Over 50 teams of Scouts, aged 10-14, from every District in GLN, plus three teams from Devon, two from Epping Forest and two from Hertfordshire, enjoyed a superb day of adventure in the sun at last Saturday’s Chiltern 20 Challenge Hike.  Nearly 250 Scouts and 50 adults produced another record entry, using their hiking and orienteering skills to good effect, navigating their way through 10 checkpoints in order, walking somewhere between 25 kms and 20 miles. 

This popular event is organised every year by the same team of adults responsible for putting on the prestigious Southern 50 Challenge in February.  The walkers started off bright and early from Northchurch Community Centre with two teams setting off every three minutes.  It turned out to be a delightful day’s walking in the Chiltern Hills, with four teams enjoying themselves so much that they were on their feet for over 10 hours.

When all the results had been entered into the computer, it turned out that the fastest team on the day came from the 4th Southgate, winning this event for the first time with three 11 year olds and one 14 year old.  Their Leaders Dave Arnold and Jodi Craig took them out over the previous weekend for a practice hike when it poured with rain all day.  Dave reckoned that if they could cope in those conditions, they could do it anywhere, and so it proved.  They finished just 4 minutes in front of Ridgeway Scout Group, from up the road at Tring.  This was their second appearance in The Chiltern 20, and the second time they have finished in the runners-up position.  In third place, 15 minutes later, came the 11th Southgate, who were just 7 minutes in front of the first inner city Group to finish, The Phoenix Flyers from 201st Islington, who flew across the countryside in just over 5 hours.  They were just in front of a useful team of three from 6th Friern Barnet, who won a special award for being the first team home without an adult with them.

All the participants went home clutching their well earned Fitness Challenge Badge along with individual certificates for completing the event.  Their Leaders, who gave up another day to Scouting, were beaming with pride.  Malcolm Rush, of the 6th Friern Barnet commented on “a fantastic day.  The Chiltern 20 is a really worthwhile event and the Scouts gain an enormous amount from taking part.  When we turned up in the morning to a noisy hall full of people our Scouts didn’t know what to expect and were full of butterflies, but during the day their confidence built up and finishing successfully gave them – and me – a huge buzz.”  Patrick Brooks of the 4th Enfield added “It was a wonderful day – a few sore feet on the way home but plenty of banter from the Scouts on what a great time they had”.

The young people finished the event with a real sense of achievement.  What’s even more encouraging is that there has been a gradual change in the past couple of years of what used to be a male dominated event.  This year a quarter of the participants were girls.  Perhaps the last word should go to 13 year old Caoimhe from the 22nd Southgate.  She had a day to remember, leading a team of five girls, saying “It was really good working together as a team.  I am much more confident now with my new map reading skills and it was great fun meeting up with other Scouts from all over London and even Devon.  I have never walked such a long way before, and this event gave me the opportunity to really push myself to the limit.  The atmosphere was amazing”.

There was a special surprise waiting for Caoimhe four days later when she went to her Scout meeting.  Her well earned Fitness Challenge Badge was the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle for her, and later that evening she was presented with her Chief Scout’s Gold Award, the top award for a Scout.

The spotlight is soon to turn towards the 30th anniversary of The Southern 50 Challenge Hike on 14th February 2009.  Further information about both Southern 50 and Chiltern 20 events can be found on
www.scouts-gln-southern50.org.uk