On 5 August 7 of our Cubs and 4 leaders enjoyed an excellent evening visiting the international Scout & Guide camp at Windsor Great Park.
On arrival we were given smart WINGS visitor lanyards and passports and then allowed to wander wherever we wanted around the HUGE campsite (over 6000 campers!). Unbelievably the first group we came across was the Finchampstead Guides (including GSL Dave’s daughter Charlotte)!
The camp was divided into 5 sub camps, all named after inventors. Cubs were able to collect sub-camp stamps in their passports, catch up on the news printed in the camp daily newspaper and watch as the drama of the kidnapped teddy bear unfolded….
Bell sub camp had a newly painted ‘Tardis’ at it’s entrance and our Cubs were invited to pose for pictures even as the paint dried.
The official (and very noisy) welcome ceremony was held inside a circle of country flags and it was here that we split into 2 groups and were introduced to our host Scout groups – one from Spain and one from Finland. The Scouts then took us back to their areas of the campsite – both within Harington sub camp, which had a toilet seat hanging over the entrance…. the Cubs did find out why (but I wonder how many of them remember?).
Our tea was cooked by, and shared with, our host groups – all the while exchanging information about scouting, school, sport and life in general, in each other’s countries. The Spanish group taught our Cubs some running-about games and some songs, while the Finnish group sang Grace to the tune of the Eurovision Song Contest theme tune and tried to teach us some Finnish language… we also got given birthday cake and licorice sweets and badges to take home with us.
After tea, and as the sun began to set, we were escorted to the stage area of WINGS, to watch the start of the ‘WINGS has got Talent’ final – we couldn’t tear the Cubs away from the show even when the assembled Scouts and Guides turned to say goodbye and wished the visiting Cubs & Brownies a safe journey home.
The end of the evening came far too quickly and one of our Cubs even asked if he could stay the night! To quote another one of our cubs at the end of the evening: ” I love my life, I have had a fantastic night”.
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