In May the rovers set off on an expedition across Cape Town. The goal of the expedition was to take part in new and exciting activities as much as possible.
The expedition started at Appleton Campsite on Signal Hill and set off down the mountain via the MyCiti bus to see Cape Town Castle. Due to unscheduled early closing we were unable to get into the castle, so settled for exploring the grounds instead.
Once we arrived back at the campsite, we set about making dinner and preparing for a night hike. The weather made hiking Lion’s Head too risky, so we walked to the lookout on Signal Hill and admired the view of the City instead.
On Saturday, we headed down the mountain to the train station and caught a train to the Sea Scout Base in Lakeside. Unfortunately, the train only took us as far as Retreat, so we had to activate Plan B and use the car we had there for emergencies to get us to the base.
Despite light winds we enjoyed a relaxing day of sailing. The 2st Plumstead scouts joined us on the water to get their sailing hours for Helmsman, which made for a fun scouting day. We ended the day with lots of food and toasted marshmallows and spent the night in the Plumstead boathouse.
On Sunday we met our cave leader and hiked up into the Silvermine area in search of some caves. The hike was beautiful and we had the perfect amount of cloud cover to make for pleasant walking.
We reached the cave and after a brief safety talk proceeded to get completely stuck in the cave entrance. Only half the rovers managed to get into the cave system. Despite this we still got to explore a little and managed to see the 1st Cavern. It was a spectacular sight and definitely motivated a few the rovers to try caving again, just maybe in a cave with a larger entrance.
Overall, the expedition was a lot of fun. All the setbacks highlighted the importance of good planning and sticking to the scout motto of “Be Prepared”. Despite this, all the rovers who attended gave positive feedback and enjoyed the experience.
“It was a really fun expedition. Although there wasn’t much wind, it was nice to get on the water with the crew. The hike on Sunday was lovely, and although extremely narrow, the part of the cave we did see was fascinating. Would definitely go again for the caving and the abundance of food.” – Steven Medcalf
“Overall it was a great weekend. Really enjoyed the sailing, it was something new for me. Don’t think there are many things that can be improved on apart from getting stuck I guess a cave. Was a really fun weekend though!” – Kyle Mills
“The expedition was well planned out with everything pretty much running to schedule. Really enjoyed the sailing on the second day however I don’t think caving was for me, but it was still enjoyable. Am especially Impressed with the planning of backup transport in case the public transport failed, which it did. Overall, I really enjoyed it.” – Matthew Van Der Walt
6throndeboschscouts.org 
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