One of the things I remember doing as a Scout, is cooking my first full meal on a camp fire from start to finish, it must have been for my Second Class Scout test, you were given two matches, then you had to select, and prepare, a site for the fire, collect the best materials for lighting and laying it, remembering birch bark, dry leaves, and soft wood like pine, and larch, make excellent kindling, sort the materials in size from very thin twigs to medium sticks, and don’t light the fire until everything is ready, as you only have two matches.

That first meal was sausages, yes sausages, mash, and beans, rice pudding and a cup of tea, while you ate the meal water was boiled, and used to wash the pots, when you had finished the ashes were removed, soil turned and watered before replacing the turf, you should not be able to see where the fire was, when you leave, still echo's in my mined every time I light a fire.

With my memories of camping, and the enthusiasm of the Scouts, our first camp started as all camps, with pitching the tents and sorting the food, there were eight Scouts, and three Leaders including myself, this meant three four man tents, two for the Scouts, and one without the inner for the food etc, the Leaders in their own small hike tents, no tables, or chairs, just the boxes the food was in. We had been given a quiet spot at the far end of the site near the camp fire circle, and not far from the small river that runs along the boundary of the site, quite a distance from the other campers, as it happened this was an ideal spot for us to camp, with the river and the wood close by.

The menu had been decided before hand, and the food bought by the assistant Leaders, breakfast, a choice of egg and bacon, and or cereal, the main meals were corned beef hash, burgers, sandwiches, macaroni cheese, and the meal for (camp cook) including eggs, bacon, sausages, potatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms, cabbage, etc, rice pudding, fruit salad, plenty of bread, jam biscuits, crisps, and orange to drink not forgetting the tea.

As mentioned before and surprisingly to some people, we took no tables, and chairs, or dining shelter, we sat on logs and ate all meals on our knee, or make shift tables, something I did as a Scout all the time, fortunately we did not have to use it, but if the weather had been bad the food store tent would have been used at meal times. Food tastes better eaten on your knee, whilst sitting on a log in front of the fire, try it some time, the conversation also goes better. As stated before all meals were cooked on a wood fire, so this meant we needed a constant supply of wood, fortunately not being far from the camp fire circle there was a good supply, but unlike today’s camp sites it was in the form of logs and not pallets, old doors, and window frames.