My Experience of Daniel's First Class Camp

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Written by Ursula Wilbraham

Published: 31 May 2022

By Samuel Higham

Hello, my name is Samuel Higham and this is my experience of Daniel Wilbraham's First Class Camp which was held at Appleton on 21 and 22 May 2022.

When we arrived, we unpacked all our equipment and started putting up our tents. This was done in an orderly fashion and our tents were put right next to one another forming a small kind of village. Once our village started to take shape, we built the entrance to our campsite which consisted of staves held up by three ropes on each side.

Once everyone had finished putting up their tents and the entrance way was complete, we started constructing our camp table. I am very proud of the way in which we constructed this table. It was the best thing on our campsite becaue it really looked like a fortress and became the main communal point throughout our camp. Its shade cloth roof also proved useful later in the day when the sun became really bright and hot.

After every campsite item had been constructed, we started working on our advancements. While some of the older scouts went to cook the bread, I stayed to help the younger ones with their advancements. We finished all the advancements which Daniel had planned for us because we were super speedy and this meant that we had lots of time for fun during the rest of the weekend. Our fun activities included exploring the area around Appleton, playing small games and recounting memories. This camp is one memory that I am going to keep for quite some time. Liam and I even did some mouse watching which was way more interesting than I thought it would be. The camp was a big success and a real bonding moment for all of the Kudu Patrol.

1st Durbanville Excels at the Gordon Shield Scouting Competition

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Written by Ursula Wilbraham

Published: 29 January 2022

The 1^st Durbanville scouts excelled at the 2021 Gordon Shield scout competition which was held at Hawequas in Wellington. They came 1^st at the Hawequas campsite and 5^th overall.

The Gordon Shield was run at two different locations on the weekend of 11 and 12 September 2021 to ensure that the national Covid rule of no gatherings with more than 100 people was met. 1^st Durbanville took 1^st position at the Hawequas venue where 14 patrols participated.

Another 15 scout patrols participated at the Rotary campsite at Glencairn where 6th Rondebosch took 1^st place and won the Gordon Shield overall. Second Bergvliet came second and the 1st Fish Hoek Ranger Guides came third.

The competition is a regional standing camp competition where patrols consisting of 5 Scouts camp under canvas, build gadgets and carry out other activities which are evaluated during the course of a weekend. Despite the rain, scouts from all over the Western Cape participated in the competition.

The Gordon Shield competition first took place on Saturday, 19 September 1915 at the Rifle Range in Clee Road, Observatory. The Competition initially tested scouts’ First Aid skills, but the following year the Competition included signalling and shooting.

In 1917 the Competition became a Patrol Camp and was run on very similar lines to the current Gordon Shield Competition.

CAPTION: 1^st Durbanville scouts at the Gordon Shield competition: From left to right: Tristan Casaleggio (Patrol Leader), Zoey Le Roux (Assistant Patrol Leader), Hannah Murphy, Daniel Wilbraham, Matthew Stead.