dark. There was an object placed in the bush which emitted light for the scouts to sneak up on without being caught by two sentries , Frans and Dirk, who was partolling the area. The game ended after 10 minutes due to time and nobody won legitimately meaning obtaining the item without jumping out of the bush and running another 20m out in the open followed by dodging the two sentries and then picking up the item shouting "I won!" Raven joined the Albatrosses today from cubs and he seems to be a capable scout. This is also the first blog entry done by Berno.


Program run by: Berno
Patrol on duty: Seagulls

May 2016

Friday 7 May

Present: John, Berno,  Dryden, Angela, Ludwig
Absent: Elizabeth

Tonight we decided to play the game. It is a scout game that we thought of it has no name and is very complex. We just has to get the other patrols discs to our side before the time ran out and without them touching us and if they did touch us we had to go to prison and the only way you can be freed from prison is if your patrol members come to free you. We had nothing else planned for the evenng so we just played several rounds of it and we played until the end of the evening.

February 2016

26 Feburay

Present: John,  Dryden, Elizabeth, Angela (new), Ludwig (new)
Absent: PW, Erick, Berno, Willem

Tonight Frans and Berno ran a fitness program which involved several activitites that we needed to complete as a patrol, we had to do to push ups, sit ups, Group burpies. We had to carry patrol members on our backs across 6 meters and we had to get to a really high point on a tree and as the finale we had to climb a rope from sitting without using our feet. We finished the quickest, but the penguins were able to finish everything

February 2016

Friday 12 February

Present: John,  Dryden, Elizabeth, Angela (new), Ludwig (new)
Absent: PW, Erick, Berno, Willem

Tonight we had a coding theme and we started off by playing falling staves with a twist, so instead of calling out left and right we called cat or dog or even a type of cat or dog to make it more difficult this worked very well. Mitch then gave us each a note with 4 different codes to solve ranging in difficulty to solve and we ended up being the quickest patrol to finish all the codes as everyone worked together! We still had time left after this so we decided to play dodge ball in the hall. Mitch, Jana and myself tried to get all the the others out and in the end all the scouts had a turn to throw the 3 of us. We then had flag down after a great evening.

February 2016

Friday 5th February

Present: John, Dryden, Elizabeth, Willem, Erick
Absent: PW, Berno

This Friday the senior scouts had a COH which took up most of the night. While all the other scouts led by Viper went up Hoys Koppie to make maps. All the maps turned out quite  well and could be followed to an extent. Everyone then returned to the scout grounds for flag down.

January 2016

Friday 29 January

Present: John, Berno, Dryden, Elizabeth, Willem
Absent: PW, Erick

We started with a quick game of bogged down (stuck in the mud) With the whole Seal patrol 12 scouts chasing us.
We then had to grab equipment from the store and trek to the old harbour to go and make a free standing flag pole. It took us much longer then expected to walk to the old harbour with all our stuff so we had very little time to make the flag pole. The Seagulls won in the end because they were the quickest to finish, but ours was the most sturdy!

January 2016

Friday 15 January

Present: John, Berno, PW, Dryden, Erick, Christiaan, Elizabeth
Absent: Willem

This Friday was campfire, because we didnt have camp fire on troop camp. It was too light to have campfire immediately so we all went into the hall to fill in forms for star patrols. It went resonably well I think we got a bronze, but I thought we could do a lot better by planning more fun activities during the holidays, doing community service and keeping this patrol blog up to date.

After all the forms were filled in everyone gathered around the campfire as Dirk, Jana, Mitch and myself came with a long pole with a burning rag attached to it to light the fire it was a really unique way of getting it started. Then each patrol did a skit and a song and we had a naming cerimony where some new scouts were given scout names and it ended off with us all eating cupcakes, because it was Spirit Bear's birthday.

February 2015

Friday 13 February

Prsent: John, Berno, Daniel, Austen, PW
Absent: Cuan

We started off with an inter-patrol kims game. We had a minute to remember 24 objects, but we could work as a patrol. We then wrote down as many as we could and we got a great score of 23/24!

Mitch and myself had gone out into the graveyard before scouts and written down names and dates for the scouts to find. We explained to them the theme of 'friday the 13th' and they set out to try and find the names. Mitch and I had set the names out in quite a wide area, so in the amount of time it was quite difficult to find the names. It was quite a difficult task, but everyone enjoyed it in the end.

We then headed back to the scout hall for flag down.

January 2015

Friday 30 January

Present: John, Berno, Daniel, Cuan, PW (Iain has left to the seagulls patrol)
Absent:

Josie gave a talk on 1st aid ond a very important and indepth demonstration. While I took Frans and Iain to the field behind the Church, to help me set up a game. It involved getting discs from the centre of the field to the to your teams base. It was very fun and quite challanging and firts but in the end we got the hang of it.
We then walked back to the scout hall for flag down and the end of the evening.

January 2015

Friday 23 January

Present: Iain, John, Berno, PW, Daniel, Cuan
Absent: ---

Tonight there was a new vister to the troop his name is Cuan and he is very keen to join.
Josie took all the recruits and survivors to show them how to make fires without matches as well as looking at edible plants. The rest of us decided to make a catapult. We had 30min to build it and it turned out amazing. It shot  about 7 meters and it was the biggest one that we have ever made. Mitch bought water balloons at Checkers and many people got soaking wet from the catapult.
We than had flag down after a great evening.

November 2014

Friday 21 November

Present: Iain, Berno, Daniel, PW, John
Absent: Christopher

Tonight the 'old PLs' and seconds got to scouts early to have a COH. It was decided that berats and unifom short pants will be worn next year.
We than had opening perade and Josie ran the programme. We were given a map of the area and we had to find bases that were on the map. The bases were all at different locations and a different task had to be done at each. We had to to do knotting, lashings, stalking, mapping and ground to air signals. It was losts of fun as we all rushed around finding the different bases and we had to complete each in under 10 minutes.
At the end of the evening these were the final scores: 3rd Seagulls, 2nd Seals/Albatrosses, 1st Penguins and they recieved a large reward of easter eggs.
Another very well run programme by Josie!

November 2014

Friday 14 November

Present: Iain, Berno, PW, John
Absent: Christopher, Daniel

Tonight the program was run by Frans, Dirk and Bryn. We had to make hamburgers from scratch, we were just given bread dough, raw mince and were told to make a burger sauce with the ingredients we had brought.
We had to do our cooking on the fire, but it was pouring with rain and we had a tight dead-line. We ended up running around like crazy tying to cook the ingredients alternating from the fire to the gas stove (where we had no oil or butter to fry the patties on)
Everyone's burgers ended up being burned on the outside and raw on the inside. Our sauce was really good though, it was a mixture of hot sauce and chutney. The burgers didn't turn out that bad in the end, the judges summoned us in we presented the burgers nicely on a plate with a steamy cup of hot chocolate. They were quite impressed (the hot spices must have blocked out the burned/ raw tastes)
I than said a quick yarn on my community service and friendship activities with the patrol.
We then had flag down they announced the winners: 1st Seagulls, 2nd Albatrosses and 3rd Seals/Penguins
We were really happy that we got second, with our hard work.
A very good and well run program.

November 2014

Sunday 9 November

Poppy day (11-11)

Once a year we gather as scouts (and cubs) to honour all of those who have died in the wars on the Sunday closest to poppy day.

We form up on parade along with the army, NSRI and the MOTHs. Numerous parties than lay wreaths around the memorial. Josie and Elizabeth then went up lay down our wreath.

Speeches were than made and scouts and cubs began to get a bit weary in the sun, but they were all happy to receive ice-cream afterwards.

November 2014

Friday 7 November

Present: Iain, Berno, John, PW, Christopher
Absent: Daniel

Today we had a PL swap, I as patrol leader went to last rank and my second and P3 Iain and Berno took the place of PL and second. This is to remain for a month to see how well they lead and if they will be good PLs.

It was the AGM and we normally have a braai evening with the all the parents and committee members. We split into two groups, the one had to prepare a wreath for the memorial parade and the other had to prepare fires for the masses of meat that had been brought.

Everyone enjoyed a meal on the fires we had prepared. The wreath was beautiful with purple and white flowers.The evening was greatly enjoyed by all who were there.
We than had flag down and I'm sure everyone arrived home well fed.

October 2014

Friday 24 October

Present: Iain, Daniel, Christopher, John
Absent: Matthew, Berno, PW

Tonight I ran the programme, it was about mapping. We started with a game in the hall: North, South, East, West. The scouts than had to find different bearings from different places in line of sight from the scout hall. They than they did a big wide game where each patrol was given a street to find and the had to take bearings to the street, all while trying to avoid Felix, Puma, Viper and myself who wanted to 'kill' them.
The seals did very well and were first back to report to me. The penguins were next who did an excellent job of avoiding us and getting many bearings, so the seals and penguins both shared a first prize of lollipops. We than played a final game in which Puma flung a robe around and we had to jump over it as it came around.
It was a great end to another great evening!

October 2014

Friday 17 October

Present: Iain, Berno, Daniel, Christopher, PW, John
Absent: Matthew

Today we had very special guests from Australia, that come every year Tristan, Freye and their troop scouter/ father Trout.

We had a lovely evening planned by Josie, it was to create awareness for disabled people. we had different bases. 

At Puma's base we had to wash a cup with one hand, fastened buttons without fingers, we had to write our name with anything but our hands and we had to tie our shoes without looking at them.
At Trout's base we had to build a tripod without talking to each other and with everyone blindfolded but the Patrol Leader.
At Josie's base the patrol members had to lip read a message from the patrol leader and we had to read a message in a mirror.
At Felix's base everyone was blindfolded except the patrol leader and everyone had to do an obstacle course and we had to hold a line and identify objects on the line. We also had to fall-in blind.

At the end of the evening I invited some senior scouts and the Australian scouts to a sleep over in the hall as a friendship activity. We had hotdogs and coffee and tea, we played mafia and cards. The next morning we had cornflakes and left.

It was a great evening, that we enjoyed until the next morning.

August 2014

Friday 22 August

Present: John, Iain, Matthew, Berno, Christopher, PW
Absent: Daniel

This Friday was another mad dash for Gordons, to get any last minute equipment together and to get ready.
We scrubbed pots and pans, tied ropes and got equipment. Some of us also ran off to get last minute fresh foods, like apples and meats.

Before we knew it it was the end of the night. We were all very excited and ready for Gordons, lets hope all goes well!

Well done to our Gordons teams!
Team #1-17th
Them #2-21st

August 2014

Friday 15 August

Present: John, Berno, P.W ( new boy Pieter-Willem)
Absent: Iain, Matthew, Megan, Daniel

This Friday it was a mad dash for Gordons. We fell in as Gordon patrols:

Team #1: John, Mitch, Iain, Frans, Berno, Matthew, Fabio, George
(but it was only Mitch Frans and Berno and myself present)
Team #2: Jana, Bryn, Dirk, Loedewyk, Kayleigh,Martin, Jayden, Damian

We grabbed all the equipment that our patrol needed, we cleaned pots and pans, we gathered together staves and ropes. Then we stopped and were told to grab an item and go to the hall. There P.W was on a seat with a blindfold on, all the objects were scattered around and the lights were switched off. We had to make it to the other side without P.W 'shooting' us with his torch and while trying to avoid various obstacles that we had brought with us. After we had, had several rounds and P.W had slayed us with his accuracy we went back to getting ready for Gordons until the end of the evening.