Event Report: Summer Junior Camp

Bunbury Summer Camp

Summer camp this year was held at the Eaton Scout Camp near Bunbury from Friday 14th to Monday 17th January, with 23 juniors and 11 coaches and parents participating. Two 12-seater buses were used to ferry the juniors around Australind and Bunbury. It was great to see six new juniors at this camp: Hunter, Elena, Neve, Quinn, Christopher and Elianna.

On Friday afternoon, soon after arrival and refreshments, Ian and Jan assisted by Nick gave the juniors a lesson in safety and handling of the big Canadian canoes. The Collie River next to the camp was ideal for this activity with calm water, but the stiff sea breeze made for hard going into the wind.

Friday night was the team building Lego Masters Arch competition, run by Rob and Lois. The four arches were soon completed with all blocks used and then tested by driving a RC truck through the arch. Lois then chose the best overall design.
Saturday morning it was off to the Australind Primary School and Koombana where Tom and Sarah ran orienteering activities using SI at the school and tapes for the beach. Riley prepared the juniors with warmup exercises.

Next was the very popular Real Combat Laser Tag in a large warehouse where the juniors were in four teams armed with rifles and all the scores were monitored by computers and instantly up on display for all to see. Local Bunbury junior Eckart was the overall star and his past experiences at the venue really showed.
Come Sunday morning, we were off to Bunbury Catholic College for Sprint Relays set by Rachel and Craig. This activity kept everyone busy in the small complex map. Then there was a quick pack up and trip to Gravity for a one hour session on the wide selection of trampolining type activities.

After a pleasant picnic lunch at The Lakes, it was off to Shearwater for some bush orienteering, set by Andries and assisted by Sten and Nick. The warm, dusty conditions did not dampen the enthusiasm and it was a testing time for the juniors new to orienteering. After the warm bush activity, it was a delight for the juniors to cool off at Koombana for a well-deserved swim out to the pontoon.
Later that night, Rachel and Rob held two indoor orienteering activities to complete the formal program.

Each morning at 7:00 am, Rob sent everyone off for a jog along the Collie River before breakfast. The caterers did a great job providing teenage appropriate food and the vegemite scrolls proved to be a most favourite snack.
Many thanks to SWOT and in particular Robyn, Peter and Hans for the use of their maps and their orienteering equipment. Thanks also to Rob West and his team of coaches for organising the camp.