21st Darlington Scout Group - scouting in the north end of Darlington

27 Oct 2006 - Commondale Weekend

The 21st & 22nd Scout Troops spent a weekend in the Jubilee Centre at Raven Gill campsite at Commondale on the North Yorkshire Moors at the end of October.

This weekend would normally have been held later in the year as their ‘Early Christmas Camp,’ but this was the only weekend available this year. So the full Christmas dinner normally done on this weekend, became a Halloween dinner with suitable decorations.

On the Saturday the Scouts visited Whitby by train. The 11.15am train was running 20 minutes late due to delays back up the track, but the party still got into Whitby by lunch time. One thing that hadn’t been realised about the change in dates, was that this was Whitby’s ‘Goth Weekend’ with lots of people in costume. It certainly seemed to surprise some of the Scouts, though I think running into Darth Vader and a force of Imperial Storm Troopers surprised some of them more.

The visit included the Whitby ‘musts’, with a climb up the 199 steps to the east cliff, waffles with cream and strawberries, the Dracula Experience, a simulator ride, and a game of crazy golf.

The train got the party back to Commondale by late afternoon, where the Scouts relaxed for a couple of hours before early evening dinner, with beef, pork, chicken, yorkshire puddings, roast and boiled potatoes, peas, carrots, 2 types of stuffing, and of course apple sauce and horseradish sauce.

The evening continued with a wide game, then toasting marshmallows around a campfire, before some rather tired Scouts disappeared off to bed.

Sunday morning was spent on various activities around the site, then lunch came complete with birthday cake, as it was the 13th birthday of one of the 21st Scouts.

Then it was time to pack up and tidy out the centre, ready to depart later in the afternoon.