8th Cub Scout Goodwill Camporee : Day 3: Outdoor Adventures!

The day started with a smile on many of our faces. The cubs were hyped and were certainly looking forward for the rousing activities that awaited them. We assembled at the canteen before having breakfast. After which, we assembled at the orientation room for a briefing before our thrilling nature game.

Breakfast!

Yum!

Group Photo with Mt. Fuji!

For nature games, the cubs would be orienteering around the campsite. Armed with only a map and compass, the cub scouts worked in groups of 3 to navigate through the forest, reaching all ten checkpoints in just one hour. The cub scouts were separated into three groups, with two scouts and two leaders. With eager anticipation, the groups scurried into the forested areas to hit their first checkpoints.

Into the wild

As expected, the route were plagued with uneven natural grounds and trees. Also, many problems were faced along the way, one group quarrelled and was unable to make a decision quickly. This caused the whole group to slow down.

Navigating

With a little prep talk from their teacher, the group straightened things outs, compromised their opinions to come together to work out their navigation. Apart from that, the activity was certainly interesting as the participants had a chance to look at the forestation and different plants in the campsite. A captivating sight was the frozen pond from the cold as well as morning dew which froze into ice crystals.

Hungry Mac.

Ice!

After our exhausting games, we ate like wild beasts, wolfing down every edible substance in the vicinity. Just when we thought all the fun was over, it was time to go to Mount Fuji for the caving!

What's for lunch

Lunch Queue

Our weary selves were jolted with anticipation in a split second. We took a bus to our destination. Along the way, we stopped for photo taking at the 13th World Scout Jamboree memorial and took a toilet break at a nearby Pitstop before continuing. In that short toilet break, we met our instructors. They introduced themselves to us in English. We were taken aback by the fact that they were able to communicate and even joked with us in English. We continued our journey to the caving.

13th World Scout Jamboree Memorial

After a short while, we stopped at a national park. We alighted the bus and headed into what seemed as a dense forest that was at 1260m of Mount Fuji. After a safety briefing by the instructors, we were given helmets at the entrance of the trail to protect ourselves from the low cave ceilings. Soon we began our hike to the cave site in the national park.

1260m above sea level on Mt Fuji

Along the way, we realised that the terrain and footpath got rockier. Our instructors explained that it was due to the volcanic eruption 1000 years ago. The rocks were remains of cooled flowing lava from the eruption. It was indeed a mind boggling discovery leaving many cubs in awe.

Cooled Lava forming trails

Shortly after, we were led to a rather large hole in the ground, where it was introduced as the "Mount Fuji Wind Cave" where we would be caving in. But before heading in, our instructors gave us a short safety briefing on how to walk safely in the cave.

Once we were briefed, the instructors led us in and we started our descend into the cave. The cave was cold and dark with the torches and headlamps being the only way to scout our path and terrain in front. However the cubs lightened up the darkness by making their "smokey fog" with their warm breath in the cold air to bring a laugh to their buddies.

Safety Briefing

The instructors then let us take a break where two activities were conducted. The first was total darkness where we switched off all our light source. Immediately, our sense of sight was robbed of us but it eventually led us to depend on our other senses. The next was total silence where we enjoyed the serenity of water droplets from the cave ceilings.

After these activities, we delved deeper into the cave and found that the floor was gradually changing from just plain rock into icy ground and eventually to ice itself. The instructors then taught us that the ice in the cave was actually spring water from Mount Fuji and was one of Japan's purest water source and even invited us to try and catch some to drink some!

Caving Adventure!

Alas, our time in the cave was soon to be over and we began to make our way back to the surface and headed back to the bus. Soon after we returned to Asagiri Activity centre where we had our dinner. After that, the cubs headed to a meeting room where their astronomer badge assessment was conducted.