Bures Scouts travelled up to West Yorkshire in our mini bus on Friday 23rd September, leaving Bures at 5pm with the six oldest Scouts with Paul Snelling and Eddie Gordon accompanying them and we arrived at 10pm at Curly Hill Scout Camp Site, Ilkley - 220 miles from Bures for our County Scout Hill Walking and Climbing weekend and were joined by Scouts and Explorers from Lowestoft, Eye, Bacton and our accommodation was inside and we were sleeping in bunk beds.

An early rise at 7.00am for breakfast on Saturday and then a brief of what the Scouts wanted to do – hill walking or climbing. Two Scouts decided to do the Three Peak Challenge at Ingleton and the others went for climbing and abseiling at Brimham Rocks near Summerbridge.

We travelled over to Summerbridge – a thirty minute drive from the camp site to Brimham Rocks owned by the National Trust and is set at an attitude of 300m on the edge of the moor and in Nidderdale Valley.

The instructors decided to take us to Cubic Rock – a huge tilled chunk of gritstone that makes a good attempt at Yorkshire’s answer to the Peak’s mighty Higgar Tor at 10m high – we all climbed the Great Slab, Old Corner, Shorty’s Dilemma and Heather Wall – after lunch the other half of the group climbed and we went for a walk around Brimham Rocks exploring the vast boulders and visited the café and visitors centre. We changed over again and this time set up at a rock face called Cyclops and climbed Long John’s Rib, Acme Error and Gordon’s Proffer - all 6m high climbs.

See more photos of this activity - click here

Ana and Thomas did the Three Peak Challenge walking and climbing at Ingleborough, Pen-y-Ghent and Whernside 700m high and 25 miles in length – they had to do this in under 12 hours – which they just about managed to do – they arrived back at the camp site at 9.30pm exhausted, muddy and hungry – and were proud to have achieved the challenge. Well done.

On Sunday, we drove to the Cow and Calf range on Ilkley Moor overlooking the town of Ilkley and the views of the surrounding area were fantastic – it started to drizzle and the rain got heavier. We met the instructors who had set up the climbs on the ridge – by this time the rock face was getting wet and was too dangerous to climb with many Scouts not keen to climb. We walked back to the car park – had our picnic lunch and coffee from the café and set off for home – finally arriving in Bures at 7.30pm.

I would like to thank Dave Ward and his County team for a great weekend in Yorkshire and we look forward to another weekend in the near future.