Jacob and I attended the cub scout campout in Kao Yai this weekend. The campout was held at an "eco-friendly" site, which in my estimation is code for not great facilities.
He had a great time camping. We arrived on Friday after the expected two and a half hour bus ride stretched to four hours due to traffic. Unfortunately by the time we got there, we had only a little day light left to put up our tent. This turned out to cause us problems that night, because I did not have the rain sheet on correctly. I didn't stretch it out away from the tent so it wasn't pulled tight. I'm not sure if I would have noticed if we had gotten their earlier or not.
Hey, the rain sheet shouldn't have mattered anyways, as it hadn't rained for months; well, it hadn't until that night. We ended up with water in our tent. It wasn't a lot of water, but then it doesn't take a lot. The worst part was that I had some books in the corner of the tent, and that is where the water ended up. Bad for books.
Between the rain and the fact that I don't sleep well in a hot tent, there was not a lot of sleeping Friday night. On Saturday, the morning was spent doing some team building events, like the one pictured. The kids made a circle holding a rope, and the idea was that they would stretch it tawt and lean back. The early results were not encouraging, but they finally figured it out. Not before the parents showed them how it was done though. They also had fun on the low ropes obstacle course.
The pack split up in the afternoon, and Jacob's group did some navigation with a compass, some archery, and had the chance to brave the high ropes course. Jacob demonstrated some real skill with the bow and arrow, as he popped a balloon on the target on his third shot. On his last round, the instructor let him handle the extra large bow (which was half a foot taller than he). The instructor had to help on that one, as it took more power to pull back.
I think Jacob's favorite activity was the high ropes course. It was ten or so meters off the ground. The kids had to climb a rope ladder, and there were a number of activities, such as walking on a beam, crossing a rope ladder, walking on an tight rope and another which I forget. He showed no fear and really did a great job. What was really impressive was the six year old girl who also braved the course without hesitation or fear.
Some of the boys who climbed the ladder became very afraid when they made it to the top. At least one just sat there refusing to move for more than five minutes, while a couple of others were actually panicked. Of course the parents were trying to encourage them. One mom was commenting how she didn't understand why the boy (not hers) wouldn't just take the step since he was wearing a harness. Instead, he wanted to just jump down. She said something to that effect to him when he got down.
Um, maybe because fear is irrational. Yes, whether he scooted off his butt and was lowered down or whether he tried to walk the beam and "fell" and had to be lowered down is in many ways the same. Rationally speaking it makes sense. To a nine year old who was panicking though, it wasn't the same.
The Webelos actually got to help prepare dinner (they spread bbq sauce on the kabobs), aid in the clean up, and organize the camp fire entertainment for the evening. The entertainment included some games and jokes. A couple of parents told a scary story. I shared one that I read from a scouting book written by Tim's cousin's husband Tom Mercaldo. I was told that some of the kids were a bit scared, which I guess means it worked.
One of the cool things we did see was a tarantula in its hole. On Saturday night, one of the fathers brought a few of us over to show it to us. We didn't let the entire group know, largely out of fear that they might try to poke it with sticks. I didn't try to get a photo, as I didn't have an off-camera flash, and it was quite dark out.
On Sunday morning, Jacob was changing, and I saw a somewhat deep cut on his hip. He told me he got it from falling when he was playing. Fortunately the school nurse was on the trip (her son is in our den) and she cleaned and bandaged the cut.
After breakfast, our group went off-site and did some hiking and canoeing. I passed on the canoe trip, as I was concerned that it might hurt my knee and wrist.
When we were packing the tent up to leave, it rained for ten minutes. The timing was just impeccable. Jacob and I rode home with one of his friends instead of taking the bus. The trip was a lot shorter.
Overall, I still don't like camping very much. Jacob, however, had a very good time and looks forward to doing it again.
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