Hope Valley Mountain Bike Challenge 2016

This coming Saturday Cub Scout Leader, Steve Garratt, will be taking part in the Hope Valley Mountain Bike Challenge. The event is an annual off-road technical ride which takes in some of the area’s most iconic trails and locations such as ‘The Beast’, Jaggers Clough, Edale, Jacobs Ladder, Hayfield, Rushup Edge, Hollins Cross and Mam Tor. 

The route is 28 miles with nearly 5,000 feet of climbing involved and will likely take over 5 hours to complete.

Steve is raising money for 1st Taxal Scouts trip to Norway next Summer, any donations will be most gratefully received, either personally or via their new fundraising page*:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/1stTaxalToNorway

Keep an eye on the new section of the website for more Norway 2017 fundraising activities!

*online donations are subject to a 5% JustGiving admin fee

1st Taxal Tweets!

1st Taxal Scouts are now officially on twitter. If you want to keep in touch with our latest news and what we have been up to then please give us a follow!

You can find us @TaxalScouts or via the new contacts menu drop down list in the top right of our webpage.

Bloodhound SSC

1st Taxal were honoured to be invited by Manchester Airport to meet some of the Bloodhound Supersonic car team last night. The Cubs and Beavers learnt some amazing facts, saw some incredible speedy driving, held a meteorite and got to see how a jet engine works.

The whole point is to get young children inspired to work in science, and I certainly think a few of our kids were thrilled.

We can't wait to see whether they manage to break the record and hope we get invited back next year! Thanks again!

1st Taxal Scout Group Camp

A nice warming fire

This weekend was the bi-annual group camp and this year we returned to the lovely site at Spitewinter. The theme of the weekend was 'survival' and the weather on Saturday morning lived up to the theme! Fortunately the weather did not stop any of our activities, we learnt some important knots and shelter building, we learnt how to build and start a fire and we cooked our evening meal in the embers of the fire. On Saturday night we had a campfire with some traditional songs and entertainment by each of the sections. 

On Sunday we packed up the camp and then played several wide games, before the closing ceremony and home time. 

Everyone seemed to have a great time and went home happy - if a little muddy!

Many thanks go to all of the volunteers who helped before, during and after the camp. It wouldn't be possible to do so much without them.

Here are just a few photos of the fun!

The group campfire

Snake!

Bonkers Beavers

Winner winner Chicken dinner

Playing on the field

Carnival 2016 - A Scout in Space

Top 3 lamp-post design

This weekend was the annual Whaley Bridge Carnival and, once again, it was a great success. The rain just about held off and the children had a great time.

Can we send out a quick, but huge, thank you to all those who contributed to the carnival float and lamppost this year. We achieved a 1st prize for the float and a 3rd for the lamppost, these are results to be proud of and it would not have happened if it were not for a lot of effort behind the scenes pulling everything together (quite literally up to the last minute!). It was really great to see so many parents coming down to help on Friday night and Saturday morning.

Finally, thanks to the kids who turned out brilliantly dressed for the occasion - there's no point having a float if there's nobody to fill it!

Already looking forward to next year! Here are a few more photos of the day.

A salute to a Scout in Space!

Crowds were lining the streets

The winning float in all its glory

Why have no children heard of the 'Men in Black'???

Beaver Scout Garden

The Beaver Scout Pack at Taxal now have their own little garden. At the start of term all of the Beavers were given a plant pot and some soil, they each planted 4 seeds:  a nasturtium, a courgette,  a broad bean and a sunflower. They took the pots home and cultivated them for a few weeks before bringing them back to the hut last week to plant them out.

All of them had taken fantastic care of the plants and we will now watch them grow over the next few weeks. 

100 Years Cub Camp

Last weekend was the High Peak District Camp which celebrated 100 years of Cub Scouting, held at the beautiful Gradbach Scout Camp above Buxton. 

The Cubs had a fantastic time, mingling with other packs from around the area and trying out lots of new activities based on 'flight'. 

They learnt to parachute, safely rescue the injured, build shelters and survival techniques. They fired pop-bottle rockets and did archery. Flew homemade kites and paper aeroplanes and watched a fantastic bird of prey display. 

We planted 100 trees all around the site, along with a commemorative Yew Tree at the site's chapel which was blessed during the closing ceremony. 

Overall it was an exhausting weekend but fantastic fun for all involved!

A model Spitfire at the camp entrance

One of the home made kites flying high

A Harrison Hawk

Whittling wood

Lighting a fire

Tying a Highwayman's Hitch

The commemorative Yew Tree

A very tired cub!