Sunday 15^th November the Zone Swimming Competition was held at Kilbirnie Aquatic Centre organised by The Regal Rovers Crew.  It was a fantastic afternoon of fun, laughter and some serious competition.

The Keas were in the children’s pool clambering over an inflatable obstacle course and playing games while the Cubs and Scouts were in the larger pool competing in a variety of races.

Brooklyn did their best, as always, but unfortunately other Groups were stronger and we did not come away with any trophies this time, maybe next year.

Kaa (Sue) won her heat in the leaders race but unfortunately ran out of puff in the final.

All those who took part were awarded with a badge for participating with such enthusiasm, and in the true spirit of Scouting, well done to:

Alexi , Samuel , Alexander, Quinn, Lukas, Ollie, Rafael, Campbell, Eve, Cooper and Rosa.

A special mention to Quinn and Lukas who went on to gain their Stage 2 Swimming Personal Challenge badge, well done boys.

A big thankyou to Regal Rovers for all their hard work in organising the event and taking time out to visit the different groups to promote it, hopefully this will become the start for what should be an important date on the Scouting calendar.

Keas, Cubs, Scouts, Leaders and Parents we numbered over 40.  We arrived with big smiles and heaps of excitement, this lasted all night, however we did sleep a bit.

Our Zoo Keeper took us behind the scenes, we went where only staff can go, saw what the animals/creatures eat, we even made the Tasmanian Devil their dinner and fed them (in the dark).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Photos by Jamie Scott and Harry Thornburrow

We took our time because we were having so much fun, when we got to the giraffes it was really late and one was in the private bedroom and the other was sitting down which was a very rare sight (they only sleep for 1 hour every 24 hours and never sit down in the wild).

Once back in the Archibald Centre, which overlooks Monkey Island, it was late and had been a perfect night, just like weather, we could not have asked for better.

Believe it or not, there was no tears or fears all night, we slept, woke up and continued our journey with our Zoo Keeper who once again got us thinking about each animal/creatures super hero power, that makes them special and how the zoo helps them.  We feed the Meerkats breakfast, watched the chimpanzees play and patted a bearded dragon all before the zoo opened.

So by the end we had been up close and personal with many animals/creatures and their habitats.  Having the zoo to ourselves was incredible, we made the most of every second.