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We arrived at Orchard Cottage at 7ish on Friday night for North East 13+ Senior Branch weekend. There were some nice horses there, so we looked at them and petted them and gave them carrots for a few minutes even though they didn’t seem hungry. Then we came inside and we all cooked pizza and wedges.
After dinner Mary, one of our Senior Branch Leaders, did a craft with us: we made tie-dye neckerchiefs. The colour of your neckerchief was what patrol you were in. The colours included pink, yellow and blue. We then had a quiz. Some of the rounds were general knowledge, sport, music and logos. The blue team won. After that we had hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows. Then it was time for bed.
The next morning we woke up at 9am and had breakfast. The theme of the weekend was ‘I’m a Senior Brancher! Get me out of here!’, so after breakfast we did a dingo dollar challenge. The teams had to find stars around the grounds of the cottage and the number of stars you found determined how much food you could buy from the Leaders. After the teams picked out their food, they got all the stuff they needed to cook it with such as pots, pans and cookers. We then started to hike to Virginia Lake, which was meant to be around 3km away. We hiked through the forest next to the cottage and got lost a couple of times! It got to the point when the Leaders started hallucinating and Mary screamed “I see a person” when there really was no person. After that, we finally found a way out of the forest which involved climbing through multiple bushes and trees!
We eventually found the lake and cooked our food. After eating we had to do a few challenges that we had been set earlier. These included standing in two counties at once, making a swing, making a net and catching a fish. We hiked back to the cottage all exhausted. When we got back all of us had a nap before dinner, including the Leaders. Then the Leaders cooked us spag bol.
We went to the forest to collect wood for a campfire after dinner. We came back and did a few crafts. We lit the campfire and sang some songs. When we came back inside the Leaders had organised a live bush-tucker trial which involved eating foods blindfolded. Then we ate the rest of the nicer food items. Then it was time for bed.
The next morning, we slept in until 10am. We had a lovely cooked breakfast. We cleaned and packed our bags and it was time to go home. A fab weekend all around!