Outdoors: Always be prepared

By COLIN MOORE

When you are on an outdoor adventure that gets hit by a storm, you can usually tell who are the old Scouts in the party. They are the ones who rig up ingenious fly-tent covers or drying racks while the rest of the group are still standing around getting their bearings.

Scouting and the associated Girl Guide movement used to be two of the few outdoor games in town for young people. And they are still two of the best.

Long before the advent of annual school camps, and before outdoor recreation became outdoor education, there was the movement founded by Lord Baden-Powell in 1907.

Nearly 100 years later, some of the founder's writings in Scouting for Boys seem decidedly quaint.

"You should carry on your courtesy to ladies at all times," wrote Baden-Powell. "If you are sitting down and a lady comes into the room, stand up, and see if you can help her in any way before you sit down."

Less dated are the observations that "A good many illnesses come from overeating or eating the wrong kind of food" and that "Want of laughter means want of health. Laugh as much as you can - it does you good. And make other people laugh too when possible as it does them good."

Baden-Powell's Scouting is a lot about living so that you "leave this world a little better than you found it", his classroom is the outdoors and his lessons remain remarkably timeless.

"Camping is the joyous part of a Scout's life," declared Baden-Powell. "Living out in God's open air, among the hills and the trees, and the birds and the beasts, and the sea and the rivers - that is, living with nature, having your own little canvas home, doing your own cooking and exploration - all this brings health and happiness such as you can never get among the bricks and smoke of the town.

"Hiking, too, where you go farther afield, exploring new places every day, is a glorious adventure. It strengthens you and hardens you so that you won't mind wind and rain, heat and cold.

"You take them all as they come, feeling that sense of fitness that enables you to face any old trouble with a smile, knowing you will conquer in the end.

"But of course, to enjoy camping and hiking, you must know how to do it properly.

"You have to know how to put up a tent or a hut for yourself; how to lay and light a fire; how to cook your food; how to tie logs together to make a bridge or a raft, how to find your way by night, as well as by day, in a strange country, and many other things.

"Very few fellows learn these things when they are living in civilised places, because they have comfortable houses, and soft beds to sleep in. Their food is prepared for them and when they want to know the way, they just ask a policeman.

"Well, when those fellows try to go scouting or exploring, they find themselves quite helpless.

"Take even your sports 'hero' and put him down in the wilderness alongside a fellow trained in camping, and see which one can look after himself. High batting averages are not much good to him there."

There follow a couple of hundred pages of advice on everything from making a camp mattress out of bracken and building bivouac shelters, to cleaning teeth with the frayed end of a dried stick.

The foreword to my edition of this manual was written by Baden-Powell in 1932. It is surprising how much of the campcraft instruction it contains is similar to that in modern handbooks.

The latest edition of the New Zealand equivalent, The Pathfinder Awards for New Zealand Scouts, is about as comprehensive an outdoor-recreation manual as you can find.

It contains up-to-the-minute advice on equipment and how to use it safely.

Scouts with Pathfinder awards will recognise symptoms of exposure, be familiar with survival shelters, know how to read topographical maps and use a compass.

Fortunately, 95 years of tradition do not disappear too quickly - Scouts are still encouraged to be explorers and outdoor adventurers and they still promise to do their best, to be trustworthy and loyal, friendly and considerate to others.

They are taught that courage does not necessarily mean being part of a dangerous mountain rescue team; it may mean coping with an unkind nickname and teasing at school.

Scouts care for other people's property and try to remember to treat other people as they would like to be treated themselves.

Camping traditions tend to set Scouts apart, too. While the modern Scout manual is up to date on safety equipment, it retains essential instructions on how to make a wash-basin stand out of a few lengths of bamboo and some knots and lashings. A well-made scout towel rack and washbasin stand, complete with soap holder, is almost a work of art.

The recommended layout of a patrol camp is architectural perfection. It is likely the design has barely changed since Baden-Powell used it on the African veld, and it remains neat and practical, right down to locating toilets downwind from the rest of the camp.

By far the most comprehensive outdoor manual on my bookshelves is the Fieldbook for Australian Scouting. It's subtitle is "A guide to outdoor adventure and resourcefulness" and there is not a page in it that is not full of useful information.

* colinmoore@xtra.co.nz

Scouting NZ