Has anyone else ever been woken up in a tent by a lionness roaring at quarter past three in the morning? On Dartmoor? This was my second Girlguiding adult-only residential in September. Two weeks ago I was at Try Inspire Qualify and now I’m pitching my tiny yellow tent in the rain at a zoo! … More We snoozed at the zoo!
Welcome back to the second part of Camp Wildfire 2026. The story so far: it’s rained for 24 hours, I’ve made a copper necklace, mastered lino printing, earned a point for Hawks Patrol in Filipino stick fighting and met the Chief Scout. And now, on Camp Wildfire… I always wake up early in a tent … More Camp Wildfire 2026 part 2 (in which I
After three years, I’m back at Camp Wildfire! I said last time that I probably wasn’t going to bother; that after a credits error in my favour in 2023, I didn’t really have any activities left that I desperately wanted to do, at a festival that’s all about the activities. If there was anything I … More Camp Wildfire 2026, part 1
Part two of Rebel Summer Camp! If you don’t know what it is, go back and read the first part because I’m picking up on Sunday morning with no further explanation. Sunday started with a hike down past the gladiator duel, through the woods, under the road and through a bit more woods until we … More Rebel Summer Camp 2025: Sunday & Monday
Rebel Summer Camp is always such a big thing that it deserves two posts – you just can’t get the whole thing in one. So this is Friday and Saturday. I dithered over going to camp this year, since it’s three or four hours away up the M5 and M6 but eventually I decided I’m … More Rebel Summer Camp 2025: Friday & Saturday
There are some camps that go down in legend, to be talked over ten or twenty years later. The one with the storm that knocked the Ranger tent over so that they were scared to go and alert the leaders and everyone ended up getting sent home for two days so we could clean up … More Back to Basics Guide camp was definitely type 2 fun
I like to go camping. That is, I think I like to go camping. The reality is that for one reason or another – or several reasons – I never really actually sleep in a tent. But I like to get away from my life for the weekend without feeling like I need to explore, … More My latest camping disaster
In part 1, I told you what the Rebel Badge Club is and what Rebel Summer Camp is all about so if you don’t know, you can go and read that. In the meantime, I’m jumping straight into part 2, Sunday and Monday. Greta 2’s first scheduled activity at 9.30am was board games. I’m not … More Rebel Summer Camp part 2: Sunday and Monday
Let’s talk about the other big exciting thing I did this summer: I went to Rebel Summer Camp 2024! I didn’t go last year; it was a lot of money and I had doubts about whether a single person can put on an event of that scale. For context, it’s about the same price as … More Rebel Summer Camp part 1: Friday and Saturday
At first, camping on Brownsea Island seems dreamy and idyllic – your very own island, free of tourists for the evening, and more astonishingly, free of Scout camps! But then you realise there’s an infestation of hornets within the campsite and then thunder rumbles over and you realise you’re on an island a mile and … More Camping on Brownsea Island (again)