1st Stanstead Abbotts and St. Margaret's Scout Group

18 Scouts and 10 leaders braved the sticky, gloomy and strange smelling Secret Nuclear Bunker on the first Friday night of half term. Upon arrival the Scouts dropped their kit with the Leaders and then entered the bunker through an ordinary looking bungalow which served, during the bunker's operational period, as it's secret entrance. The Scouts entered the bunker itself via a long underground tunnel and followed an audio trail around the three floors of the bunker. The tour deposited the Scouts at the canteen and main accommodation area, which was later to become their 'sleeping' quarters.

While the Scouts were getting themselves settled in (well, having a mass pillow fight), Alastair, Paul and Jane set up an abseil down the main central stairwell. The Scouts then lined the stairwell and at 9.30pm two new scouts Georgia A and Holly C climbed over the top safety railing and were invested whilst suspended three floors up! – SPL Jess held the troop flag – normally the flag is held horizontally between the new scout and the scout leader in ceremonial fashion – on this occasion the scouts found it of rather more physical support and gripped the flag pole more positively than is usual - both of the new recruits remembered the scout promise almost perfectly and after receiving their scout scarf (or 'necker') abseiled themselves down the stairwell to the delight and cheers of the troop – once they had 'descended' into the scouts, they were presented with their World, County and District badges, together with their Troop and Patrol badges.  Leigh and Henry, their Patrol Leaders, received the new scouts on the ground to a rapturous round of applause. All of the scouts and leaders then had the chance to have a go at the descent – though without the added complication of flags, neckers and badges!

After the abseiling and a well earned hot-dog break we surprised Keith, our latest recruit to our wonderful Leader team, by singing him Happy Birthday - we had been secretly tipped off during the evening that it would be his birthday on Saturday, so at midnight he was surprised to be presented with an impromptu cake adorned with two waterproof matches supplied by Bethan.

Games of manhunt and 'hunt the bomb' filled the early hours with 'rats & bombs' being especially noisy - it is played in one of the dormitories with bunk-beds – lights are switched off and the scout leading the game shouts 'Rats' or 'Bombs' – the scouts have to jump up onto a bed to escape the rats or hide under them to save themselves from the bombs. Any scout still scrabbling to get onto or under a bed when the lights go back on is of course out! – Apologies to Tony's mum for the ripped polo shirt – Tony appeared to find the bed with the broken springs!

A fantastic new game this year was 'drag racing', inspired by our experience of 'Stealth' at Thorpe Park – This was played in the 120 metre long entrance tunnel and involved two teams, each with a scout sitting on a 'sledge' made from a folded blanket clutching one end of a 60 metre climbing rope – their 'team' then positioned themselves tug-of-war style down the rope and on the command pulled their team member home – just like 'Stealth' the acceleration was incredible and several heats were run – I'm not entirely sure who won but by the shrieks of laughter emanating from the tunnel at 2am showed they certainly enjoyed themselves!

At about 3am we put 'Allo Allo' on the big screen to emulate the wartime feel of the bunker and some of the scouts settled down for the night – at 4.30am, after 3 episodes of the first series, and seeing as we had another 5 DVDs of Allo Allo to get through, discretion won over valour and bedtime was finally called...strangely we had to 'say theeeese only once!'

At 7.30am we were up – hot chocolate and doughnuts were on offer, funnily enough some of the scouts looked a little bleary eyed, Holly did a sterling job hoovering the sleeping area before we handed it back to the public at about 8.45am...you know the rest!

A few pictures of the event can be found on the website's Gallery.

Please see the separate article about all the new Patrol Leaders and Scout promotions!