The Gorbals!

20^th-27^th July

Our Camas community this week was made up of sparky young folks from the Gorbals, Glasgow, accompanied by two lovely youth leaders.  

The mid week camp at Market Bay was lots of fun, with otter and porpoise sightings, edge of the world chats and stories around the camp fire.  The camp meal of baked potatoes and baked beans was particularly tasty.  

Another day, we shared an amusing reflection sitting together around a little fire in the newly built Round House at the top of the garden.  We talked about what was important in shelter, and what our needs were as human beings, and then shared the key features in our imagined ideal homes.  I look forward to visiting!  

The new polytunnel was in its prime, with lots to water, pick, and marvel over.  The week came almost to a close with Camas challenge on Thursday night.  The cooking was a breeze, with two young pros handling everything very calmly.  The entertainment drew a lot of laughs, with a comedy sketch, wise words from the future, singing and spooky story-telling.  

 The last evening together was Friday, with more kayaking, dolphins and a relaxed family dinner.  A great week!

Animal onesies at Camas

Recently at Camas we welcomed a fantastic group from the Provanmill/Blackhill area of Glasgow.

The group made their once a year journey to Camas, so many of the young people and leaders had been before and where very excited to be back, when they arrived at the top of the Camas track.  As soon as the group arrived they changed straight into their impressive assortment of animal onesies.

As the group had been before they had already achieved the first level of the John Muir Award.  So this time they aimed to progress and take on the Explorer part of the award.   This is a more challenging award to achieve but the group had already been working hard in Glasgow by organising litter picks in their local park. 

This award linked in with the nature walks done on their first day at Camas where the group walked to Trig Point on a damp and foggy day.  The walk was really enjoyable but we nearly lost 2 of the group to the Bogness Monster!!! as they went  waist deep into the bog. Another great moment was with one young person standing on the hill shouting famous lines from Braveheart!  

We even camped on Iona and went to the Monday night ceilidh.  The group arrived in their assortment of onesies that included a zebra, tiger, monkey, giraffe and gorilla all dancing away to Strip the Willow in the Iona Village Hall.

Activities this week included wide games, with an epic session of Capture the Flag and Sniper.  Each team had to design a flag and a chant that would strike fear in the heart of the opposition!

Some of the group had heard horror stories of the food at Camas and came armed and ready with hefty selection of pot noodles to keep hunger at bay.  However I’m pleased to say that the group learned to love the food at Camas and for the American themed Camas challenge they cooked Burgers and Chips. Mmmmm!

This 4^thof July, for the Camas challenge we celebrated Independence Day which was very special for our American volunteer Kelly.  One heart-warming moment was when the group closed the meal and one of the young lads stood up on his chair, at the dinner table and sang all verses of the American national anthem to Kelly.