Rampage is Derbyshire's inter-Patrol competition and took place this October at Drum Hill Camp site. Teams of up to six Scouts take part in a day of activities in three areas - bases, Scouting skills and assault course. Prizes are awarded for each section and an overall winner. This year Taxal camped for the whole weekend and then entered two teams in the competition on the Sunday, one team of older Scouts and one team of younger Scouts. We won the bases, came first and second in the assault course and took home the overall trophy for the first time.

This report is by Joe W, one of the Scouts in the younger team.

Rampage lasted for two days. Over our visit we had to do three different tasks; Scouting skills, Assault Course and Incident Bases. On Scouting skills we had to spot the dangers in a small camp site and we also each had to tie a knot and we passed that easily. In the Assault Course our team set a record but it was beaten by the older group so we finished second. The Incident Bases were lots of bases with different tasks. We set some records but they got beaten by the older group again. Altogether the older group finished 1st and my team finished 8th. Great for my first Rampage.

This report is by Alex N, another one of the Scouts in the younger team.

Rampage was a great camp (even though it rained when we were putting the tents up). On the Saturday night we had a big fire and some of the older Scouts went down to the town. The next day (when was not raining) we started the events which were: scouting skills, the activity bases and the assault corse. On the scouting skills Taxal did not get first, second or third. On the activity bases (in which Taxal B came first) Taxal A went round breaking all the records then Taxal B came round afterwards breaking all Taxal A's records. On the assault course Taxal B came first and Taxal A came second. The ove rall winners were Taxal B. Taxal A came in the top ten.

This summer, Scouts from the 1st Taxal Scout Group, camped with Guides from the 1st Whaley Bridge and 23rd Weston Super Mare Guide Companies and joined 8000 other Scouts and Guides at Derbyshire's International Camp, Peak 2000. The camp took place in the ground of Chatworth House and Scouts and Guides took part in a large range of activities as diverse as Sailing, Craft, Mountain Biking and Bell Ringing. Visit the Peak 2000 Website

This report is by Simon L, one of the Scouts.

During the week of July 29^th – August 5^th 8000 people from 25 different countries took part in the biggest camp in the UK in the year 2000. The camp was held at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire and it attracted campers from countries as far away as Kenya and Japan.

The site had been split up into eleven different areas called ‘sub-camps’. The theme for the camp was space and in keeping with that the sub-camps were called Aurora, Apollo, Atlantis, Discovery, Gemini, Voyager, Pioneer, Soyuz, Columbia, Saturn and Sputnik (the staff sub-camp). These sub-camps were then split into ‘units’ for each individual Scout Troop or Guide Company.

There were many activities on offer for people to participate in at Peak 2000. There were the walk-on activities, which did not need to be booked and could be attended at any time. These included climbing, abseiling and what seemed to be a camp-wide favourite- the assault course. On this people queued for, literally, hours to try and beat a ‘top five’ time or just get a best time for their team, which consisted of 3-5 members.

There were also ticketed activities, when a ticket, which had a time, a place and an activity on it, was given to people by their leader. These activities included circus skills, judo, clay pigeon shooting and canoeing. The ticketed activity that people seemed to enjoy most though was digeridoo playing. It was hard work but it made a great sound. Lots of people ordered one after the session.

The last set of activities were ones which you booked beforehand. They included the Chatsworth adventure, croquet and night-hikes.

Apart from activities there was plenty of entertainment taking place in the camp throughout the week. Each sub-camp had its own ‘sub-camp day’ where competitions and activities took place within the sub-camp. As far as sport goes there was volleyball and a football competition. Our Scouts (first Taxal) entered two teams into the football competition and one of them won it!

At night the entertainment was held in the main arena, where different people performed on the huge stage that had been put up. These included a Robbie Williams tribute band, a Steps tribute band and two discos. The different acts were usually good to watch and some were good to dance to.

There were plenty of things to spend your money on at Peak 2000, especially at the ETC (Extra Terrestrial Trading Centre). Here they had a Scout and Guide shop, a sweet shop and a café. There was also a ‘Yeomans’ camping shop, which had great bargains on some camping equipment.

Peak 2000 will leave lots of people from different countries and areas of England lots of great memories of their week at Chatsworth.

This report about the last night at Peak is by Stephen, one of the Scouts.

It all started in the week. The first when we were quite happily listening to some music, when an approachable person from Sputnik came to tell us to turn the music down. She said 'your weeeeeeing all the way to Sputnik'. The second was the lazy people who spent all day driving round on golf buggies hired out on money we had spent to go on peak. The last thing that really upset us all was the beating of Dudley the duck by some younger members of the camp.

It was now the last night of peak and just after the fireworks we set off our first stop was Sputnik to show them what weeeeeing on Sputnik really meant. After a quick toilet stop at sputnik we carried on to the golf buggies guarded by some old person in a caravan. It was all going nicely until Chris set an alarm off so we left the golf buggies to save the life of Dudley the duck after his fight with some extremely dangerous people. They had left him half dead and speech less. We quickly rushed him to the first aid tent where he was bandaged up, but sadly Dudley will never speak again and is still bandaged today.

At the beginning of July, Scouts, Cubs and Beavers from the 1st Taxal Scout Group joined together for a weekend Camp at Spitewinter camp site near Chesterfield. This was our third Group camp and we took part in a fun filled weekend of activities based around the countries of Australia and New Zealand.

Click here for photos.

At the end of June each year Whaley Bridge Rose Queen Festival takes place. Many of the groups in the village decorate floats for a parade through the village. Here are a few pictures of our float this year.

Click here for photos.