Rain is no barrier for adventurous youth at ScoutHike
Published Tue 14 May 2024
They didn’t need a DeLorean to travel through time at ScoutHike 2024 – just some ingenuity and willingness to take on a challenge.
The annual competition run by Sydney North, which celebrated 30 years in 2024, saw Scouts taking a very wet “Tour of the Eras” through a rainy Belanglo Forest from 3-5 May.
This year, 808 Scouts took part, supported by 143 Venturer Scouts, 58 Rover Scouts, 292 Leaders and 48 adult helpers.
Congratulations go to Patrol 6610, Dutch Lions from 1st Haberfield Scout Group who were crowned the winners this year.
|
What is ScoutHike? ScoutHike is a competitive, lightweight hiking weekend where Scouts hike around the forest and sleep at six different pre-determined sleep points and complete 29 activity bases, staffed by Venturer Scouts, Rover Scouts, Leaders and adult helpers. The five Sydney North Districts run five of the sleep points with the sixth run entirely by Rover Scouts. Participants are bussed down to the forest and back from six different pick-up locations across Sydney. |
Themes
This year’s ScoutHike theme “Tour of the Eras” was based around six time periods:
- Mesozoic Era (Jurassic Period)
- Pre-historic Era
- Elizabethan Era
- Renaissance
- Victorian Era
- Modern/Contemporary Era.
The sleep points and activities were all designed in line with the theme, providing Scouts with a variety of different, fun challenges to take on across the weekend.
Activities
From channelling their inner Fred Flintstone in Bedrock Bowling to building a modern First Aid kit based off the requirements of a Plague Doctor and navigating an obstacle course inside "Galileo’s observatory”, the ScoutHike activities inspired and challenged the Scouts.
Patrols could be awarded up to 100 points for each activity, with up to 25 points allocated to one of four criteria:
- Planning the activity before starting it
- Attitude and enthusiasm during the activity
- Good leadership and the rest of the Patrol working as a team
- Achieving the activity task.
Despite the rain spirits were high, with 144 Patrols having a ball as they crisscrossed the forest to challenge themselves on the 29 activity bases.
