The Bloggers
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copyright Chris Eason Masked Weavers are very common birds in South Africa, building their unusual woven nests in summer. A male will build many nests and attract a female to lay eggs in each one. I have seen clusters of up to ten nests built by one male.
Show me the Ropes ' is a series of Youtube videos covering basic knots and lashings, and is being updated all the time. The videos are made by First Walmer, a Scout group in Port Elizabeth , South Africa. From the thumb knot to the Carrick bend , the videos cover a lot of ground.
Like previous chain reaction devices on this blog (the fish harvester and breakfast machine ), this contraption was featured in John Sweet's Scoutward Bound column in THE SCOUT magazine. Two quick points before I show his drawing and description: firstly, John Sweet wrote the classic Scout Pioneering, my favourite book on pioneering .
From my home troop's ( 9th Benoni ) logbook - the troop's raft featured in a photo from The Citizen , a national newspaper, covering Gauteng (then Transvaal) Kontiki .
From THE SCOUT annual, August 19 1948 - page 27: This novel "Kitchen Sideboard" was erected by the 37th Dumfriesshire (Methodist) Troop at their permanent camp site, but is not a permanent gadget. It can easily be made and used by any Troop, as it unpacks for transport.
(c) South African Scout Association The South African Scout Association Twitter and Facebook accounts are posting live photos from Western Cape Kontiki at the moment - follow them to see what's happening, including this Nyan Cat raft built by the oldest troop in South Africa, First Claremont .
drawing by John Sweet from the Scout Annual, 1953 This weekend sees the annual Kontiki rafting competition taking place in the Western Cape . Gauteng Kontiki had been scheduled to take place this weekend too, but due to flooding of access routes at the new venue, it has been delayed until the end of May.
The International Badger's Club is a society for collectors of Scouting and Guiding badges. It has members around the world, and some very useful resources, including a catalogue of every uniform badge "equivalent to, or greater than, a UK district and National event badges from all over the world".
Like Kontiki in Gauteng and the Western Cape , KwaZulu-Natal Scouts have an annual rafting competition , at the Midmar Dam (also home to the biggest annual open water swim in the world). Unlike the Kontiki events, the emphasis here is on racing, rather than living on the raft for the weekend, so the rafts are much…
Copyright Gavin Penkin This exhibition stand at the annual Hobby-X expo at the Coca-Cola dome in Johannesburg was built by a team of Scouts and Rovers to promote Scouting in the province of Gauteng . More about the stand from Gavin Penkin, the Assistant Provincial Commissioner for Marketing in Gauteng Scouts: "After some rapid planning and…
The Association of Top Achiever Scouts is an international association for those who have achieved the 'Top' award in their system, whether it's Queen's Scout, Eagle Scout, Springbok Scout, Fuji Scout, Tiger Scout etc . The badge, shown here, is worn on the front of the left sleeve, as this area is not used for badges…
Jason Raad from First Bergvliet Sea Scouts in Cape Town built this tower as his Springbok construction project. It's a spiral staircase, anchored around a central flagpole. All of the uprights are firmly bedded in the ground, set into holes made with a post hole auger .
This newspaper clipping from the 4th of May 1973 shows single lock trestle bridges built by Scout troops in Benoni, at a competition camp at Arrowe Park . From the accompanying article: Benoni District Scouts attended a camp competition last weekend at Arrowe Park, organised by fourth Benoni Rover Crew.
The basis of most pioneering projects (but not all of them) is knotting, so like most Scouts, I am interested in tying knots. The International Guild of Knot Tyers was formed in 1982, and it's membership policy states: "The only qualification for membership of the International Guild of Knot Tyers (IGKT) is an interest in…
Over the next few weeks I'll be posting some new content to the site. We've also had exciting news: Kontiki , the annual rafting event I have blogged about , will be hosted at Arrowe Park , the local campsite where my Scout Troop and Rover Crew meet.
I designed this simple trebuchet as a more stable, robust small trebuchet. The two opposite side frames are braced against each other so it doesn't need guy lines, which is the main problem with the older trebuchet design on Ropes and Poles.
The annual Kon Tiki Chairman's Challenge was held all across Gauteng province recently. The top ten teams from Kon Tiki in March were challenged to participate. Rather than the normal race down the Vaal river, the challenge this year consisted of building a raft and completing a mobility challenge at four different lakes across the…
Robin Hills Scout troop built this portcullis gateway for their campsite at Kontiki 2011. Two A-frames support a gate that slides up along the slope of the front legs. This gate is a much bigger and sturdier portcullis than the one I blogged about back in 2006.
This weekend sees the 54th Jamboree on the Air and 15th Jamboree on the Internet (also the sixth year of Ropes and Poles). Here are some photographs of Radio masts and towers built last year by various troops. You can sign up at Jotajoti.org to post pictures and a report of your own JOTI JOTA…
A few years ago, our group held a joint event between the Cubs and Scouts, where we flew kites. The Cubs completed the requirements for the Cub Kites interest badge, while the Scout patrols held a competition to see whose kite would fly highest.
Clarke Green from Pennsylvania runs a fantastic resource for adult leaders at Scoutmastercg.com . I recently spoke to him about my trip to the World Jamboree , as well as Scouting here in South Africa, concentrating on Kontiki. You can listen to the podcast, which is out today and available here .
Round lashings seem to be tied with many different methods. According to the Dutch Scout wiki , this is how the Dutch speaking Scouts do it - with turns that run around the poles in both directions and are bound with a reef knot.
Main gateway at the 22nd World Scout Jamboree, Rinkaby, Sweden As mentioned in the last post , I recently returned from the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Rinkaby, Sweden. I was travelling as the Troop Scouter of Drakensberg troop , in the South African contingent .
Tomorrow morning, I am joining the South African contingent to the World Scout Jamboree. We are meeting for a shake down camp outside Johannesburg for the weekend, then flying out to tour Germany and Denmark before heading to Sweden for the World Jamboree .
Gauteng's annual Kontiki raft competition is on at the moment. Our troop is not attending this year, but I went down for the day with my Rover Crew. The theme for this year is Rome, and one of hte more striking rafts is First Horison's chariot shown above.
by 'Graham', from page 107 of Scout Smiles, edited by EGW Wood, published in 1950 and long out of print (but possibly available second hand on Amazon.com)
Gauteng Kontiki 2011 is being held this coming weekend. Above are some of my photographs from last year's event, and more articles and photographs from past events can be found tagged under ' raft ' on this blog. The theme for 2011 is 'Kontiki visits Rome'
These hooks are designed for untying stubborn lashings. I haven't used one myself yet, but they look pretty handy. Made by Ken Stanton, those of you in South Africa can pick one up for R25 from Bramley Scout Shop
The traditional lashing for extending poles is the round lashing . Recently I blogged about an alternative, the German round lashing . My troop did some tests to see which of the two works better. After teaching both knots to their patrols, the Patrol Leaders made two sets of round lashings, one with the shear lashing and…
This lashing, a simple whipping applied to two poles, is an alternative to the Round lashing . I found this on the German Scout Wiki (here in English for those who don't read German). My troop will be doing some experiments to see whether this knot performs as well (or better) than the round lashing The…
Maybe this hsould have been a constrictor instead? by Bill Sykes, from page 92 of Scout Smiles, edited by EGW Wood, published in 1950 and long out of print (but possibly available second hand on Amazon.com )
by John sweet, from page 81 of Scout Smiles, edited by EGW Wood, published in 1950 and long out of print (but possibly available second hand on Amazon.com)
Our local Sea Scout group, First Benoni , hosted the provincial Scout and Cub Canoe Polo contests this weekend. They built these nets using thatching laths. Because these nets will be used again, the joints are fastened with screws, but you could just as easily use lashings.
By Stewart J. Marshall, from page 35 of the book Scout Smiles, edited by EGW Wood, published in 1950 and long out of print (but possibly available second hand on Amazon.com )
Aerial photography gives a persepctive on the world that we normally miss, down on the ground. Aircraft are a pretty expensive way of getting these images, so amateurs have been using balloons and kites to get aerial photographs for a long time.
By Bill Sykes, from page 91 of the book Scout Smiles, edited by EGW Wood, published in 1950 and long out of print (but possibly available second hand on Amazon.com )
On the 27th of July 2011 I will be joing several thousand Scouts from around the world near Rinkaby , Sweden , for the 22nd World Scout Jamboree . I will be an Assistant Troop Scouter with the South African Contingent . I am looking forward to the trip, and hopefully to meeting some of the people who've shared…
The Football World Cup starts in South Africa next week. South Africans are getting into the spirit of things, and flags of all the participating nations are lining the roads and filling offices and shopping centres. People have been particularly displaying our own flag , with street vendors selling flags to fit into the side windows…
With the World Cup just a week away, here are some soccer variants that our Scout troop has played. Crab soccer -Players all move 'crab-style' - lying on Three-legged soccer -players are paired up and one leg is tied to the other player like for a three-legged race.
(2010 World Cup Stadia: Clockwise from top left: Soccer City, Johannesburg; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban; Cape Town Stadium) With the 2010 FIFA World Cup around the corner here in South Africa, I'll be posting links and projects to get into the spirit of things in the next few weeks.
I posted this photograph of Adiero 's octopod cloverleaf lashing at Kontiki. Here is the formwork needed to support it while tying the lashing (thanks to Louise from Adiero for the explanation): The vertical pole is a stake that supports the stack of poles to be lashed.
At 11:00 on Sunday, the rafts come off the water, and are rapidly stripped down for the trip home. Congratulations to 1st Horison who were the overall winners. More Kontiki photographs will follow.
After spending the night on the water, the raft crews prepare for a naval review at 10:00 this morning
My last post for the night - the opening of the campfire for the supporters campsite.
Akela Joy, who runs our cub pack, has some great photos from today over on Akela's Cubs - http://akelascubs.blogspot.com/2010/03/kontiki-murray-park-springs-6th-march.html
One of the competitions for the supporters who are not on the raft is the STA or spare time activity. This year there were 5 different activities related to the legend of El Dorado, the theme for this year. One of them was to build a catapult.
The rafts have launched, and are making there way around the dam completing the navigation and mobility challenge.
Adiero troop's gateway- a cloverleaf octopod. A drawing of the construction process will follow.
Opening ceremony- rafts launch in 30 minutes...
Construction began at 17:00 (about 3 1/2 hours ago). Most rafts are progressing well, with barrels and decking being attached. Just after I took this photo, it started to rain. In the past 25 years, we have only had three years without rain- as the Kontiki rulebook says: "Kontiki will run even if it doesn't…
