On saturday 11th January Hillsborough Explorers spent the day volunteering with the Eastern Moors Partnership helping to surface a section of the concessionary bridleway on Big moor. The new bridalway will make it easier for walkers and cyclists to get about over some of the more boggy areas of the moor. The day was organised as part of our work towards our Environmental Partnership Award.
Well done to Joe, Connor and David (and Gabe) for achieving their Chief Scout Diamond Awards this week. They finished a 3 day expedition in the North York Moors in August to compete the requirements for their Diamond Award, the second highest award in Scouting.
This week saw two rival teams, The White Riders and The Nazguls, battle it out for control of our HQ. The Nazguls routed the opposing faction, reducing their fortifications to rubble, thereby securing their grip on the HQ.
The Explorer section has grown considerably over the past year and this September we welcomed our newest batch of recruits, bringing our total membership to 20 Explorer Scouts. We have also welcomed several new members to our growing leadership team.
Recent activities have included our annual curry cook-off competition, Mexican theme night, QI quiz night, indoor golf, Aerial Extreme, raft building at Underbank Activity Centre and a night hike in Greno Woods.
In August, Hillsborough Explorer Unit joined 1,500 other Scouts from all over Europe to take part in Walesby World Experience 2013. This fantastic international camp combined traditional Scouting activities such as zorbing, climbing, air rifle shooting and laser quest with live music performances and days out to create a truly memorable experience for all involved.
We continue to work towards our Scout and DofE awards with several expeditions having taken place in North Yorkshire and the Lake District over the past 12 months. By this time next year we should have a number of our members achieving their Queen’s Scout Awards, Scouting’s highest honour.
As the section continues to go from strength to strength this year promises to be our best yet.
Yours in Scouting,
Jeremy Knowles
Assistant Explorer Scout Leader
To kick off our new term we visited Underbank Activity Centre in Stocksbridge for an afternoon of raft building and other team building exercises, followed by a (somewhat successful) BBQ by the reservoir. The leader team won the rafting race with a simple yet effective design inspired by many a camp at Walesby Forest. Well done to everyone who took part and for some really impressive raft designs. Let’s make this year our best yet!
From September we will be meeting at the slightly later time of 7:30-9:30pm. This is to accommodate a new cub pack which will be meeting before us on Monday evenings.
This year Hillsborough Explorer Unit joined 1,500 other Scouts from all over Europe to take part in Walesby World Experience 2013. This fantastic international camp combined traditional Scouting activities such as Zorbing, climbing, air rifle shooting and laser quest with live music performances and days out to Lightwater Valley Theme Park and Lincoln to create a truly memorable experience for all involved. Take a look at our video for some of our highlights from camp.
Video montage from our visit to Aerial Extreme (Sheffield) on 15th July 2013.
Well done to Kieran, Dillon, James and Connor for completing the Apex Spring Challenge. Their results are as follows:
Sub total: 420
Caught penalties deducted: 50
Total: 370
Finishing 80th out of 86 teams.
This week we visited Paradise Island Adventure Golf at Centertainment. We played two rounds of 18 holes in their custom built indoor golf course.
Hillsborough Explorer Scout Unit 