Mountain+Camp+-+June+9+-+11

=Mountain Camp - June 9th - 11th 2011media type="custom" key="19204680" align="right" =

The long weekend saw 18 Guides & 3 Guide leaders, from Coonabarabran and Tamworth, gathering at the Woolshed in the Warrumbungle National Park for a 3 day ‘Mountain Camp’. The girls were aged from 6 to 15. The younger girls were on their first Guide camping experience and they camped in tents inside whilst the older girls camped outdoors in tents. We were lucky to have beautiful weather during the day though the evenings were rather chilly. However that made activities around our Campfire even more fun and everyone had plenty of warm bedding and rugged up well.

The girls aged over 10 and some of the leaders had a brilliant time learning how to abseil with Phil Draper, Roger Rowe and Max from Coolah. A few had abseiled before but for the majority it was their first time so there was some overcoming of fear as they took their first step backwards over the edge. Everyone had a go at a 5 metre drop, then 10 metres and then most girls took on the 15 metre drop and it was only because the sun was setting that we didn’t go higher! Thanks so much to the patience, encouragement and guidance of Phil, Roger & Max, the girls can’t wait for next time!

The older girls from the Coonabarabran Guide Unit took on leadership responsibilities to run various camp activities. Daisy and Molly lead a fantastic Campfire which had the girls singing their favourite new songs for the rest of the camp. Jasmine facilitated the Guides Own which was set in a beautiful location by the creek. Gabi organised torch games in the dark which lead to lots of laughter and they then toasted marshmallows and did some star gazing sitting with their backs to the campfire – the highlight was seeing the Emu, set in the milky way. The girls worked in patrols all weekend, cooking all their meals, washing up, putting up tents, packing up etc so really putting their teamwork and cooperation skills into action.

Kite making was a big hit as the girls all decorated and made kites that all flew and it seemed that every spare moment was taken up with running around the woolshed with a beautiful bright kite flying behind them! Some of the girls got to see a real wombat rambling through the National park as they made their way to showers – a first time sighting in the wild for us all.

Mr David Sulter took us a very informative walk up to Tara cave where we learnt many aspects of Aboriginal culture and the bush. A big thanks to Mr Sulter who made the walk a very special experience.

See more photos of our Mountain Camp.

A Big BRAVO to Bilby (Elizabeth Betts) for all your efforts organising this great camp and to Cookie (Gwen Church) who joined us from Tamworth with her Guides.

A sure sign that the girls enjoyed their camping experience was the girls asking when the next camp is on and wishing that the camp was longer! The leaders just need a little rest and then we will work on planning the next one. We are already scheming as it was lots of fun for us too!