The girls hit it off and all went to do crafts in Chapandale before joining the Guiders in Toadstool (where we were supposedly singing, but rather just enjoying being warm and dry!). The girls did sing a couple of songs and played quiet games before going to find an evening snack. Due to the rain, everyone drifted off to their tents early - although not necessarily to sleep. The rain continued throughout the night - letting up at times, but always returning.
We woke up to more rain on Saturday morning, but we were hopeful as the forecast was for it to end mid-way through the morning and for sunshine in the afternoon. The picnic shelter was a great, dry space for breakfast and we stayed mostly dry through camp duties (we were on garbage patrol) and opening. At 9.30am the rock climbers boarded the bus for East Park (archery participants would leave at 10am for the Archery Hood). By the time we reached East Park it seemed like the rain had finally let up. The areas of the park we were using didn't open to the public until 11am which was nice as the girls were able to access all of the activities without long waits. We headed inside before splitting up into two groups. We were doing rock climbing first and learned all about the proper knots, ropes, safety rules, climbing techniques and belaying before actually going up the ropes. The girls each had 2-3 goes at climbing different sections of the wall before their session ended.
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The groups switched, and we moved on to the other activities until lunch time. Their first choice of activities was the Jungle Gym - a large indoor structure with tunnels, slides, bridges and a ball pit - and they said that it brought back some fond "childhood memories". Each girl was also given tokens for the arcade games and tickets for a round of mini golf, 3 rounds of bumper cards, and a go-kart session. The go-karts were originally closed due to the weather, but we were lucky to be able to get in just before lunch.
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Lunch was an outdoor barbeque, followed by drop-in activities including finishing up activities from the morning, crafts and games. Crafts were a choice of fabric string bags, bandanas, small tote bags or pencil cases to colour with fabric markers. Games were human bridge (girls hold thick dowels while one person crosses the bridge) and the game where people try to move an object using rope only. But the best part - THE SUN CAME OUT!! We left East Park about 4pm and had free time back at camp. The girls dried up any remaining puddles or wet spots in the tents and then sat in the sun until supper.
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Supper was roast pork with apple sauce, mashed potatoes, corn and salad with brownies and ice cream for dessert - very tasty! Afterwards the girls all went to the lower camp to play a whole-camp game of Capture the Flag. We ended the day with a campfire led by Kris McGee. Songs included Tall Trees, Land of the Silver Birch/My Paddle, Listen to the Earth, Here the Lively Song, Whooping Cough, Flee Fly Flo, Ach Ven de Musica (in German) and Hey Hey Superman (in Spanish). We closed with Say Why and Taps.
Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny, but with some threatening clouds - though thankfully theses cleared quickly. We had everyone dressed, breakfasted, packed and the tents put away by 9.30am when the St. Thomas girls were being picked up. One of our girls left a short while later, while the two of us remaining settled in to wait for our pick-up at 11am. I think everyone enjoyed camp - we certainly made some new friends, survived the rain, and enjoyed some very tasty food.
