District Cub Camp - 24/25 February 2007

What an AMAZING RACE we had this weekend!

45 Cub Scouts together with 10 Leaders joined together for a District Camp at Arrowe Park in Benoni.

We departed on an Air Seychelles flight - - - destination being Switzerland! Pilots, crew and Air Hostesses were top notch!

Our Pilot in action.

Take off!

We hit a bit of turbulence en-route and the Air Hostesses showed everyone the safety precaution of the "brace" position.

Our lovely ladies serving drinks to passengers in "1st Class" !

We travelled to many countries on the aeroplane and one of them was Australia where we made boomerangs.

Beautiful Switzerland was another stop-over where many challenges had to be completed.

Cubs are showing you the Swiss Chocolates they found, with only some of them having the "red Swiss Flag" on them.

Having fun in Switzerland.

Yet another mind-boggler....

After completing all the challenges in Switzerland and collecting one puzzle piece at each base, Cub Scouts had to put the puzzle pieces together to form the name of their Swiss Rescue Dog. Once these pieces were put in the correct order (as show above), the Cub Scouts could turn over the pieces, and wow.... the Swiss Flag appears.

... and it was off to Holland - famous for all their cheese.

We had fun rolling the cheese across pre-determined lines where points were awarded to teams who rolled their cheese between two ropes.

We decided that to visit Italy would not be the same if we did not have a bit of spaghetti to go with it! Here the Cub Scouts had to tie the longest "rope" to win. This was not as easy as it sounds..... you try and tie cooked spaghetti together!

.... and then it was off to Monaca for the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, courtesy of Ms Daisy.

Racing round the track....

just look at the concentration on the face.... but fun was had by all the participants.

Cubs will be cubs!

Enjoying themselves..... as all Cub Scouts do.

Cubs playing a Kim's Game and doing some serious "thinking"..

Each Cub Scout made their own fishing rod and did a little fishing in the dam. No fish were caught, but we did catch some .....

CRABS!

The crabs in Homestead Lake love biltong!

Arrowe Park, Benoni, South Africa at its best.

Campfire Circle, Arrowe Park, Benoni, South Africa.

A great place to bring Cub Scouts for any camp.

Till next time

Keep Cubbing

Akela Joy

Southern Suburbs Camp - 17/18 February 2007

Freddie Makhabele from 1st Southern Suburbs held a camp for his cub pack at Arrowe Park this weekend. There were 18 cubs who had non-stop fun! Arrowe Park is an ideal venue for Cub Pack camps and can be found on the banks of the Homestead Lake in Benoni.

1st Southern Suburb Cubs making their menus for lunch

Some more menus!

The cubs painted these glass jars with beautiful patterns and then just before the campfire, they were lit and placed to form a pathway. It looked stunning!

Towards the end of the camp, the cubs collected twigs and tied them together to form a raft. After having earlier made fishing rods and been fishing, they were keen to get out to the water once again! Here they are with their rafts ...... and they all floated!

Children and water - there seems to be some attraction! Here we have some of the cubs and their rafts on the banks of the dam.

Till next time

Keep Cubbing

Akela Joy

Baden Powell - Cub Meeting 16 February

As we all know, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB (22 February 1857 to 8 January 1941), known affectionately to us as B-P, was a Lieutenant-General in the British Army, as well as a writer, and the founder of the Scouting Movement.

B-P as a young boy was educated at Charterhouse School where he loved to swim and play sports. He often hid in the nearby woodlands and he learnt to "freeze" when teachers were looking for him!

At our Pack Meeting on Friday, the cubs learnt more about B-P .... and here they are hiding away from Akela! We could not find them - they were so well hidden!

Hiding away from Akela!

B-P's holidays were spent yachting and canoeing with his brothers.

Our cubs made beautiful sailing boats from all natural items.....

....... that we found in the woodlands close by.

..... and off we went "canoeing and yachting".

Surprisingly enough, they all floated.

After B-P had finished his education at Charterhouse School, he joined the British Army and was posted off to India and Africa where he served 3 years in the Secret Intelligence Service.

Our cubs listened intently to what B-P had done and then got down to some "secret" stuff themselves. We had set out a message in Morse Code which they had to decipher!

We truly had a stunning meeting with the Cubs doing great, outdoor, fun-stuff.

Till next week

Keep cubbing

Akela Joy

Special Hello from 9th Benoni Bambanani

This is a special hello to CONNER and DECLAN SUMMERFORD who have moved to America in January. The cubs at 9th Benoni Bambanani (South Africa) send a special hello to you both and send lots of love. Here they are waying to you and sending summer greetings.

Please continue to keep in touch with us..... and let us know what you do at school and when you are going to join a cub pack.

Lots of love

All of us, Balloo, Bagheera and Akela.

Buzzing Bees - 9th February 2007

We welcomed a new adult leader into our Pack. Rebecca Hall (Bagheera) was invested as a Pack Helper and we wish her all the very best.

Rebecca being invested by our ADC - Kitty Sales.

Two our our Lions showing us how to tie knots!

One of our Leopards completed a compass exercise.

.... and here we have our Cheetahs having completed their Nature Ramble in Arrowe Park.

Today we leant some fascinating facts about bees! They are really quite remarkable little creatures. After playing a few outside games we ended off with this one which the cubs really enjoyed.

Feeding each other "royal jelly" but blindfolded!

You can see by their faces that they were having great fun!

Do you think he knew where that spoon was going?

Just look at that naughty smile!

This is certainly a game they enjoy no matter what the theme.

When this pair had finished, they had jelly from top to toe!

Hope to see you all back again next week.

Till then, keep cubbing

Akela Joy

Cub Gala - 3rd February 2007

What a day we had! ..... great weather - great swimmers - great Akelas!... what more could we ask for.... and on top on that... 9th Benoni Bambanani won the annual District Gala.

The Swimming Team and the well deserved trophy.

The Kicker-Board race

We have a fun raft race whereby three cubs must push the tube and one must sit inside. The cubs love this race! These are our youngest cubs - the Cheetahs.

These are the next age up - the Leopards.

Our Novetly Race caused great excitement. Cubs had to tie a Reef Knot around their waist and around a tube and swim in a shallow pool to the other side; drop the tube and pick up a lighted sparkler and run back to the other side where a "loaded" gun (water pistol) would be waiting. They then had to wet three by-standers while returning to the other side of the pool.... You can just imagine how the cubs loved this activity!

The theme was James Bond 007 - and here we have our very own "007" with his lighted sparkler on his way to retrieve his weapon...

Every year we have a "cork-bobbing" race for every age group. Millions of corks are thrown into the water and once the whistle is blown, the cubs jump in and collect - by any means - as many corks as they can. They shove the corks in the costumes, in their caps, in their ears - all over! We then count who has collected the most corks.

Erin and Kendra very proudly holding the cups - with Balloo behind them.

.... and here we have a few of the boys with the cup!

W E L L D O N E

to all our swimmers.

We are very proud of you all.

Till next week

Keep Cubbing

Akela Joy