REAL CAMPING.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 November 1923, Page 1

REAL CAMPING.

(liv a I toy Scout in Daily Mail). Every year, of course, we Scout* go into camp. That is a simple and straightforward atlair when one camps by the sea and buys food in the to'.v;) and cooks it on tile camp tire. Hut two or three ol u* always tell lieu that seaside tamp wa* nothing more than a treat. It "a* not the "real thing.'' So imagine our delight when onr Seoul Master •v. ho is a landowner) said. '.\wav at I’.-nymynydd'' (which 1,1,-all ■ the "top the mountain") "1 |,av a lew hundred acres ol moorland wh'-re there are rahliit* and a lake lull of fish. And I will take four Scout* there fm* a week if they are prepared to live on tlie land. No meat to he earned. mind!. A little (tour, tea, sugar, and the vest we shoot or catch ! Xow V hilt about it “ Who i* game!'" Needless to say. we were till game, so H,e eldest hoys were chosen. I was olio. The lour eldest of ns wore Hoimie. Trevor. Howell, and I'.lias \cal|e:| |,i for short)—-and 1 shall not tell vou which T was.

Never as long as I live shall T forget that week at: Penymynydd. True, it rained and ii, was cold. Bai ,-eallv we were glad, because we proved that even in England, in had weather could go hack to the beginning of

things and live the primitive life and never he wet. cold, or liungrv. W'e started the hunt at o.JO each morning. And you have no conception what added skill there is to your east when you know that the camp cooks will he waiting with a roaring tiro tor ihe trout you will surely bring home for break fast. Otherwise there would he no breakfast. And your aim becomes positively deadly when your dinner is to he rabbit stew or nothing. Hut not only did we invariably fill the , but also tliere was actually variety. Once I shoi a pigeon, and it would have been delicious, no doubt , had not Li insisted upon making it into a pigeon pate and covering it villi a wet bread poultice which he called a crust. And once Hotline shot ti weasel, and we thought ahinii putting it into f lie* -tew: hut when we began to skin i! v-'C decided not to. \Ye saved our “emergency rations .consisting of a tin ol bully heel and some peaches) until the last da\. We thought we might iic glad of them when breaking camp. r i lien Ronnie coaxial in a family of pigs that wot r feeding on the mountains) to help clean camp, and they cleared oil all the edible rubbish in record time, ski I suggeste.l a goat to tidy the paper. Uni getting the gnat was not a go'"i idea. True, lie ate all the waste nape: and empty tins, hut: he found out bulb' beef and peaches and chocolate as well. K„ ii urns lucky we Intel nine rabbit s left '