On the weekend of the thirteenth and fourteenth of March 2021 I participated in the Rayner trophy Scout competition along with three of my fellow Fish Hoek Rangers, all between the ages of fifteen and seventeen.
Rayner is a senior scout competition held annually in the first term of the year, where scouts hike to bases and sleep overnight in the mountains. Every year it is held in a new location, which is only disclosed to the patrols the day before the competition. This year it was held in the mountains of the Dutoitskloofpas, near the Dutoitskloof tunnel. It was truly an amazing location to hike and the scenery was spectacular.
My patrol consisted of Justine Thomas (17), the Patrol Leader (PL): Kate Wannenburgh (16); Skyla Richert (15); and myself, Jemma Gill (17), the Assistant Patrol Leader (APL). I could not have asked for a better patrol, we all worked well together and all of us shared the same love for hiking and competitions. The two weeks leading up to the competition were exciting, as the four of us coordinated what food we would be bringing and what we were packing, as there was a limit of seventeen kilograms per person, and everything had to fit into our packs, including ropes, hiking stoves, pots and pans, as well as our personal kit and sleeping bags. My pack was the heaviest in my patrol at fourteen point five kilograms, and I definitely struggled a little because of that fact.
The adventure started on Friday the twelfth of March when we received the coordinates for the location of the opening ceremony. The next morning we met up to distribute the food between our packs and then we set off. We met up with the other scout participants for the opening ceremony at the last-stop Engen garage where we were given directions to the actual start point of the hiking, at the beginning of the Dutoitskloofpas trail. We were surprised to see that apart from us there was only one other ranger guide patrol, the George Rangers, but we weren't intimidated by the ratio of scouts to guides. Personally I was confident in our abilities and in our team, and we all shared the same competitive spirit that would drive us onwards and upwards throughout the competition.
The First base was a coding base at the start of the trail, where we had to decode a message to know which direction to go. We were also given our first Spare Time Activities (STAs), one of which was to mark all of the competition bases on the map which we had been given. Another was a Scouting trivia quiz, which I was very happy about, as I had recently done a bunch of research on scouting to write a newspaper article on the life of Lord Baden-Powell, so we did quite well in that. There was also no cellphone reception in the mountains, so none of the teams would be able to google answers for anything, which I was quite happy about.
As we walked along there were a couple of pioneering bases, where we used the staves and rope that we were carrying to build a bag rack and demonstrate knotting. There was also a random scouter lying in the bushes wearing a black bag as a shirt, two caps, upside-down sunglasses and other unusual things. Thankfully we realised that it was an observation base, as further on there was another scouter who asked us questions about the oddly-dressed guy and we were able to give a full description.
On the Saturday we hiked about five kilometres from two o'clock until five o'clock, doing bases that involved everything from Weather prediction to woggle knotting, and finally set up "camp" on the allocated plateau. We had brought a one-man shelter to cover our bags, as it was predicted to rain between midnight and four AM, which we were not looking forward to. Setting up camp was one of our STAs, and there were quite a few STAs due that evening, including a panoramic sketch, which I enjoyed doing, a "potion" which was a collection of specific leaves and natural ingredients that we had to collect throughout the days walking. There was also an orienteering base, as well as a meal and a hot drink.
After a lovely warm meal of vegan stir-fry with soya chicken and cashews, courtesy of our resident vegan, Kate, and some "Hottie-Choccy," courtesy of Justine, I brought out my recorder flute and began the night's entertainment. My patrol had all brought harmonicas and I had brought my recorder in order to entertain the judges who judged our meal, but sadly the judges could only came past to look at the meals, because of Covid. Nevertheless, after they left I entertained the other patrols by playing scuffed tunes. The crowd favourite was definitely Celine Dion's "My heart will go on."
Next up we had night bases, which consisted of first aid, team building, leadership, constructing a Spanish windlass to pull two cars together, and the notorious "electric fence" base, where we had to get our patrol over a rope (or "electric fence") using only our four staves and rope. Our failed encounter with an electric fence base at a previous Gordon's Shield competition made us a little doubtful, but we all made it over this time, and felt very proud of ourselves.
Thankfully there was only a light drizzle at midnight when we got into bed, but no rain the rest of the night. After a cold night of sleeping under the stars and going to the bathroom behind the bushes in the dark, we woke at half past five and began cooking our breakfast omelette, which was due at six o'clock. For some reason the judges were late that morning, so our omelette got cold, but by the time we had finished packing up camp the sun had come out and we began to warm up a little.
On Sunday morning they staggered the starts of all the patrols so that we wouldn't all be in one big group, (once again because of Covid,) and we set off at around half past seven. There was quite a bit of hiking through the mist that morning before we got to our first base, and I was definitely feeling the weight of my fourteen kilo pack, as well as the fact that I was just generally unfit. Lots of energy bars were consumed.
The bases on Sunday morning were to do with the laws, the promise, and the outdoor code, as well as finding bearings on a map. The descent didn't follow a trail. If it was a trail it evidently wasn't a very popular one, as we had to bundu-bash through the fynbos down steep declines for most of the way, while surrounded by the beautiful views of the Dutoitskloofpas mountains.
Bases closed half an hour after the third patrol reached each base, so we kept up a steady pace the whole time, only taking a two minute lunch break while we were in the queue for one of the bases. While going down we did a snare-setting base, a couple of botany bases, a knotting base and a splicing base, as well as handing in STAs like a soap medallion that we had to carve and a riddles quiz. There was a swimming base which we made the executive decision to skip to save on time so that we wouldn't miss other bases ahead.
The last base was Kims game, and we were all tired after having hiked nearly eight kilometres in seven hours, after less than five hours of sleep. The last stretch was along the road and through the old Dutoitskloof tunnel. We reached the finish at two o'clock, an hour early, and we were very proud of ourselves. Closing ceremony was at three, and much to our surprise we placed fifth over all! We were insanely happy with our team, as the Rayner trophy is apparently the hardest Scout competition in the world.
I am so grateful to have been part of such a strong team, and to have been able to participate in the Rayner trophy competition. It was an amazing experience, and I encourage anyone who is in guiding or scouting to participate if you can.
