Scouts build bridges and towers at their first camp
150th Scouts spent the weekend of 12-13 October in the hills outside Tai Po building large-scale bamboo structures.
On Saturday, senior scouts led teams to build ballistas (catapults) and tossed wet sponges at each other. They spent the afternoon putting together two large signal towers. On Sunday, they built a monkey bridge and a swing.
They had a lot of fun cooking a tasty Japanese udon noodles dinner, and roasting marshmallows over a campfire. Breakfast was a traditional fry-up of heaps of bacon.
Pioneering is one of the most technical parts of the scouts curriculum, requiring hours of planning, solid engineering skills, and sound knowledge of knots and lashings.
You have to pay great attention to safety – especially when raising structures made out of heavy 15-foot (five meter) bamboo poles.
New scouts start by learning basic knots, and work on small camp gadgets like tables and chairs. They assist senior scouts on bigger projects. By their third or fourth year, most of them are ready to lead their own team to build larger structures.
The Hong Kong Scouting Association (HKSA) requires leaders to attend a two-day knotting course, followed by a month-long pioneering course. One leader must have a First Aid qualification (30 hours).
Corinne Vigniel
Scout Leader, 150th Hong Kong Group Scout troop
Group photo – scouts complete monkey bridge.
Ballista – scouts use a frying pan to toss wet sponges.
Scouts use 15 foot-long poles to build a Signal Tower.
