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1^st Chesham Bois organise a number of events open to members of other groups. The next main event is:

The Hardest Day 2004

January 2nd. 17:00- January 3rd. 13:30

The Hardest Day is an event that has developed over the past few years with Venture Scouts at 1st Chesham Bois. The first activity was The Hardest String Trail, the Hardest Night of your Life followed this and in 2002 we had The Hardest Day of Your Life. All of the events have had a similar outlook, to be difficult and testing, but not impossible. One feature of the Hardest events has been the lack of information available to participants and a fair degree of hype about what might be included. The events all require determination, but physical fitness is not a necessity. As with many scouting events good teamwork is an essential requirement along with a good sense of humour.

The Hardest Night was a four-hour event. It included moving buckets of water up a hill, fording a river, following a fast moving leader, some hiking and night navigation and finished with the rescue of a dummy from a pothole. The memorable feature of the event was the snow falling in April. This event was for one team of ten venture scouts who all completed.

The Hardest Day started in a pothole and then a night navigation exercise. Next each of two teams of four, had to cook a simple meal on open fires and then build shelters with the supplied materials. After a short sleep a timed walk took the teams to breakfast. Whilst hiking players had to find phrases from a newspaper. The event finished with a challenge carrying a box of water around an undulating course and the cooking of a meal with the whole team perched on a scaffold plank. The preparation of a trifle at this late stage found both teams wanting. This event was scored, but was not a competition, both teams were considered to have passed.

The Hardest Day 2004 will see another new format. We have decided to open the event to all district Explorer Scouts and the Scout Network at Chesham Bois. This time there will be both a competition and the challenge of completing. Teams of three are needed. Please organise your teams if possible, but please let me know if you are unable to complete a team so we can make sure everyone who would like to take part is able to.

The content of the event is of course secret. Past events give no indication of what will be a new format that no one will have attempted before.

Safety is top priority as always. Our new format reflects this, no one should feel that they are not capable of taking part.