THE Terrifying Tale of the Seagull and the Brownie — sounds a great title for a story but in fact it is what happened recently on the Tregadillett Brownies Pack Holiday!

This year’s theme was ‘Naturefest’ and on the morning of the holiday, the girls had to open an envelope to get their tickets.  These tickets had to be shown when they met at the bus stop and before they could board the minibus, they were issued with a ‘Naturefest2019’ wristband to be worn all weekend. Sadly, one Brownie had been ill overnight wasn’t able to go.

Brown Owl drove the minibus to Saltash Guide Hut, which was where the holiday was based. 

A Brownie mum drove the luggage in a van and also stayed for the afternoon to help until the others arrived after work. The supermarket delivery van was already waiting to be unloaded when they all arrived but unfortunately, the caretaker who was supposed to meet them with the key to the hall, wasn’t! 

After several phone calls, a very kind supermarket delivery van driver helped unload our luggage and about 45 minutes later, the caretaker arrived and let everyone in! 

Good job Brown Owl had brought a cool box, with some frozen blocks in so the ice cream didn’t melt!

Everyone settled in quickly and arranged the hall to look like a festival, with bunting and fairy lights. After a quick lunch, everyone went on a nature trail down to the River Tamar — just underneath the bridges. 

On the way back to the hall, it was a very steep climb but with a few stops to regain breath every now and again, everyone made it! There was even some Geocaching involved as ‘Peonie’ (Rosie) got the chance to show the girls how to do it and they had great fun finding one just near the station.

After a quick meal of pizza, DJ Sparkle and DJ Glitter (Beth and Emma) arrived after work and during the evening, everyone decorated a little wooden trinket box. As usual, the first night, it took some time for everyone to settle!

The next day, everyone had to get prepared for a day out on another ‘Nature Trail’ but this one was going to be a special one! 

Nobody knew for definite where they were going, except for a trip in the bus. It was lovely that the Brownie who had been poorly, arrived just after breakfast and was able to join in with the rest of the holiday.

The nature trail turned out to be a trip to Paignton Zoo and everyone was very excited. The day was spent wandering around and looking at all the animals. Even a little bit of ‘liquid sunshine’ didn’t spoil the day. Lunchtime was particularly interesting, as this is when the ‘incident’ with the seagull happened! Everyone was enjoying their sandwiches when suddenly out of nowhere, a seagull dived in over the picnic table and swiped a sandwich right from one of the Brownie’s hands!

This, of course, involved a lot of screaming to start with but this was quickly replaced by laughter!  Afterwards, everyone took a bite from their sandwich and hurriedly replaced it in their lunch box so it could not happen again!

After a full day out at the zoo, a fish and chips tea was nice and easy. Once that had been demolished, it was time to get ‘glittered up’ for the festival’s music event! Everyone chose which colour glitter to have on their face and which tattoos to have, all to get into the mood. The music was organised by DJ Sparkle and DJ Glitter and everyone had a great time! There was even a photo-booth available and everyone had great fun dressing up in the props and taking silly photos of themselves. Eventually, it was time to wash as much glitter as possible off and go to bed. It gives a new meaning to ‘clean and sparkly’!

The final morning started a bit later as everyone was still worn out from the previous day. After a leisurely breakfast, Brown Owl came rushing in frightened, saying she had seen something go past the window and there were lots of footprints outside!

All the Brownies had to go out and follow the footprints and then had to crack the clues that they found as they were all in code. The clues gave them a list of items that would allow them to make Smores to eat!

After that, the final packing up, chasing the lost socks and completing more of the holiday diary, took up the rest of the time. There still was quite a lot of glitter amongst the luggage so it will probably turn up in various places for some time!

Of course, Brown Owl (Sara Fuge) would like to thank Beth Martin, Emma Boucher and Rosie Livermore for giving up their time to help with this weekend.  It is always a lot of work but a lot of fun — it must be fun, as next year has already been discussed!

If anyone is interested in joining in with the fun, either as an adult volunteer or a child, apply via www.girlguiding.org.uk