Meeting @ the Beach

We met a the Martello Tower at the North end of Balbriggan Beach. We started our meeting there. Ciaran stayed down at the beach keeping an eye on the fire that the leaders had lit earlier and so we headed down to him. We all gathered around the welcoming glow and the leaders explained how to build a proper fire and about the 3 elements that every fire needs:

Fuel
Oxygen
Ignition

We had a chat about fire safety and what we might be able to use as extinguishers if the need arose. Since we were at the beach it was fairly obvious that we would use sand and of course water if needed.

We split into 3 groups and tried to lite our own fires. Ciaran had brought a bag on lint from his dryer. It was a bit smelly, but it was a perfect fuel to get the fire going. Oxygen is in the air all around us so that was ok. For ignition we struck pieces of flint with steel strikers. It was hard work and not everyone managed it, but we eventually got the sparks to lite up the lint. We put small sticks called kindling on first and then when they were burning we put on bigger and bigger sticks. When we had a proper fire going, Fiona produced some small skewers and marshmallows for the scouts to roast.

They were delicious and then Fiona brought out some chocolate bickies. The scouts held them over their fires and let the chocolate melt off. It got a bit messy to say the least. When we were done we extinguished the fires by piling the cold, wet sand on top.

We all gathered around the fire that the leaders had lit. They had put some more wood on it to make it burn brighter and bigger. Brendan then started a campfire song with crazy words and even crazier actions. It was a bit mad, but everyone got into the swing of it in the end.

Check out the faces on Ellie and Chloe as they see Brendan’s Actions to the song

We sang a few more songs. Emma and Ella sang a song about being in the Girl Guides (We think they are a bit confused), Luke and Anthony sang a song about what they would be if they were not in the scouts, and Brendan sang a song with loads of mad accents. One of the Beaver Leaders was hiding in the darkness. I think she was spying on us to see how good our campfire songs were. Lets just say that they need a bit of work. By then the rain had started to come down and we were almost up to finishing time. Again we piled cold, wet sand on the fire to extinguish it before heading back up to the Martello Tower where the mums and dads were waiting.