With extreme winter weather closing schools and bringing the United Kingdom to a near stand still it may seem surprising to hear that around 2,500 hardy scouts have just enjoyed (or endured) a weekend of winter camping fun in East London.
If you, like me, love your warm comfortable bed, especially when its cold and wintery outside, then you too will be wondering why anyone would want to sleep outdoors while there is snow on the ground. But as one hardy young explorer scout told me it’s all about being prepared (the old scout motto). This means having the right camping equipment and some good quality, warm outdoor clothing and plenty of layers.
There were no less than 70 adventurous activities available for the scouts to enjoy and keep warm. These included abseiling, zorbing, orienteering along with trampolining and snowboarding.
Safety was, of course, a high priority for the event. Organisers carried out careful risk assessments to ensure that those coming to the Gilwell campsite in east london would be safe.
To keep warm at night, when temperatures plummeted to minus six degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit), the hardy scouts doubled up on sleeping bags and squeezed together with fellow scouts to share body warmth.
When I chatted to a few of the tough young scouts they said that the key to staying warm in these winter conditions was to wear plenty of warm layers. They told me that they were padded out with no less than 7 layers, at least two pairs of gloves and very thick, warm winter socks. They also suggested that I should wear a warm hat as a lot of the bodies heat can be lost through the head (something to do with its surface area, so I was told).
Although I could see that these boys and girls were clearly having a wonderful time in the winter snow I was glad to get home to my warm, centrally heated house and to sleep in my comfortable bed rather than wrapped in sleeping bags in a field somewhere in East London.