Some time shortly after 7:00 pm, six Explorer Scouts and Leaders launched their kayaks from beside Longcraig pier, near South Queensferry. The start of the expedition was delayed by our having to rescue the rescue boat, manned by Clive and Tom, the Cabin Boy. At last we set off, heading into wind and waves, course set for the island of Inch Garvie, on which stands the middle pier of the Forth Bridge.

The spray heaped upon us as we pitched into the relentless waves and soon some of the kayaks had started to flood. But we were neither downhearted nor deterred by this misfortune. The rough waters east of the island were made even more bumpy by the conflicting tidal currents but the intrepid explorers came through this into the lee of the island just as the red sun was disappearing behind a cloud on the horizon.

The name 'Inch Garvie' is probably originally of Gaelic derivation, meaning 'rough island'. It certainly is!  We landed and hauled the kayaks ashore on to the limpet and barnacle encrusted basalt. Weed clung to the rocks and hid the gaps and crevices, likely home to crabs and other lurking horrors. We clambered over the rocks and soon reached the Second World War gun emplacement. Regretfully, we had brought no flag to place here, so we poked around for a while and, after a vain attempt to creep off and maroon one of our number, set off back to Longcraig.

The water was not nearly as bumpy as we headed back, so we played around a bit. We practiced canoeing skills, we rafted up and tried to use the paddles as sails, we surfed on the remaining swell and we came back to Longcraig as the light was failing. Once the safety boat was brought in and bodies and kayaks were hosed down, we tucked into the barbecue that Martin had kindly incinerated for us. Thanks to Bruce and Clive from Longcraig Scout Centre and to Paul for taking the pictures.

Planning meeting
This was our first full meeting. Six Explorer Scouts turned up. We started off by Alan introducing the Unit to Explorer Scouting.  We then discussed programme ideas with Martin leading a brainstorming session.  Then the Explorers were sent out into Morningside in two groups to answer some local knowledge questions. We met together at the church again back for refreshments, followed by a session where we elected ourselves on to four committees: 'Programme Planning', 'Summer Expedition Planning', 'Finance and Resources' (Finance And Resources Committee of Explorers - FARCE) and 'Communications and Publicity'.

Bonaly meeting
We started off by pitching a couple of tents belonging to the 25th and 103rd Scout Groups. We seemed to be doing this in the middle of a Brownie wide game and the air was filled with the sound of little girls screaming... very loudly!  Then we tried out a couple of different stoves, a gas one from the 25th and a Trangia belonging to the 103rd.  Martin set us the task of boiling a pint of water on each.  The Trangia team did well but were pipped to the post by the gas team. This experimenting with expedition equipment was followed by a session in Bonaly's new scramble room. We chased each other around the room but the whole thing was much more tiring than we had imagined.

Night hike and Border Bothy night
It was the autumn Equinox and there was a full moon. See expedition report for more details

Megabowl
We all met at Megabowl at 7:00 pm, except for Richard, who had foolishly checked with the web site to see what time we were supposed to arrive. Alan promised to try to keep it up to date in future! As we already had a lane of six, Alan and Martin had to double up. This was bad news for Martin. Richard took over Alan's lane, which was good news for Alan. There were several good scores during the evening, including a good few spares and one or two strikes. When it was all over, we wandered off into the evening, all having got to know each other a little better.

Moving On I
We went along to Braid Church where Calum and Euen were moving on from the 25th Troop. They were presented with their Moving On Awards by Cathy, after which Catriona, the GSL, presented the Scouts to Alan. The Unit then ran a game for the Troop, loosely based around the carton characters Yogi Bear, Mowgli, 
Bart Simpson, Fred Flintstone, Tom (of Jerry fame) and Aladdin. The tasks involved singing songs, making stone-age car and a mouse trap for Jerry. The Eagles won, with 62.5 points.

Moving On II
Having had such a successful evening at Braid Church, we all trooped along to Cluny Centre on the Friday for Richard's Moving On. James presented him with his Award and Alan welcomed him into the Unit. We ran the same game and this time the Hawks won, with 63 points.

Investiture
We held this meeting in the Session Room of Braid Church. Rebecca and Jennifer were presented with their Scout Membership Badges. After they had made their promise, the remainder of the Unit, including the Leaders, re-affirmed theirs. We talked about further programme ideas and then had an activity based around the Scout Law. A few other 'laws' were discussed. Take a look at them here! 

International Evening
We met in the Session Room of Braid Church, each of three groups representing  different nationalities. The Explorer Scouts had chosen Thailand and Italy, while the Leaders had Australia. Each group were expected to appear in the costume of their chosen country, give a short presentation, give us some music and introduce us to a few useful phrases. The Australians were well decked out with shorts and hats with dangling corks. One of the Italians was sporting a toga, but otherwise the attire was pretty mundane (more effort required here, guys!). We then tucked into a spread of Aussie barbi-tucker, Thai snacks and pizza before going along to the small hall for a session of Thai kick-boxing (ouch!), Sicilian card games and Aussie-rules handball!

Camping and walking in Perthshire
This was our October expedition.  See expedition report for more details.

Indoor games evening
We were ousted from the Session Room of Braid Church and had to make do with the old Ladies Room. Once divided into three teams, we were given a number of tasks to do by Martin. Alan ran a D-I-Y game of Pictionary and we had to negotiate an obstacle course with a balloon kept in the air by means of a hair drier.

Skiing at Hillend
We didn't have quite enough people to get a group ticket and we were restricted to the main slope because Thursday is race training. Some of us found muscles that we had forgotten existed and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Roll on the winter when we can do this for real up-north! 

Cookery Competition
On a stormy night, when the Car Park of Bonaly was in danger of flooding the 'Beefy's Best Botham Burger' Competition took place in the Baronial Hall. The Explorers were split into teams of Jennifer and Rebecca, Richard and Mikael with Calum choosing the wildcard entry of Alan. Would this be a choice he would end up regretting?

With Chief Chef Haggart overlooking proceedings the cooks went about producing their masterpieces. Recipes were a closely guarded secret in case that 'je ne sais quoi' provided that winning formula. With time counting down and the clock ticking the pressure began to tell with last minute preparations taking place. Ding!

And so to the marking, all Burger were of the highest quality and would do any restaurant proud. Each burger has been named as follows: Richard and Mikael - Hell Burger; Jennifer and Rebbecca - Can't cook Won't Cook; Calum and Alan - Barry's Big Beefy Bonaly Baronial Burger

After tidying up the contestants awaited with baited breath for the results and finally after much soul searching they were announced:

3. Jennifer and Rebecca
2. Calum and Alan (the gamble didn't pay off, Calum)
1. Richard and Mikael

Programme and progress review
The meeting was held at Braid Church in the Session Room.  The three committees met and talked about the programme for next term, the summer expedition to Loch Ness and the Great Glen and the finance and resources of the Unit.  Alan gave us a quick game where half of us were blindfolded and were led through a series of tasks by the others. We talked about how it felt not to be able to see and what it felt like to be depended upon.

Morningside District Explorer Scout Forum
The two Morningside District Explorer Scout Units met at Bonaly to get to know each other and talk about joint activities. We then had a Scottish dinner. We'd call it the annual dinner but that's a bit difficult as it was the first one. We finished off the evening with a couple of games - Who wants to be a millionnaire? and The weakest link. Three of the North Face Explorers stayed overnight in the Zodiac Bothy.

Taking drugs and making decisions
We all met at Cluny Church and started with a brain-storming session on drugs, medicinal and non-medicinal, legal and illegal, and socially acceptable and non-acceptable use and misuse. We then split into two teams, one representing the marketting division of a new drink that had been shown to be addictive and the other, an action group hoping to ban its introduction into Britain. Each team was given a budget and had to decide upon a course of action.

Incident Hike
Two groups of double-zero trainee agents were dropped into North Korea, ready to Die Another Day.  Each group had to estimate the times they would take to reach three checkpoints. The first was on top of a hill code-named Capelaw, where they came upon an agent with a bullet wound in his upper arm. One of the groups failed to find the entry wound, never mind the exit wound! The second checkpoint was code-named Bonaly Reservoir and here they discovered a South Korean agent who was trying to communicate in a wierd hill-dialect that he had been separated from the detachment to which he was assigned. He was expecting a helicopter to come and pick him up and the trainees had to interpret his sounds and sign-language and make the appropriate signals. The third checkpoint was back at Bonaly. One of the teams laid an ambush for the other but somehow fell asleep before they arrived. Calum, Jenna, Rebecca and Jamie were awarded their double-zero certificates. The others were sent back for further training.

Desert Island Disks
We met at Cluny Church. Martin had created three music quizzes, one with artists beginning A - M, one with artists beginning N - Z (including a few with dubious credentials) and one of film themes and musicals. Nobody wanted to be in Alan's team, though they could have used his knowledge of Frank Sinatra singing My Way... but not very much else. The quizzes were broken up by a discussion on what constituted a good pop song and then with writing one of our own. Lyricist Mikael surpassed himself.

Video and pizza
The last meeting of term was held at Richard's house. Richard had this great attic with a computer, pool table and hi-fi. This was a last chance for the founder members of the Unit to get together before the new Scouts move on in January. They have worked well together and Martin and Alan are very pleased with how the Unit has evolved. We all look forward to its growing as more Scouts join us and look forward to welcoming the first of them next term.

Friday 9th January:  Moving On
Our first meeting of the new term saw a moving on ceremony from the 25th Morningside, when Jamie joined the Unit. We expect other Scouts from the 60th and 103rd to join us later in the month. The ceremony over, the Unit was split into three teams and sent out into Morningside to solve a number of clues, each giving them a few words that they had to put into a grid. Anyone wanting to try this (filling in the grid, not the wandering around Morningside) should look in the Puzzles Page. After it was all over and Richard and Mikael had won the late Christmas present, Martin and Alan talked with the Unit about the programme for the Spring term.
 

Thursday 16th January:  Border and Highland bothies
The first part of the evening was spent discussing future programme ideas and hearing from Calum about the Jamboree in Thailand. We were then joined by David Dixon, a leading light in both the Border Bothies and the Mountain Bothies Associations. David rigged up his trusty slide projector and treated us to fifty minutes of slides on the rebuilding of two bothies, White Laggan in Dumfries-shire and Sourlies at the head of Loch Nevis. The slides told the story of the dedicated people who put in so much effort to rebuild old farming properties as comfortable shelters. When it was all over, we looked for some of the Highland bothies on OS maps and planned possible future expeditions. Thanks to David for giving up his time to come along and infect us with his enthusiasm.
 

Friday 24th January:  Moving On from the 103rd and 60th
We met at Cluny  for a moving on ceremony from 103rd Morningside, when Niall and Nicholas joined the Unit. The Explorer Scouts then ran a quick game for the Troop, a game that they just began to understand when it was almost over! Then up to Buckstone to the 60th Morningside, when Michael joined the Unit. After this we ran an activity, Cartoon Character Quest. This is the same activity that we had already run for the 25th and 103rd last term. It is reproduced here in case any other Explorer Units would like to borrow it!
 

Thursday 30th January:  Group Faith Award: what are chapels for?
Bill Brockie was our guest at this meeting, which was the first stage in our Group Faith Award, working with the EASIE team in rebuilding Bonaly's chapel. He led us in a discussion on chapels and churches and made us think about how one might be designed from scratch. It seemed important to us that a chapel should allow for communal celebration as well as individual reflection and meditation. We had a go at building models of possible chapels and churches from card, paper and straw. He then talked to us about labyrinths and how these had been used in various religious sites over the centuries.
 

Wednesday 5th February:  Try Scuba diving
We met at Cluny and were transported down to Jewel & Esk Valley College, where we were given fins, masks, diving jackets and air tanks. After a safety briefing, we were divided into two groups and each had a go at swimming along and breathing underwater. The group not under instruction were allowed to play around with snorkels, masks and fins. Alan sat on the bottom for the whole evening and practiced submarine levitation.
Click here for more information on the Edinburgh Scout and Guide Sub-aqua Club
 

Thursday 13th February:  Investiture and planning review
The first part of the evening saw the investiture of Michael, Niall, Nicholas and Jamie into the Unit. This was followed by a game where we all wrote our own tombstones... and then had a friend write them for us... some friends!  We then split into groups to talk about who wanted to sit on which committees, ideas for the programme and other plans for the future. We finished with a tiddlywinks competition, which was won by Jamie, Nick and Martin who invoked  a variety of somewhat dubious tactics.
 

Thursday 27th February:  Wide Game in the Hermitage
The game was based around a Welsh theme as St David's Day was coming up. One team were attackers and the other defenders, both trying to gain as many Golden Eggs as possible while avoiding the Red Dragon. After a game of some stealth, some skill and a little physicality, the Defenders emerged triumphant.

Thursday 6th March: Cooking evening at Bonaly
We met at Bonaly a little late for St David's Day, but still with Welsh music singing in our ears. We split into four teams, the first preparing Cawl Cennin, a leek broth, and the second Selsig Morgannwg, vegetarian cheese sausages from Glamorgan. Unfortunately, the only vegetarian amongst us was a vegan!  Two teams cooked the desserts: Picau ar y maen (Welsh Cakes) and Teisen Reis Grieddell (Rice Griddle Cakes). The groups were scored on preparation, edibility and presentation and the winners were... The recipes can be seen here.
 

Thursday 13th March: Looking at Photography
We were visited this evening by Bob Alexander, an elder of Cluny Church, who introduced himself, brought us best wishes from the Kirk Session and then sat back to enjoy the evening.  Alan first provided us with a picture quiz - ten photographs of various objects from strange angles. He then let us look at, play about with and in some cases dismantle a number of old still and ciné cameras. We then talked about what photography was for and used a collection of photographs of the Unit to make posters advertising the North Face Unit. Lastly, we talked about portraits, examined a number of baby portraits of the Unit and took pictures of each other. Their portraits can be seen here
 

Sunday 16th March: Curling
Eight Explorer Scouts and leaders met at Gogar Curling Club. Our instructor, Alasdair, gave us some advice and safety rules and then took us down on to the rink. Team captains Calum and Richard allocated vice-captains and the order of play and we set to, the yellow team winning hansomely over the reds. Unfortunately this curling rink will be pulled down to make way for the Royal Bank of Scotland, so we shall have to go somewhere else if and when we do this again.
 

Thursday 20th March: Night navigation practice
We met at Cluny and walked to Blackford Hill where we split into four groups. The first thing that we did was to practice pacing out 100 metres, first along the flat, then uphill and downhill.  Each group then took a compass and a head torch and were set out on a series of bearings. The winners were Calum, Jenna and Becky, who managed to give us a correct direction for the wind and estimate of distance between one point and the top of Blackford Hill.
 

Friday 28th March: Moving on and Hashing
We met at Watsons and lined up at one end of the gym while the 9th Morningside Troop formed a horseshoe at the other end. Kenn introduced us to the six Scouts that were leaving the Troop and each patrol leader shook hands with his Patrol and handed over responsibility to his APL. They were welcomed to the Unit by Alan and Martin, after which the Troop then formed two lines on either side of the door and cheered them (and us) as we left. Alan then took Stuart and Calum as two 'hares' to lay a trail of flour around Colinton and after an initial training session from Martin, the 'hounds' took off in hot hash-house-harrying pursuit.

Thursday 24th April: Investiture and planning meeting
We met at Cluny Centre and the evening started with six Scouts from the 9th (George Watsons College) Morningside Troop being invested into the North Face Explorer Unit. There was some discussion on the programme for the coming term and then broke into three groups. Each group was then given a pile of materials from which they had to design a teddy bear, prepare a prototype and plan a production schedule