Scouting

I’m back, I knew you’d miss me.

I spent last week in tent, in a field, next to a river, trying to resemble the rough approximation of a scout leader. As you can imagine I had no computer, Wi-Fi, or much spare time, hence the lack of update to the blog last monday. This week it’s going to be a bumper double edition (though if you’re reading this in the order that the blog publishes it, you’ve already read the other half of this double). It’s probably for the best that I didn’t get a chance to write anything last Monday though as the week following my Tri was really boring.

So yeah, anyway. I’ve been a scout leader for a while and scout camp for me is essentially an excuse to spend a week living out of a tent and kayaking. Not everyone’s idea of a good time I’m sure, especially when you throw in 20 scouts to look after but it is actually a whole dollop of fun as far as I’m concerned.

As one of the kayak coaches I spent the days pottering about on the Thames in my white-water boat, trying with partial success to discourage scouts from throwing themselves into the river. In the evenings I had some free time to take the K1 out for a blast and I was able to clock up 20k over the course of those few days, on my longest solo run I managed ten kilometres, at an average of 8.5km/h. Swapping in and out of the WW boat and the K1 made me realise why I am increasingly turning my attention to K1 paddling. A trip around a handy island in my WW boat (admittedly with a cohort of scouts in tow) took over forty minutes. In the K1 it took six. It’s almost frustrating how sluggish the plastic boats move on slow moving water.

A quick change of subject but very much blog related… I can’t remember if I have put up a picture of my medal board here yet. Up until the end of last week I shared half of it but it was becoming increasingly crowded, so in a spare few minutes I kicked out the previous tenant and increased my real estate.

Medal Board