Roverdene Challenge 2023

Forty-seven Scouts from across the District met at Roverdene campsite on Saturday 11 March for this year’s Roverdene Challenge.  This was the first year that the challenge had been held over a weekend, and the extra time gave the groups enough time to plan a route on the first day visiting a number of grid references in order to complete Part 1 of the challenge.  Groups were marked on the quality of their route card, the quality of the meal that they had to cook on route, how many questions they answered correctly and how many bonus points that they were able to visit.  No-one lost any points for arriving back late (in the rain) at Roverdene, so timekeeping was excellent. After a very complex scoring system, ‘Yes, No, Maybe’ from 4^th Caterham were declared the winners of Part 1.

At this point a few Scouts (in fact very few) left for home; the rest of us moved on to Part 2 – pitch your tents in the rain and the dark! The second part of the challenge was to light a fire in a small wood burner and keep it going long enough to boil water for a hot chocolate.  Not so many takers for this part of the challenge, as most were very tired from their earlier efforts, but Phoenix and David from 1^st Warlingham were eventually declared the winners – well done!

After a surprisingly quiet night, we all packed up the next morning and left for home.  All in all a very successful challenge and thanks to Reg, whom we all missed, for dreaming up the idea in the first place.  And also a big thanks to all the leaders who supported me over the weekend and especially to Martin Burke who created the question set.

Hugh Franklin
District Scout Leader