The 4 musketeers

Compo Camp is one of the best and most enjoyable camps in scouts, however the Compo Camp my friends and I experienced in the winter of 2019 was a very different kind of “enjoyable”.

Before I get into my experience, I would like to give you a very redundant piece of advice. Always, always plan and prepare before a camp. This is something I overlooked, and lead to a series of regrettable events.

It all started on a Friday evening when a small group of scouts including me and 3 others crept into a car, strapped our seat belts and set in for a long quiet ride to the Vaal. The ride was longer than expected and so when we arrived at the venue the sun was long gone; the chilling cold had already snuck up on us and the freezing winds whooshed in from the dam. Just to set the mood; Imagine 4 boys, in a vast field with a trailer full of missing equipment, in pitch black darkness and ruthless frost. The first order of business was unpacking the trailer and setting up the tents for a good night’s sleep, but there is where I made the first mistake. See, tents are sized by how many people fit in them, and we only had 4 people, so why on earth did we decide to put up not one, not two but three tents meant for 12 people? I have been asking myself the same question to this day.  After we spent an hour trying to pitch the tents, we cuddled together for warmth and set in for a very long night.

The morning seemed hopeful; The sun was out shedding light upon our situation. The day went great, we built multiple structures, enjoyed each other’s company and met a ton of people. The day was way better except for the unrelenting cold. The day was long and eventful until it took another wrong turn-my second mistake. It was time to make dinner, my job was to pack the utensils and the rest of the scouts were the cooks. Here is where the advice of preparing comes in…I forgot to bring almost every pot and pan. After a lot of improvising, we had the most marvellous dinner ever all thanks to the cooks; We had Shepard’s pie with grilled mushrooms and garlic, and for dessert we had jelly pudding with custard.

The night rolled in and we had learnt our lesson, instead of sleeping in the huge tents we slept in our minibus which was the perfect size not to mention warm. We slept like babies. We woke up to a beautiful Sunday, the last day of camp and the most interesting. We took a boat trip on the Vaal and in the afternoon, we had our closing parade where the results of the competition were announced.

We came fourth for everything, just missed the podium………Oh and did I mention there were only four teams.