Santa Sleigh Break-up at The Gap Tavern

St John's Wood and The Gap Rover Crews shared dinner at The Gap Tavern to celebrate the end of Santa Sleigh 2011.

Pete Crouch started the ball rolling on a Secret Santa Scavenger Hunt During The Great 24 Hour Shop. Much interest.

Matt came directly from a meeting with the AJ2013 Camp Chief Director. Much Jamboree discussion ensued.

Santa Sleigh 2011: 3 Dec - 11 Dec

Group Christmas Break-up at the Den, and Lunar Eclipse Party at Emile's

The Group Christmas Break-up was attended by the majority of the Crew. Emile, Eleri, Stephen, Lucy, Kristy, Pete, Tom, CL Iain, RA Mick, Matt and Jordan (for a time), all attended. Jordan had to leave early as she was especially invited to be one of The Gap Rover's date a function (undisclosed). RA Mick was under the weather due to being too much of a party animal.

The newly renovated Crew garage saved the day as the wet weather alternative for the BBQ cooking area.

The Crew ran a trivia night for the Group. Special thanks to Emile (French) and Eleri (obscure) for organising the powerpoint and questions, and to Lucy Endicott (language), Peter Crouch ("Rugrats") and Kristy Butler ("science", read: nerd) who contributed questions.

Afterwards, the Crew retired to Emile's for drinks and to watch the Lunar Eclipse. We also sang along to Paul Simon (and discovered Emile's lack of good music to sing-a-long to) and watched "the Inbetweeners" (a movie about the younger members of the Crew).

Straddie 2011: 26 Nov - 3 Dec

Investitures

At Stradbroke Island, Jordan Lores and Yanni Dubler were invested as Rover Knights in the St John's Wood Rover Crew at sunrise.

A comprehensive steak burger Crew Dinner was held beforehand.

Talks by the fire were thorough and meaningful.

Matt Ray conducted the ceremony. Crew Leader, Iain Laing, and RA, Mick Bain, assisted.

Venturers-Rovers Nerf War Night

Emile, Travis, Iain, Matt and Mick attended the Venturer organised Nerf War night.

Pizza Capers pizza was eaten and foam bullets were fired.

The Venturers enjoyed the interaction with the Rovers and had many more way-cool guns than the Rovers.

Lucy's Squire's Hike

On 19-20th November, Matthew Ray and I drove to O'Reilly's/Lamington National Park to complete my Squire's Hike. After getting stuck in Schoolies traffic, we eventually arrived at O'Reilly's and set of on the track just after 3pm.

The walk to Bithongabel bush camp was pleasant but rather uneventful. The steady stream of day-walkers completing their days walking soon came to a stop the furt

her into the bush we walked. After about 45 minutes, Matt and I stopped to

look at a big tree, have a break and look at the map. Having arrived at camp at 4.30pm, we set up camp before walking down the track a little further to Toolona Lookout. From there we had a

lovely view of the valley (and mobile reception!). We walked back to camp and started co

oking dinner around 6pm. Dinner consisted of

dehydrated mince, salsa and burritos, whilst dessert was marshmallows and Lady Grey tea (courtesy of Matt, naturally). During the meal,

Matt noticed that we were surrounded by glow worms, which we took some time to look at. I

tied a few knots - using my little piece of ribbon

because we had no rope. The sun now well and truely set, it was decided that it was time for us humans to also turn in for the night (though we did remark that 7.45pm w

as a rediculously early bed-time)! also had to porve my campcraft skills to Matt by

I woke up at 7am, started packing up camp, then woke Matt up soon afte

r. Breakfast, which was Up'n'Go, muesli, tea and apples, was had and camp was soon completely packed. Just before

leaving camp, Matt noticed a couple of Eastern Rosellas, which were very beautiful to see. We left camp at 8.15am, a whole 15 minutes ahead of schedule - or so we thought. When we arrived at the Treetop walk (which Matt had never

done before), I noticed that it was 8.30am, which was impossible because the walk from camp took 1h30. As it turns

out, I cannot read analog clocks early in the morning, a problem that caused us to leave camp a whole hour earlier than planned. (As it was, it was a good mistake.) The Treetop walk was very exciting, as was the climb to the top. The view was quite spectacular/relaxing (as relaxing as one can be

~30m off the ground)! Continuing on our way, we were able to complete the short remainder of the hike quickly and exited the forest just after 9am.

All in all, it was a lovely couple of days. Thank you to Matt for driving and a good weekend!