Taste of Network Camp 2006 Plenty of pink, millions of Dolly mixtures, lots of flumps, bowling, dragon boating, fire alarms and pickled onions; what a great weekend! 16 Explorers from all over Merseyside attended the first ever TONC camp at Waterside Lodge, Southport.

We all arrived at different times on the Friday, and seeing as very few of the explorers knew each other we played a few games like Musical Chairs and “over and under” to break the ice! We then watched “Dodgeball” before we all went off to bed.

We had a late start on the Saturday and after breakfast travelled to the Beach where we played a bit of Frisbee. Then we headed back to the lodge to prepare for Dragon Boating. After a bit of a problem with rhythm and a swap of drummers we all eventually got the hang of it. After amusing the locals we left the water and in the afternoon took a short walk over to the Bowling alley for a couple of games. The girls then decided to make some pink paper chain decorations for the meal. The meal was unbelievable, Rutter and his cocktail bar was just one of the highlights and it was obvious that great effort had been put into it's planning! Obviously the dress code was pink and nobody was disappointing- pink hats, pink thongs, pink knickers, pink tops- and these were just on the boys! Mary and Chris made sure we were all well fed, and the rest of the Networkers waited on us. After the meal, all the non-alcoholic wine, beer and cocktails must have gone straight to our heads and there was some amazing dance floor antics! Will introduced the pickled onion game and as Will was trying to beat his own record of 48 pickled onions the fire alarm was set off by Lee's smoke machine. But after a short while of waiting for the lady who could switch it off to come, we were thankfully allowed back in.

A later start on Sunday due to a very late night for us all, we were set the task of advertising Scouting to all ages. After that it was nearly time to go, and after a quick pack and swap of numbers and email addresses with our new friends we all posed for a photo on Gary's Landrover before heading off to all different corners of Merseyside.

Heather Gathercole

To view our photo gallery for tonc 2006, click here.

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