Woggleknot.com – An Explorer Scout's Blog

I meant to post this at the weekend, except two things stopped me. One, I was really tired and couldn’t be bothered after walking all night, and two, my cat had to get put down. So I wasn’t exactly in a blogging mood.

But anyway, this year’s nighthawk was as great as last years, although unfortunately my team didn’t win. All of my team, except for me, dropped out of the competition and I had to join another team. I’m not holding anything against them though, some of them really didn’t seem to be coping well. But I decided to carry on and finish the walk anyway, even without a chance of winning. It was still fun, and still an achievement to me.

Unfortunately, I forgot to get my certificate of achievement before we all went home, but I don’t really care. My ID card that’s been clipped to say I’ve reached the finishing point is enough for me!

Next Friday there is a competition called the nighthawk challenge, which Bradley Scouts are entering.

In the competition, the scouts have to hike from checkpoint to checkpoint through the night (and into the morning). The checkpoints are only open at certain times, so Scouts must arrive within a certain time window, or they are disqualified. The walk is usually around 12 miles long. However, the walk isn’t the hard part.

There is also team of Adult volunteers called “Hunters” who split up and search all the areas where scouts could be walking, and any scout troops that get found loses a point. The scout team that reaches the finish point ,and has lost the least amount of points, wins.

Scouts must decide on which routes they should take to each checkpoint, and they should choose routes that hunters are least likely to find them on. In order to win the competition, a lot of decision making and good tactics is necessary.

I managed to win the competition last year with my team, and hopefully the team from Bradley Scouts this year will do well too!