Camp report
Chichester: clearing brambles and nettles... and the drains... Canal Camp 17, Chichester Canal ‘No solids, please’ The bright start on Saturday was a promising beginning... Our home for the week was the Chichester Scout hut, conveniently located behind the canal basin, next to the Police Station and within easy walking distance of all the evening entertainments. A site visit with Linda (the Local) on Saturday afternoon revealed a change in plan for the week’s work no longer was the priority to reinforce the banks in order to prevent fishermen falling in; now the main task was to make access through a mile of hedgerow for a Hymac to dredge a wet and weedy section of canal. The emphasis was to remove all vegetation but save good hawthorns, which would form the structure of a new hedge to be planted next winter. Over the weekend with the help of some very enthusiastic regulars, as
well as our ever-so-keen and jovial first-timers, excellent progress was made, thereby allowing on Monday a small team to be sent off to another section of hedgerow which needed ‘preparing’ ready for laying by BITM at their Christmas party weekend. Although the two sites were some distance apart they had some cutting similarities - the bramble, roses, nettles and other such nasty biting vegetation. By Monday evening volunteers were comparing their ripped and bloody arms. If it weren’t for the fact the thorns were still present, onlookers may have thought us a group of ‘self-harmers’. By Tuesday we had worked out the accommodation’s night-time heating and we could start sleeping without our woolly hats... But as one problem was solved another was rearing its ugly ‘head’ (if you’ll excuse the Americanism). The toilets. Familiar with only the tiny tinkles of little cubs and scouts once a week, they could no longer cope with the final journey of Liz Wain’s cooking (so good we ate too much). The authorities were called but as they denied responsibility, Elsans were enlisted, with the instructions ‘no solids, please’, it was like a holiday in Greece. As the worries about of Public Health rose, the Council eventually came out and cleared the drains, thankfully before Thursday’s ‘Curry Night’! One could say that the work was a little repetitive, with the hardest decision being what tool to attack the brambles with next, or whose bonfire was closest. As work rates slowed, a half-day was declared to recharge our batteries. This began with a very tranquil boat trip from the Canal basin up to the start of the unnavigable section where we were working.
Above: Assistant leader Stephen demonstrates his prowess on the long-arm slasher. Opposite page: the work was slightly repetitive, consisting largelyof cutting down vegetation (top) and carting it off for burning (middle), but this was made up for by the variety of entertainments organised including a boat trip on a restored part of the canal (bottom).
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