Planning a Patrol or Troop campsite with Plan, Layout and Principles

If you did not find an answer for what you're looking for. Ask us in the comment section below, we will try our best to answer you.

Planning for Camping

To enjoy the open air to the full, it is necessary to camp. There are various odds and ends with regard to: 

Camping, which the Scout should know before he ventures out.  You could plan 'camp' indoors in a bungalow, outdoors in tents, or you could have a Backwoods camp (survival camp) where you camp in shelters.

So make your own arrangements, and when completed run over everything with your Scouter to make 

sure that nothing has been omitted. 

Ground

When you go camping, you must first decide where you will have your camp, and then what

kind of camp it shall be. Have a Patrol council and then select your site and get the necessary permission from the department or owner.

In choosing the camp site, always think what it would be if the weather became very rainy and

windy. Choose the driest and most sheltered spot, not too far away from your water supply.

Remember that a good water supply is of first importance.

Tent

Before you know which type of tent you will want, you must decide whether it will be wanted

for a standing (stay at the same place though out the camp) or moving camp (everyday trek/ move to new place to make stay).

For a standing camp, from which you don’t mean to move, It is preferred to use a ridge tent or wall tent. They are superior for comfort and for making the camp look neat. If they have fly-sheets, they will be quite waterproof, even if you touch the inside of the tent, and the fly-sheet will keep the tent cool in hot sunshine and warm in frosty weather.

Smaller Scout tents for moving tents do very well for camp if you can have two or more for each Patrol.

Tents made of fiber poles and fly sheets are very easy to assemble, and they are very compact and lite weight to carry and move.

Where the expense of tents prohibits buying them, remember that used tents may often be hired

for a week or more at small cost.

Camp Equipment

Your next point is to look to the equipment—that is to say, what you will need in the way of

cooking gear, buckets, tools and so on. Here is a rough list of things that are useful in a standing

camp, but they will not all be necessary in a bivouac or tramping camp:

For Tent—Bucket, lantern and candles, matches, mallet, basin, spade, axe, hank of cord, Patrol

flag, and strap for hanging things on the tent pole.

For Kitchen—Saucepan or stewpot, fry-pan, kettle, gridiron, matches, bucket, butcher’s knife,

ladle, cleaning rags, bags for potatoes, etc.

For Each Scout—Waterproof sheet, two blankets, cord or strap for tying them up, straw

mattress (to be made in camp— twine and straw required), ration bags. It is important that

enough sleeping bags or blankets be provided to enable each Scout to make up a separate bed.

Personal Equipment— Each Scout will need:

Complete Scout Uniform, including hat

Pyjamas or change for night

Sweater Mending materials

Rain coat Plates, cup or mug

Spare shoes Knife, fork and spoon

Bathing suit Matches

Towel Haversack or pack

Handkerchiefs Soap, comb, brush, toothbrush, in toilet bag

Food—Make sure to distribute the ration bags to carry among the patrol and plan the meal and put up a timetable and purchase the right quantity of rations. While planing the meal timetable keep in mind food which needs to be frozen for storing cannot be carried and has to be purchased at the site, be aware of availability. 

Making Camp

In Scout camps the tents are not pitched in lines and streets as in military camps, but are dotted about in Patrol units, fifty or a hundred yards apart or more, in a big circle round the Scoutmaster’s tent, which, with the flag and camp fire, is generally in the center.

Pitching Tents

When you have chosen the spot for your camp, pitch your tent with the door away from the

wind. If heavy rain comes on, dig a small trench about three inches deep all round the tent to prevent it

from getting flooded.

This trench should lead the water away downhill. Dig a small hole the size of a teacup alongside the foot of the pole into which to shift it if rain comes on. This enables you to slack up all ropes at once to

allow for their shrinking when they get wet.

Water Supply

The greatest care is always taken by Scouts to keep their drinking water supply very clean,

otherwise they may get sickness among them.

All water has a large number of germs in it, too small to be seen without the help of a microscope. Some of them are dangerous, some are not. You can’t tell whether the dangerous ones are there, so if you are in doubt about the water, it is safest to kill all the germs by boiling the water. Then let it cool again before drinking it. In boiling the water, don’t let it merely come to a boil, and then take it off, but let it boil fully for a quarter of an hour, as germs are very tough customers, and take a lot of boiling before they get killed.

If there is a spring or stream, the best part of it must be kept strictly clear and clean for drinking water. Farther downstream, a place may be appointed for bathing, washing clothes, and so on.

Kitchens-

The cooking fire is made to the leeward, or downwind of the camp, so that the smoke and sparks from the fire don’t blow into the tents. So keep the camp kitchen and the ground around it very clean at all times. To do this, you will want a wet and a dry pit. 

Wet and Dry pit-

These are holes about eighteen inches square and at least two feet deep. 

The top of the wet one is covered with a layer of straw or grass, and all greasy water is poured through this into the pit. The covering collects the grease in the water and prevents it from clogging up the ground. The straw or grass should be burnt every day and renewed.

Into the dry pit is put everything else that will not burn. Tin cans should be burnt first and then hammered out flat before being put in the dry pit. Burn everything you can or your pit will very

soon be full. The rubbish should be covered with a layer of earth every evening.

(Draw Suitable images related to the subject accordingly)

(Still incomplete needs to be updated)