Welcome to 1st Durbanville Scouts
Three scouts at the 1st Durbanville Scout Troop recently earned the prestigious Springbok Award which is the highest advancement a South African scout can attain.
Oliver Murphy, Dean van Schoor and Tara Casaleggio, have been scouts at 1st Durbanville for several years and all successfully completed the Springbok advancement despite several limitations imposed on them by lockdown regulations in 2020.
Oliver Murphy completed matric at Fairmont High School in 2020 and apart from his Springbok advancement, he also achieved the Gold Level in the President’s Awards in 2020. The Gold Award Programme is the most inclusive youth development programme in South Africa and in achieving the Gold Level of this Award, Oliver has successfully completed the following: 72 hrs of community service over a period of 12 months, 12 months of developing a particular physical recreation activity, 12 months of developing a particular skill, an Adventurous Journey of 4 consecutive days and 3 nights with a group of four peers and, finally, a successfully completed Residential Project of 5 consecutive days and 4 nights in an unfamiliar residential setting with people not within his usual circle of friends.
For the past five years Oliver, Dean and Tara have been active members of the 1st Durbanville group and have participated in all the major scouting competitions held in the Western Cape.
The Springbok Award is the culmination of many years of hard work and plenty of adventure. During the last phase of this journey these scouts had to, amongst other things, complete 40 hours of community service; plan, organize and hold a troop camp for a minimum of two patrols; and plan, organize and execute separate patrol hikes of no less than 30 km over terrain that they had not hiked before over a period of three days.
In addition, Oliver Murphy and Tara Casaleggio elected to do a pioneering project whereas Dean chose to plan and execute a three course meal for a number of guests.
CAPTION: From left to right: Johann Visser (Troop Scouter), Dean van Schoor, Oliver Murphy, Tata Casaleggio and Ingrid Webster (Assistant Troop Scouter)
My Experience of Daniel's First Class Camp
- Details
- Written by Ursula Wilbraham
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
- Details
- Written by Ursula Wilbraham
The 1st Durbanville scouts excelled at the 2021 Gordon Shield scout competition which was held at Hawequas in Wellington. They came 1st at the Hawequas campsite and 5th 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. 1st Durbanville took 1st position at the Hawequas venue where 14 patrols participated.
Another 15 scout patrols participated at the Rotary campsite at Glencairn where 6th Rondebosch took 1st 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: 1st 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.