Date: 5-9 July 2010
In anticipation of the usual Scottish summer weather, this year's camp was titled Polar Extremes. Our two teams were polar bears and penguins, we had an igloo and a skier in the dining room and the walls were covered with snowy pictures. There was even an icy theme to sports day.
There was plenty of exercise to be had during the day. After the morning bible meeting, the boys and girls split up with one doing handcraft and the others doing games, swapping round after 45 minutes. We also had evening games after the evening meeting for those campers staying over.
We had three things to make in handcraft. On Monday we made penguins from juice bottles and rolls of black tape, adding feet, wings, beak and googly eyes. On Wednesday we decorated candles with paints, beads and sparkles and on Thursday we made a "Love" picture.
Our first trip out was to the Big Adventure in Linwood. The kids climbed up, slid down, bounced around and generally had an energetic time, while the leaders rested in preparation for the outings to come in the week ahead.
Day 2 and our big outing, to Heads of Ayr Farm Park. It has plenty of animals to see, including meerkats, llamas, rheas, tortoises and a huge python, and there are loads of outdoor activities. Favourite of this lot were the bouncy pillows. There's also a new indoor play area. The big attraction here was the drop slide. It took a bit of courage to push yourself off the edge, but most of the campers managed, and went back for seconds.
Wednesday is always sports day. The penguins faced the polar bears in a contest of strength, speed and agility. And welly throwing. We had a tug of war, three legged race, obstacle course and then some polar-themed events. There was ice-floe frisbee golf, ice-floe in the middle, roll the rock at the penguin and, finally, the leaders were cast adrift on icebergs and pelted with water balloons. A brief but intense water fight followed.
Our Thursday afternoon outing was to the Waterfront in Greenock, for swimming. We had a few hours in the pool, and greatly enjoyed it. And all the kids (and leaders) definitely got a wash this day.
On the final day we had an outing in line with our polar extremes theme: we went toboganning. We had the smaller slope of the Xscape Snozone to climb up, slide down, climb up, slide down, climb up, etc. The green sledges were definitely a bit more exciting than the red ones.
Hope you enjoyed the week of camp, and want to come back again next year.
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This page by David Meiklejohn.