Way back in February I reported on what is the toughest event in Explorer Scouting in Kent. Now at last the organising committee have released the results of this years Survival which saw 37 teams of Explorers Scouts from all over Kent set out on a 40 plus mile route in the Herne Bay area.
It was good to see that overall entries this year had increased from 32 to 37 and Gravesham reflected this with 4 teams as compared to 3 in 2022. In fact, no district had more than 4 entries, with Gravesham only equalled by Maidstone East and Malling Districts.
Interestingly, no team finished the whole route; even the winning team was “bussed” 4 checkpoints and covered 39.3 miles in just under 20 hours of walking. This compares with 2 teams completing the full distance of 38.8 miles last year. So it looks as though this years route was a bit longer and harder.
In 2022, Gravesham’s top team was 16th out of 32. This year our teams improved with Alpha One (Ben Woodgate, Josh Rayfield, Katie Sawyer and Callum Fooks) finishing a very creditable 6th place with 34 miles covered in just over 14 hours. All the members of this team took part in the 2022 event, so they knew what they had to do this time and took their pre-event practise very seriously.
Our other 3 teams were all first timers and they all covered just over 26 miles. November One (Evan Hinks, Grace Lynch and Morgan Wade) took 13 hours and 27 minutes to finish 19th, Bravo One (Ember Vincent, Daisy Drewett, Bradley Emery and Alif Khan) took 13 hours and 40 minutes to finish 21st and just one place behind them was Juliet One (Ted Jackson, Jennifer Reeves and Jack Williams) who took 15 hours 25 minutes.
All the Explorers put in excellent performances and in many cases exceeded their own expectations. I asked one of the first timers, who has only been in Scouting for 6 months, why he had decided to do Survival and he told me that he’d been told this was the most extreme event you could do, and he definitely wanted to do it. Hopefully that sort of enthusiasm, and ongoing training will see Gravesham aim to enter 5 teams in 2024.
Dave Moesli
District Explorer Scout Commissioner
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