Rufus and friends go exploring

Young explorer Rufus Hughes is set for an adventure in Nepal in 2023.

 

The Oban High School pupil will be joining 60 other Scouts this summer on the expedition.

 

The 14-year-old has been busy raising funds to go by selling food and crafts at Easter and Christmas stalls kindly hosted at St John's Cathedral in Oban with help from his younger brother and fellow Scout, Felix. A neighbour from Oban Hill also helped run a plant sale.

 

Rufus also took on jobs for friends and family to help get to target and got support from funding organisations in the town and a contribution from the Leslie Sell Trust - an organisation he later discovered was set up by his great-great-uncle who was also a keen Scout.

 

While in Nepal, Rufus will be helping to build classrooms, classroom furniture and playground equipment.

 

And next month he will be meeting up with the trip's other participants on a training weekend to learn some of the skills that will come in handy.

 

Rufus was a member of the 37th Ardchattan Scout section before joining a new Explorers unit called Wildcat Explorers North Argyll. More Wildcat Explorers are being invited to join.

 

"attachment_844726" "" "300"] Explorer Scouts outside the remote Loch Ossian hostel
NO_T52_lochossianscouts

 

"attachment_844732" "" "300"] Explorer scouts at Dundee's Aquapark
NO_T52_Explorerscoutsaquapark

 

As well as those Scout groups, North Argyll also has 1st Lorn.

 

Explorers leader Moira Newiss said: 'Both 1st Lorn and 37th Ardchattan have Beavers, Cubs and Scout sections but the area has never had an Explorer Scout group. All that has changed now. This is Scouting for 14-18-year-olds and aims to provide adventure, challenge, make new friends, have fun and occasionally try to change the world!'

 

Explorer Scouts is usually run at a district level, but because Argyll District is so big it has  smaller sub-units run locally, Moira explains.

 

Mid-Argyll already had an established unit in Lochgilphead and other Explorer units are coming soon to Dunoon and Campbeltown too.

 

'This shows how popular scouting has become and indeed it thrived during the pandemic when leaders strived to provide our young people with opportunities to meet outdoors in all weathers whilst still smiling!' adds Moira.

 

The North Argyll Explorer Unit is based at Oban's Scout Hall and currently has 10 members.

 

Together with the Mid-Argyll unit, members have bivvied out overnight and joined a national camp in Dundee to play a real life monopoly game that included jumping into the docks at Dundee Aqua Park.

 

The North Argyll group organised a district weekend event at Loch Ossian Youth Hostel, one of the most remote places you can stay in Scotland, where 20 Explorer Scouts did everything from climbing hills, learning new navigational skills, cooking all their own meals, learning new knots, testing their fire lighting skills using flints and steel, as well as a music and general knowledge quiz.

 

For the North Argyll Explorers' last meet before Christmas, they headed off to the woods to cook a Christmas meal on open fires.

 

Interested in joining them? Contact Moira Newiss on 07709 014479 or email: wildcatexplorersnorthargyll@gmail.com.