Scouts go hiking in the Surrey Hills

Over the weekend of 24th and 25th of April, the Scouts made the most of the lockdown easing by going for a 2-day hike in the Surrey Hills.

The planning had been completed during the online meetings during lockdown, with the Scouts working out their route for each day, and drawing up a route sheet to follow.

On the Saturday, we started from Wintershall nearly Bramley, and hiked nearly 12km to Bentley Copse scout campsite above Shere. The older scouts carried all of their equipment in big rucksacks, including tents, stoves, food, and all personal kit.

As my group and I set off, there were some storks in an enclosure and some cows in a field. To begin with, the hike was quite rough as the terrain was quite hilly and not too easy although it levelled out and soon, we started picking up the pace. We passed many fields and country houses which looked really nice as some were quite modern. In one of the fields, there were some pheasants and kites flying overhead. There were bridges that we had to cross as well with small streams below. The trees were great for the entire walk as they were the only shade we had.

The scouts did brilliantly well to tackle the steep climb up into the Surrey Hills, and some of the views from the ridge were spectacular. They also found sculptures along the way, as well an an abandoned car on one of their many wrong turns.

Once they’d arrived at the campsite, the scouts needed to put up their tents and cook dinner, with a quick game of rounders in-between.

Due to COVID restrictions the scouts weren’t able to stay overnight, so were picked up to go home before returning in the morning. They managed to complete all of the usual hike apart from this.

The second day of the hike was a massive 15km from Bentley Copse to Leith Hill. Or at least it should have been, but one of the groups was desperate to get there first and so took a big short cut!

When the scouts arrived back at the site they cooked their breakfast before packing up their gear into their bags, and setting off again. Their navigation skills had improved a lot for the second day.

From the trip, I learnt easier ways of using a compass which was helpful. I also found a route for the walk which we could follow to get to the destination quicker, the route that we picked, was a main footpath and there were signposts for where we were meant to go. I learnt how to use a map easier as well which really helped for the harder-to-navigate parts.

At the top of Leith Hill, the views were again amazing.

It was great to get the Scouts out into the countryside again after so long in lockdown. We all definitely appreciated the chance to get out into nature with friends.

The best thing about the walk in my opinion was the scenery. The plants, wildlife and animals all made the hike enjoyable. The weather was amazing for both days apart from the chilly start. I loved the different houses as well, some of them were quite old but some of them looked very modern and luxurious.

The worst thing about the trip was that I got sunburnt. Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad, and it went away quite quickly but I didn’t notice for the entire time. The second day I wore sunscreen, and it felt a tiny bit better, but it still wasn’t good. There were also some horrible smells from the farms we passed along the hike which wasn’t pleasant but luckily, we passed those areas quite quickly, so we didn’t have to stay there for long.