Comments received from participants in QUEST 2004

From 1st Prestwood

I would like to see the Shadow's report, the team have come back fired with enthusiasm, I don't know what you guys did this year any different, but the team enjoyed themselves.

From Woodlands ESU

Many thanks for organising this year's event. All of my Explorers who took part thoroughly enjoyed it.

From 2nd Chesham Bois Guides

Thanks for organising another successful and enjoyable 'Quest.' Some very impressive acting by the shadows. Many convincing their teams they were really unwell.

From District Commissioner Guides, Amersham West District

I would like to pass on my heart-felt thanks to you / the team (Leaders, parents + willing volunteers) for arranging and helping at the highly successful QUEST this year! I know only to well how difficult it is to find the volunteers to man such an operation, an outstanding challenge even before the walking started! Amersham West District entered 3 teams this year - 1st Amersham on the Hill Guides, 2nd Chesham Bois

Guides and 3rd Chesham Bois Guides

I am extremely proud of each and everyone of the girls who took part from the District all facing personal challenges on the day/night. Especially as the 3 teams were made up of mainly 10 + 11 year olds, with at least one older Guide showing them the ropes. Hopefully, they will reciprocate to take younger Guides around the course in years to come! Many thanks for a job well done!

From 1st Kingshill

Thanks for organising yet another superb event. From 1st Princes Risborough: Thanks for an excellent event, all the lads enjoyed it, as did the leaders, please pass my thanks on to your team!!

From Viper ESU

Once again an excellent event, many thanks.

From 1st Stokenchurch

Great event again, both my teams had a wonderful day.

From 1st Seer Green Guides

Many thanks for a great event yet again. Our guides had a wonderful time and Duncan and I enjoyed it too.

From 1st Chesham Bois

Many thanks for organising this event. All the scouts I spoke to seem to have thoroughly enjoyed it, as did the shadows.

Team no 18 Columbus ESU

Best Base Activity Base detested. Team highlights. Why? Team lows. Why? Opinions for a potential competitor.

1st Chesham Bois

List of items for desert island:-
Running - Because we were fast - Bottom of hills - Because they are - Run all the way.
The following were well received bases:-
Pothole excitement - Spider web, chalk not liked - Scrambled egg good team challenge all teams I saw were enjoying this - Wheelbarrow - Rope grid up a tree. Excellent team event - Catapult and cans. Very enjoyable but time slot was too long.
Not so popular:-
Brussels sprouts in river - List of items for desert island - Rugby. This was liked, but was too dar - Knotting. Difficult knot chosen, I liked the inclusion of a traditional scouting skill - Space hopper. Too short and easy - Film canister retrieved from circle of rope. Teams I saw do this all seemed to know the answer, so was not as challenging as it might have been - First Aid. We understood the relevance of hypothermia, but felt a practical dressing would have been more interesting.

From 1st AC

Thank you and the 2AC team for all your hard work at the weekend. The boys were exhausted but enjoyed it.
Best Base -- The ventilation shaft of dooooooom. It involved a maze, made out of wood. It was very dark in there even though it wasn't dark outside. This involved climbing through ropes connected to three trees / climbing on ropes without touching them.
Worst Base -- Checking how to look after injured people, and put in the recovery position, although realize that this is necessary. Lifting the whole team through a series of squares made out of rope suspended between trees.
Finding out about a disease, which you can catch from water. The base where we had to lift cotton reel with string and an elastic band. Throwing balls at a pile of tin boxes but it took too long so we had to miss it out Reciting the Scout Promise and Law.
Team's highlights -- Good out door activity. Being at night and being able to stay up late. Walking through fields at night because you don't often get to do this. It was exciting It kept us fit and healthy When night time came, because it was fun and we played tricks on each other and hid.
Teams lows -- It was too cold, muddy and wet. It rained and not able to finish the walk. It took too long for the mini bus to arrive and the team felt very cold. Dropping a colleague during the activity base as he got hurt.
What opinions on the Quest would you offer to a potential competitor.
It was very well organised and very very good fun!! - You learn what team work is about - Need to go on walks before the Quest to get up - speed and stamina and get used to walking boots - Really enjoyable. Need right equipment at the start!!!! - Need a waterproof in case it rains or you will get - soaked and cold - Take plenty of food, make it last - Wrap up warm take extra clothes.
Sue Farnfield - 1st Amersham Common Scout Leader.

From Team 2nd Amersham Common Scouts - Kestrels.

The Quest is a 22km hike with 12 bases. It is an annual event normally held in February. Hundreds of scouts from all over the county participate.
The theme is normally set on a popular film at the time (this year was 'The Matrix'). Most of the Bases usually have something to do with the theme.
As well as doing the base you also have to ask all the people on the base if they are the friend of your leader (e.g. for 'The Matrix' it would be Morphis) if they are then they will give you a slip of paper with a letter on. At the end if you have all of the letters then you have to put them together and make a word to do with the theme. This year you used the word as a password to get on to the computer.

When you arrive at St Johns you get given a couple of pieces of paper. Some of these tell you about the Quest, some tell you about the theme (e.g. The Matrix) and some are things that you have to do like crosswords.
There is also a film on to watch this is the film on the theme of the years Quest. A bit later on there is a talk about the Quest and what you have to do (often it is a slide show with speech edited in). After that you will leave and get driven to your first base.
William Bohnel.

The Quest has certainly been a fun experience. But also a challenge. I think that the bases helped a lot, and my favourite base was the one with the wheelbarrows. They also served as a resting place.
We learnt a lot about teamwork and the need to encourage and help each other so we ALL enjoyed it and all finished happy together. I think that the mark of a good team is determination, the ability to listen to each other and everyone feeling they can contribute.
The course was great and thankfully the weather stayed fine (except the bit of rain at the end !). I'm already looking forward to next years.
Joseph Stevens, age 11 (a first year Scout).

I thought the Quest was going to be not hard but not easy. I didn't realise that it was going to be a 12 mile hike taking 10 hours, but at least the bases were good. Some of the bases were fun, some were hard, some were just easy, but they were all good.
My favourite base was the one when you had to climb through a wooden tunnel. I thought it was easy for most of the time, but it was a bit difficult when you had to go round corners. There was one time when you were crawling along and you suddenly fell down. The reason I liked it so much was because out of all the bases it was the most fun. I think it would have been even better if it was longer.
Alex Bell, age10 (a first year Scout)

The patrol leaders didn't do the Quest and it was decided that the APLs would lead the patrols to get experience, but mine couldn't do it. Kate asked me if I would be PL for the Quest. I said maybe. I told the patrol what they had to bring for the team equipment. We said we'd meet at 2pm at the Hall, because Alex had a previous activity, so we were the last to check in. We did the kit check and we had everything and didn't lose points. We met our shadow who drove us to our start point.
I did the navigating and then shared it out. On the rugby base, Joe did 2 conversions and I did one. We did well on the tunnel base. William looked at the brief for the password we had to find after we found all the letters. I didn't know how we did but we had a lot of luck.
The Quest was OK but I prefer climbing and messing about. I hope to sign up for D of E bronze award when I'm 14.
Andrew Rollings, age 12

A Shadow's Report

They were doing fine until I took over the map reading.
Scouts' attitudes to shadows are mixed at best. Their more or less polite greeting on first meeting you at the outset can't hide their apparent relief that you are not quite as bad as their worst imaginings. For those of them about to do a hike for the first time, amidst all the other unknowns, the awaited involvement of a strange adult with the somewhat sinister title of 'shadow' may not have been too reassuring. For the more experienced scouts, with perhaps high ambitions of winning, the allocation of a shadow is a wild card among their careful calculations about the strengths and weaknesses of their group. Will the old dodderer hold them up, query their map-reading decisions, insist on demonstrating the proper way to take a bearing and generally undermine the subtle dynamics of the team?

How can anyone resist such a challenge? Besides, if like me, you don't take advantage of the local countryside as often as you should, then it's a chance to discover the paths and bridleways of a different bit of the Chilterns each time round.
The late autumn Grimsdyke Hike is a glorious ramble of about four hours, although quite often lengthened to about double that - all the hours of daylight - by a combination of map reading discussions, ill-advised shortcuts and a great variety of scout comfort stops and impromptu breaks.

The late winter Quest is a bit shorter, but takes place from mid-afternoon well into the night. Again, as little as half the time is spent walking - there are a series of bases to be visited with an activity to be completed at each.
The Quest offers the great attraction for the shadow of a practice walk of the circuit the previous weekend, done in daylight and complete absence of scouts. There is even an optional stop at a suitable pub - this is a base not featured on the night itself. Other reasons for slightly favouring the Quest might be the welcoming camp-fired bases, many of which will delightfully revive weary shadows with cups of tea and hot dogs while the scouts do the base activity.
Shadow's grump: the recent proliferation of head torches sometimes worn by every member of the patrol and inevitably shone directly in your eyes every time they turn to speak to you. I find this inhibits conversation about the finer points of Gratuitous Violence III compared to Extreme Evil II.
One tip: while you are enjoying the walk, don't forget the 'shadows report'. I find I tend to leave it to the end when it comes rather like an evaluation form tacked onto a training course just when everyone's ready for home. If it were just that it would be easy, and no doubt the same every time:
Venue: excellent. Organisation: superb. Speakers: very knowledgeable on youth culture.
But this is more subtle: how did they work as a team? - did they look after one another? - did they share the map-reading? - and in fairness, this all being part of a keen trophy-hunting competition, how much help (or hindrance) did they get from their shadow? You will be prepared for all this by studying your clear and informative Shadows pack. As veteran now of several seasons' shadowing, I would like to supplement that sober document with one sweeping generalisation. This is that the most serious problem for a team is not ill-fitting boots, leaking waterproofs or sudden attack of homesickness of the youngest member - it's the concentration of decision-making into too few hands. When this comes down to one person doing all the map-reading, the risks rise enormously both of getting a demoralised team and of the navigation itself going spectacularly wrong. So avoid if at all possible allowing their teamwork to break down to the point where you yourself have to take on the navigation on your own!
The above does look a bit too grumpy. Shadowing really is a privilege - at least sometimes. This last Quest, I was escorted round by a team who shared decisions all the way, looked after anyone who showed signs of falling behind (including me), knew the names of the stars and constellations, talked about their hopes for the future and not a head torch between them.
Bob Gryspeerdt - Team Shadow - Quest 2004