Tregadillett Brownies recently enjoyed their Pack Holiday in Crantock - the first one for three years! The past two Pack Holidays have had to be ‘virtual’ and although they were great fun, it’s not as good as going away on the real thing!
There were no older Brownies to give advice and reassure the girls who had never been away before so it was a new experience for all of them. Thankfully the Leaders had not forgotten how to do it and the weekend was a great success.
The girls all met excitedly at the bus stop at Tregadillett before loading the luggage into a van to be driven down to the hall behind the minibus full of excited girls. After unloading the luggage and organising ourselves into the ‘Royal bedchamber’ and ‘Banquet hall’ and other royal sounding areas around the hall, the supermarket delivery arrived and was unpacked too. We enjoyed some lunch and then made a start on the craft activities.
As everyone has been celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee this year, the theme was ‘Royalty’. So there were some ‘Royal’ activities over the weekend, including making their own crowns and decorating their own fans with jewels. The crowns took a couple of days to make - as a good golden crown should if it’s made of gold and precious stones! The shape was made from cardboard and then the intricate design was created by sticking string on to it. This then had to dry thoroughly before being gilded by the expert craftsmen - that is sprayed with gold paint by Brown Owl! Then once the precious jewels were in place, the final touch was the purple velvet (tissue paper) to complete the look!
The other craft activity was making fans to take when ‘one visits the theatre'! Good job that Brown Owl had brought along many polystyrene pizza bases to use as the main shape (doesn’t everyone have a load of these in the cupboard at home?). These were all beautifully decorated with lace, ribbons and precious jewels!
Later in the afternoon, Beth and Emma arrived too as they had to travel after work. As our weekend was over one of the hottest weekends of the summer (phew!) we enjoyed the outside play area during the evenings when it was a little cooler! The first night is always exciting and eventually everyone got to sleep. The first morning we had to get up and get on with the days’ activity. Each girl made their own packed lunch and after the suncream and bottles of water were checked, everyone loaded up into the minibus again for our day out. We spent a very hot day at Dairyland! Sadly some of the animal encounters were cancelled because of the heat but it didn’t stop us having a great time.
It was very nice that we were able to have lunch in the air-conditioned building where the slides and soft play were. The girls spent ages going up and down the slides and even Brown Owl got persuaded to go down one of the drop slides! This was a first experience and one that probably won’t be repeated! After an ice cream each everyone returned to the hall for a short while before going down to the beach. Everyone enjoyed a paddle in the sea to cool off and that was followed up by our tea at the beach cafe.
The second night was a little easier for everyone as they were all tired after the day out. The final day was making sure that all the crowns and fans were completed. Then after the odd socks were sorted and returned to their rightful owners, the parents came to collect the girls. Pack Holiday is always finished by a little ceremony and where certificates are handed out to everyone.