Welcome new Rovers!

Howzit howzit!

Last evening we officially had the privilage of investing Joshua and Damon as fully fledged Rovers in the 1st Bothasig Rover Crew! Welcome to the Crew guys!!!

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Feedback: CW12 District Orienteering 2009

Hi All!!!

Ok so today was the 2009 District Orienteering and I’ve got to say I feel it was a big success. We tried a few new things (longer times, more points to test time management,etc.) and think all went well! Just a few point I’d like to make clear before I get into the results:

There are 7 active troops in the district, that means around 21 full patrols at least. This year we only saw 8 teams from 4 troops. To those who didn’t attend, this competition is FREE! It’s only a few hours on one day a year and everybody sees the date on the planner almost 6 months in advance. There aren’t many valid excuses for not attending so please don’t let the scouts miss out on these opportunities. In the same breath, it’s difficult to plan these type of events and we’ve already lost out on Roberts Trophy for lack of interest, don’t let the Orienteering go in the same direction!

Another point, for those teams that did attend, remember orienteering is about 2 skills: Mapping & Management. Junior teams tended to score low due to bad plotting, but with practice this gets much better (even the top orienteers were juniors once). The senior teams lost out due mostly to bad time usage, this comes down to planning. We are going to be putting the orienteering plans out on this site so feel free to use them as practice sessions in your troop!

So here are the final the results:

1. 1st Table View Cobras   -   260 points
2. 1st Bothasig Hawks   -   247 points
3. 1st Blaauwberg Seagulls   -   166 points
4. 1st Bothasig Leopards   -   119 points
5. 1st Bothasig Eagles   -   117 points
6. 1st Bothasig Cobras   -   78 points
7. 1st Factreton Swifts   -   0 points
8. 1st Factreton Leopards   -   -3 points

The maximum points achievable was 350. Click here to download the full score breakdown in .pdf format. As alway, you are all winners for attending so WELL DONE!!!

1st Table View Cobras - Winners of District Orienteering 2009

Finally, we will be putting up all the documentation and maps we used on the site at a later stage so watch this space!

Cheers!

Mandela Day 2009

Howdi All!!!

Everyone knows the story of Nelson Mandela and his struggles against Apartheid here in South Africa. But what we may not all be aware of is that he dedicated a full 67 years of his life to helping his fellow man! Now it’s our turn.

“Mr Mandela spent 67 years making the world a better place. We’re asking you for 67 minutes.”

Some of you may have seen the about slogan before and if you haven’t, take some time to think about it. On the 18 July this year, and hopefully every year to follow, is international Mandela Day. On this day everybody in the world is urged to spend 67 minutes helping others. This can be anything from reading to the elderly, to a big service project. The perrogative is yours, but the important thin is that we all take action!

As Rovers remember that our motto is ‘SERVICE’ so lets make the best of this opportunity to put ourselves to good use. This goes to any Scouts and Cubs reading this as well, this is the kinda thing we are meant to be doing (don’t forget your 3rd scout law). Also remember that Nelson Mandela is the patron of the Scout Movement, so let try do him proud!

In any case here are some links you may find useful:

• The offcial Mandela Day website.
• Follow Mandela Day on Twitter and tell the world what you plan to do.
• Official Facebook page for Mandela Day.

Hope to see you all participating!

Bothasig Crew Wins Hawkeye Again!

Howdy all!

On Saturday, 7 June, we took part in the Hawkeye. Now, for those who don’t know, the Hawkeye is the one trophy that Western Cape Rovers compete for every year. Also, it’s a cool sword-in-the-stone looking trophy (Awesome!)

Anywho, this year’s theme was “1950′s – The Ratpack – casino evening” and boy did the organisers deliver!

Each crew member was issued with pokerchips and told they had to go around the casino (3rd Claremont Scout Hall) and make us much ‘money’ as possible by gambling. This included: Texas Hold’em poker, poker dice, Black-Jack, balloon darts (not what you think), 30 Seconds and horse races. From the beginning already we had the competition, thanks mostly to sheer dumb luck, and a little bit of skill.

Four horse races took place hourly, and thanks to our jockey, Llewellyn, we won all four! Eventually we had to stop and cash in, so we could see who had the out-gambled the others. The chips were totalled for each crew, then divided by the amount of crew members to get a per-member average. The crew with crew with the highest average would be the winner.

The totals were in, and it was announced that we had won (actually we owned the competition by a huge margin), with and average of R460 per member. Now the Hawkeye Trophy is back with us for the second year in a row!

Overall it was an awesome evening, creating a chance for us to socialise with the other crews, and to enjoy ourselves. Thanks to the organisers!

New Chief Scout: Bear Grylls

Howdi All!!!

Many of you many recognize the face of BBC survivalist Bear Grylls from TV shows ‘Born Survivor’ and ‘Man vs. Wild’. In fact these shows are such a wealth of outdoor knowledge if you still haven’t seen them, then make a point to do so.

Anyways, Bear has been appointed to the coveted position of Chief Scout of the Scout Association as of 17 May 2009, and he is the youngest person ever to fill the role since it was created by Lord Baden-Powell in 1920.

Edward Michael ‘Bear’ Grylls was born in the UK on 7 June 1974. Bear was raised in Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. After leaving school, Bear spent much time hiking the Himalayas where he became one of the youngest Britons to summit Everest (at the age of 23). The then signed up with the military where he passed the United Kingdom Special Forces and served with the 21st Special Air Services (SAS) as a survival instructor and Patrol Medic. Some of Bears other achievements also include:

• Rowing 22 miles naked along the River Thames in a homemade bathtub to raise funds for a friend who lost his legs.
• He and some friends made the first unassisted crossing of the North Atlantic in a rigid inflatable boat in 2003.
• Bear holds the record for the hosting the highest altitude dinner party which was held in a balloon at 25000 feet.
• Bear, amongst others, holds the record for the longest indoor free-fall which is just over 1 hour 36min.
• He broke the record of highest paramotor flight when he flew 29500 feet, over the peak of Everest.

On the Bear Grylls Blog, Bear wrote the following about being elected Chief Scout:

I am so proud to be able to announce publicly the Scouts have appointed me as their next Chief Scout. It is a post that is a dream come true for me, as someone who has always just loved getting muddy and hanging out with good friends!

It is an honour I would never have even dare imagine as a young scout aged 7 sitting on a pavement trying to figure out how to cook one sausage with one match! (It took a while to work out the fire thing!)

But all I have ever sought in my life is the camaraderie that comes from high adventure, and this is exactly what scouting gives us all – the chance to dare to have a dream and the opportunity to follow it.

There are 28 million Scouts now worldwide and the movement is growing faster than ever before – and the scope for fun is HUGE!

So, I hope I can bring big ears and a big heart to all of you guys – I am here for you, through the email: chief.scout@scout.org.uk and I hope to get round as many scout groups and camps as I can in between filming.

This post for me is about bringing the chance for those who would never normally be able to afford it or to find it, to have the opportunity to live a great adventure. This is all about you guys, the young Scouts, and the more of you I meet the more inspired I am. You are the future of Scouting and together we are all stronger.

And don’t forget the inspiration you all are to others young people in your communities. People admire Scouts and what we stand for, so together we must help touch people’s lives wherever we can.

Good luck Bear! Hope you enjoy your adventures with Scouting!

Malaysian Scouts Build Tallest Tower

Hi All!!!

I’ve often wondered, and heard others wonder, what the world records are for the biggest and best pioneering projects. As far as can be determined, there are very few official world records for any of these types of projects. One record I did find was for the tallest pioneering tower built by Scouts. Note that this tower holds the Malaysian Record NOT the World Record.

On 28 May 2008, 50 Scouts from the Shiang Yang 219th Kinta Troop began a project which would take them 10 days, 5000 mangrove poles and 300kg of rope to complete.

The end product: A 40.26m tower, with  9 internal levels that entered it into the Malaysian Book of Records! And the really unbelievable part is that this entire project was completed without the use of cranes or any sort of machinery, it was built totally by hand! Incredible!

Click here to see the official newspaper article!

101-Year Old Scout Honoured

Edward Whitehead, the oldest scout!

Edward Whitehead of Detroit, USA, has been awarded the Arbor Foundation Centennial Award by the Boy Scouts of America for his outstandingly long service to the Scout Movement. Around here we are impressed if a Scouter achieves his 20 year long service award, but Edward has been involved in the Scout Movement for 87 years! And at the age of 101 he is still going strong!

His scouting career started in1922 when he joined Troop 113 in Albion, Michigan as a scout. He then moved on to troops in Detroit where he has held the position of Cubmaster, Scoutmaster and Advisor. During his scouting time Edward achieved the Silver Beaver award, which is the highest award an American scout can receive. He is now involved with the Detroit Scout Center.

This guy really shows the scouting spirit!

Check the full article here.