We had great fun at OxonJam, the three night County Camp!
I’m sorry in advance for the long post, but there were so many activities and so much fun was had, it’s hard to write a short post! As there were only four Cubs from Windmill Pack, they camped with Kestrel Pack for the weekend, and then the Beavers and Scouts came for the day on Saturday.
The leaders set up camp on Thursday evening, and we were treated to a lovely sunset.
Friday
OxonJam is a County Camp, which is held every four years with a different theme. This year, the theme was ‘Hollywood’, and as such, each district was given a genre to dress up in for the opening ceremony on the Friday night. Our district (West Oxfordshire) was given the genre of ‘Wild West’, so naturally we went as Cowboys! Once the Cubs had arrived and unpacked their roll mat and sleeping bag, they got to work on their costumes and accessories. They coloured in a horse’s head and attached a wool mane, before it was then attached to a stick, to make a hobby horse.
They then put on plaid shirts and jeans, before getting kitted up with boot spikes, cowboy hats, a neckerchief, a waistcoat, a sheriff’s badge, and of course a moustache!
We then joined the parade of 4500 Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers and leaders, and headed towards the main stage (via the food tent for supper!). The opening ceremony was great, and it was lovely to see everyone else’s costumes. After the formalities, we had a great time dancing along to the talented beat-boxer, PeteBox.
Lots of our Cubs and Leaders must have been misbehaved, as they were ‘WANTED’…
Here’s some of PeteBox’s performance;
We went to sleep full of excitement for what the next few days may bring!
Saturday
After a full-English breakfast, we were ready to go and try out some new activities! There were four activity zone, each named after a famous film/film series; Bond, Indiana, Phantom, and Robotics. For Saturday morning, we were in Robotics.
Breakfast! 
The Cubs had fun trying out a human hamster wheel, the woggle wall, the scout radio, exploding boomerangs, flour stress-balls, and the roller disco!
Scout Radio 
Making Exploding Boomerangs 
Roller Disco 
The Finished Woggle Wall
The Beavers joined us for lunch, back at our campsite.
Once we were re-energised from lunch, we went to the Indiana Zone! There were lots of activities for the Cubs to have a go on, including the county climbing wall, soft archery, a ‘Total Wipeout’ style inflatable where the Cubs had to jump over a moving bar, mini-fencing, abseiling, a ‘space roller-coaster’ simulator, mini-tanks, and countless more!
‘Total Wipeout’ Style Inflateable 
Soft Archery 
Mini Tanks 
After a day of activities, we had dinner (pasta and meatballs or a mild curry and rice, followed by cake and custard), and got ready for the evening’s activities. There were lots of activities running, but we chose to go to the line dancing. At first, it doesn’t sound too exciting (maybe something your grandparents did when the were a bit younger?..) but once everyone got into it, we had a blast! We had a great teacher and a live band, and we successful managed to dance along to 4 or 5 songs, including the macarena.
Chil had the important job of keeping everyone’s hat safe while they danced
Once everyone was exhausted from the dancing, we went and watched an amazing fire dancer. He performed some very daring and difficult tricks, and amazed the crowd!
Here’s a short video of some of his moves!
After a hot chocolate back at our camp, we finally went to sleep after a busy day.
Sunday
After another lovely breakfast, we headed off to today’s activities. For the morning, we were in the Bond Zone, where the Cubs participated in activities including the cave bus, abseiling, the bouldering wall, the caterpillar climb, code breaking, spider mountain, and many more.
Mini Fencing 
Horizontal Climbing Wall 
Caterpillar Climb 
Writing codes in lemon juice and using heat to reveal it 
Abseiling 
Pipe Cleaner Disguises 
After lunch, we went to the Phantom Zone, where the activities continued with circus skills, human table football, glass engraving, balloon modelling, Lego, and again many more.
Balloon Modelling 
Dressing up 
Human Table Football 
Circus Skills 
Even Chil can do it! 
Baloo made a friendship bracelet for herself… 
… And for Chill from Windmill Pack! 
Stone Decorating 
Glass Engraving 
Just Chilling… 
…The Leaders too!
After a dinner of burgers and potato wedges, followed by an Eton mess, we went to the evening’s activities. We let the Cubs choose what they wanted to do, as long as they stayed in groups. I personally went and watched Zootropolis in one of the cinema tents (I’m a big kid really!). There were two other cinema tents showing different films, as well as a constellation tent, and a disco, for the Cubs to choose from!
We ended the night with a hot chocolate and a pain au chocolate at camp, before going to sleep.
Monday
After breakfast, the Cubs packed all of their belongings away, as Monday was the last day of camp. Parent helpers came and moved equipment to the trailer and packed away the tents whilst we were off enjoying the activities, so thank you very much to those of you who helped us!
Having already explored the activities in all four zones, instead of being split by district we were instead split into Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers. This meant that in the zone we went to, there were activities specifically tailored to the Cubs, as there were only Cubs there. There was hat throwing, paper pioneering, grass-sledge races, bingo, a large inflatable obstacle course, and many more!
Grass-sledging 
Hat Throwing 
Paper Pioneering
After we’d had lunch, it was time for the closing ceremony. After the formalities, we were shown highlights from the weekend, and then we were treated to music from a local band. We managed to get right to the front, and impressed the cameraman with our amazing dancing, and ended up on the big screen!
We finally finished with an impromptu conga, and then a group photo
We then said goodbye to the Cubs, as the County Camp was over for another four years.
We hope everyone had as much fun as we did at OxonJam! And you’ll all have left Cubs by the next County Camp, but we hope you go along as Scouts, or even Explorers, as it’s a great chance to experience a large scale camp and meet people from around Oxfordshire!
Believe it or not, there are more photos, so you’ll be emailed a link to the album on Flickr (only those with a link will be able to access the photos).