9th Headstone and 20th Harrow Brownies got together in April at PACCAR Scout Camp for our “I’m a Brownie, Get Me Out of Here!” themed camp.
We stayed in Rowallan lodge, which has 6 dorms of 4-6 beds, sleeping 30, indoor bathrooms, an industrial kitchen and a large communal space for eating and activities. We decorated this space with lots of jungle leaves, spiders, Australian bunting and of course our inflatable kangaroo!
The girls had a jam packed agenda. They kicked off with a scavenger hunt as well as decorating neckers with their names, for either the red or yellow six they were part of. They also helped set the rules for camp including helping leaders and other Brownies.
On Saturday we started with a craft inspired from the leader’s Craft day – we made Macrame rainbows for the girls to hang in their bedrooms. A rainbow was an aboriginal symbol so linked to the theme, as well as being a really pretty craft!
If you too would like to try this with your unit, you can follow the instructions here. I found the larger design easier than the keyrings as it wasn’t as fiddly.
My top tip for doing this in a Brownie age group is to have Young Leaders and Leaders all help with multiple glue guns and get the girls to put each completed rope on a page with their name to leave for the leaders to glue so the girls can get on with the next rope.
Keeping with the theme, we of course had ‘bushtucker trials’.
These included:
- Tasting Flavoured Crickets, Frogspawn (soaked basil seeds), Monkey Snot (blended kale/spinach), Pickled Slugs (gherkins), Kangaroo Eyeballs (lychee & black olive), Fried Maggots (indian snack). Girls received 1 point for eating 2 items, 2 points for eating 4 items, 3 points for eating 6 items.
- Blindfolded, girls had to use their feet to find the stars in a washing up basin filled with cold spaghetti mixed with oil with stars and plastic bugs inside.
- Blindfolded girls sitting on the ground with a limbo pole above them with doughnuts hanging from strings. They need to try and eat their doughnut. The first person to get a doughnut off the string wins.
- Squirty cream and gummy worms. Girls have to pick the worms out with their mouths.
The girls got points depending on how many trials they tried and these contributed to our Queen of the Jungle award.
Instead of a campfire, we had done some ‘bushcraft’ including firefighting and buddy burner building during the day which we then used to toast marshmallows on at night before the girls performed really imaginative skits for us.
We got the girls very involved with food over the weekend, making meals an activity in themselves. On Friday night they made part-baked baguette pizzas, for elevenses on Saturday morning they made really tasty granola, and for lunch they made up their own wraps.
They also did some baking, making and icing butterfly biscuits. Of course they also helped with duties too (and I made sure to photograph this for the parents!) Believe me, I was extremely thankful washing up happened outside when I saw the flood they created! But they were having fun as well as helping the leaders.
This was my first camp since becoming a leader and I loved it so I’m sure you can imagine how much the girls enjoyed it! Thanks to Fauzia, Jade, Naheed and Samira for all their great work in planning it as well as Jade’s Dad and sister who got roped into being our chefs on Saturday! Looking forward to the next one!
Gail Doré
Brownie Leader at 9th Headstone Brownies