One hundred years ago a small group of youngsters from Leighton Buzzard picked up a copy of the Baden-Powell book ‘Scouting for Boys’ and started the first Scout Group in the town based on the open air activities and self sufficiency this Mafeking hero described. Today, and many hundreds of adventures later, the idea of building camp fires, cooking your own meals, and constructing makeshift shelters still attracts young people. There are almost 500 of them from the area who have just completed their centenary camp, a milestone in the long history of the Scout Movement in Leighton Linslade.

Aged from six to 18, these young males and females (girls joined the Scouts in 1977) enjoyed all manner of open air activities. They built traditional shelters from loose branches with soft bracken for bedding. They made fires without matches using flints and dried leaves. And they cooked marshmallows and pizzas to eat. New Chief Scout and adventure hero Bear Grylls has taken Scouting back to its roots and shown how to survive in the wild.

The Scout camp, in the rural setting of the Bedfordshire countryside at Henlow, may seem a bit removed from raw nature in Patagonia but the basic principles of survival are the same.  The Scouts showed that none of the teachings of Baden Powell has been lost. Apart from cooking and building tents, the Scouts constructed and sailed rafts, negotiated greasy poles across make belief crocodile infested waters and used bows and arrows.

But fun was not far away. They made sedan chairs and raced them over an assault course that left a few with bruises they proudly displayed as the purple badges of the contest.

When you wanted to chill out you went to the Friendship Zone and tried all manner of fun things. You could find out about exploding paints, identify trees from leaves and twigs and search for insects and other creepy crawlies. And if you wondered about the washing up you had to look no further than the carefully constructed draining racks outside some tents made from branches and twine.

Then, in the evening, the camp fire was lit and the young people gathered to celebrate their centenary camp with traditional (and sometimes risqué) songs and camp fire stunts. Compared with their ancestors in Edwardian Britain, these young people are blessed with television games, iPod and microwave ovens. But for three days this summer they forgot about all these 21^st century amenities to enjoy a do-it-yourself, back to basics adventure that will give them playground stories for many months to come.

Leighton Linslade mayor Cllr Karen Cursons spent over six hours at the camp and was thrilled by what she saw. Cub Scout Robert Chancellor aged 10 from Trinity Scout group showed her how to climb a 30 foot wall with ease. She heard of another Beaver Scout Louis aged six from Church Riverside who reached the top of the wall at his first attempt despite a disabled leg. But the climax of the day was when she saw the sedan chair rally won by the  A-Team from Linslade Scout Group. She said, “That was one of the most exciting races I have seen. The leaders and helpers are all unsung heroes. It’s incredible the work they do.”

Over at the Outdoor zone Beaver Scouts scoured a muddy pool for tiny creatures and transferred most of the mud to hands and uniform. Alexia Lee (7) managed to find a wriggly worm but had trouble deciding which end was which.

The theme of the camp was Scouting through the ages with costumes to match. Among seven groups, the 1940s team had gas masks, the 1960s team dressed as MODS and  Rockers and the future team came as spacemen.

As District Commissioner Matthew Slade-Pedrick said at the end of the camp, “We have all had a wonderful camp and one we will remember for years to come. Now’s your chance to tell all your friends what adventures you can have in the Scouts and get them to join in too.”

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