This year the explorers summer camp returned to KIJ ( Kent International Jamboree) which was based at Detling Showground.
The event is a week-long camp with thousands of scouts and guides from across the globe with a large range of activities throughout the day and into the evenings with evening entertainment for all.
This year we took 34 explorers and 7 adults to this event and I can honestly say what a week we all had. The range of activities on offer was incredible. 12 of our young people got the opportunity to go up in the microlight and light weight air crafts, circulating the whole site and beyond
The level of excitement that they had was off the scale.
The other activities onsite were the climbing zone which was run by the Kent scouts climbing team and as a district we had lots of our adults helping to run this zone. What an incredible zone this was it was our explorers favourite zone they visited. So a huge thank you to the climbing team.
They also had go karts, off road driving, inflatables, colour runs, international activities, science zones and so much more. The evening entertainment was brilliant they had drag bingo which was our explorer’s favourite night, country night where they did line dancing and of course I can’t forget the closing ceremony where we had the absolute privilege of hosting the band Scouting for Girls which was an amazing end to the week’s festivity.
From a leader’s perspective the amount of food we got through was incredible, feeding all of our camp and 12 members of IST was an absolute privilege and what a mountain of food we got through. We found some new puddings that we will absolutely repeat next year as well as some interesting breakfast ideas from the explorers.
I would just like to add a big thank you to our adult team from Gravesham that allowed our explorers to attend this event.
Next years summer camp is an activity camp at Blacklands Farm in East Sussex from the 10th to the 14th August 2026, information and forms will be out soon.
Hannah Connolly
14-24 lead
