Sparkle & Ice 2021 (at home) winter survival camp

Girlguiding’s winter survival camp is coming this weekend. It’s my favourite of the large scale events. Partly because - well, I’m a polar bear, and partly because of the novelty of camping in winter. I’ve been every year that it’s been running. 2017 was a miserable mudbath, I volunteered in 2018 which was 1000% better, I took my Rangers and we endured the Beast From the East II in 2019. In 2020, which we just squeezed in before the world went to pieces, we camped in Storm Ciara.
So I wasn’t missing 2021 for some minor reason like it wasn’t happening because the country was in lockdown…
I pitched my tent in the garden, held my own opening ceremony (instead of a bonfire, I had a tealight and cooked a marshmallow), replaced outdoor activities with a legal country walk (and even found a zipwire, if not on quite the scale of the real things) and had the traditional lunch of “cheese or jam, tuna or ham!” except I ate it inside.
In the afternoon I did some winter-themed crafts. I couldn’t emulate the inflatable observatory so I watched an episode of Dr Brian Cox’s The Planets. The hot tub idea was stolen from Wellies & Wristbands and I don’t have a hot tub so I used the bath (and of course, didn’t film it!). And I finished the day with the traditional firework closing ceremony, except that I bought a packet of sparklers instead of startling the neighbours with the explosive kind.
Enjoy!
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✍️ Blog: iamapolarbear.com/
📸 Instagram: / polarbearju. .
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Filmed on
📸 Panasonic Lumix DC-TZ90
📱iPhone SE (2020 edition)
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Music by Epidemic Sounds