Report on the Moonta Water Activities Camp

On the weekend 17th-18th of December 2022 four Scouts from the 1st Gawler Friday Troop (Jamieson, Will, Emma & Charlotte) and one Lone Joey (Lily) participated in a Water Activities camp at Moonta for their end of year party.

The camp commenced the evening prior to departure with the Scouts, under the supervision of Troop Leader Jamieson, sourcing the shared equipment from the Q-Store and then loading this equipment plus their personal gear into the trailer. Despite the ‘party’ aspect of the camp the Scouts treated this camp as a dry run for an overnight Hike Camp so all tenting, cooking and so on was as it would be on a hike- boogie boards and beach gear excepted.

Departure from Gawler Hall on the Saturday was at 8.30am, arriving at Moonta Scout Hall just on 11.00am with a brief pitstop at Pt Wakefield. The first priority was to set up camp with the tents being erected behind the Hall. The next priority was to hit the beach.

The tide was on the way out, there was a good breeze and the water was cold so we almost had the netted enclosure to ourselves. It was wetsuits on and onto the boogie boards and out to the pontoons for the next hour or so before an ‘all you can eat’ late BBQ lunch on the foreshore. Beach cricket, more swimming or the Water Park were the order for the rest of the day.

That evening, after dinner the Scouts took the opportunity to conduct their reviews of the previous Troop night activity of rock-climbing at Vertical Reality and of the Cycle Camp (from Sandy Creek to Nuriootpa) some two weeks prior. After that was brainstorming for the next year’s program. Much needed entertainment after that brain work was to watch a couple of episodes of Bear Grylls Survival School. We reckoned that we could do everything we saw on the show as well as they did. Well worth watching, if only so that you know that you’re a match for Bear Grylls’ Scouts.

Sunday morning was the usual pack up and then hit the beach again. Same weather, but stiffer off-shore breeze and many more people. We went straight out into the water again and, soon afterwards, the funniest part of the morning.

A woman, clearly a non-swimmer, hopped into a very large inflatable unicorn raft and rapidly floated away from the beach. Quickly it became obvious that she was unable to return to the shore so the Scouts paddled out towards her and were the first to reach and assist her.

Clearly, Scouts are more scary than they look because her reaction was to instantly jump out of her raft – which didn’t help the situation. Luckily, two adults reached almost immediately afterward and were able to coax her back into the raft. However, it still took two adults pulling and two Scouts (Will & Emma) on boards pushing the raft to bring it back to shore against the stiff breeze.

Not the most dramatic of rescues but the Scouts were the first to spot the problem and reacted instantly to offer assistance. The Scouters felt that they’d definitely done their ‘Good deed’ for the week.
After that it was another hour in the water, then lunch and homewards.