25 of our Cubs and Beavers joined a District, Beaver-led Sleepover at The Deep on Friday evening, 19th September and had a great time! Over 110 Beavers and Cubs from the South Leeds and Morley District left on 3 coaches (one from Morley and two from Rothwell) to arrive at The Deep in Hull shortly before half-past six.

Upon arrival, we were met by staff who had a clear and well-practiced plan for our visit which proceeded very smoothly! The Scout Groups from the District were split into  3 groups (per coach) and brought into different entrances of the Deep in order to manage (very well!) the number of children and all their gear. We were then given an initial briefing by our allocated team member (Sarah from The Deep was looking ater 8th Carlton – and she did a fantastic job :-))

 She then took us on a tour round The Deep talking to us about the exhibits and animals we saw.

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After the tour we sat in one of the areas with large windows to the fishtanks on each side and had our packed supper. We also sang Happy Birthday to one of our Cubs, Amelia (recently moved on from Beavers)

Then our guide, Sarah, took us down to some classrooms for some planned activities. The children traced fishy stencils onto plain white t-shirts to decorate them, made badges and tried on Scuba gear that Sarah showed them that the Divers in the Deep use when maintaining the tanks and feeding the fish

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  Finally, Sarah handed us over to other staff from the Deep who continued the excellent service and looked after us as we settled down for our sleepover – right next to the fishtanks! Not exactly sleep-inducing (at least not quickly) watching sharks and manta-rays and other interesting fish swim leasurely round their environments – only a few inches away (albeit through thick glass!)

On Saturday morning we were woken up early in time to see the penguins

before we packed our gear up and headed upstairs to the cafe for a great breakfast of cereal, toast and – LOTS – of coffee (for the adults). The children also had time to check out the Deep’s shop and spend a little bit of money if they wanted!

At 8am it was then time to get loaded back on the coaches and head home. On the coach on the way back some happy but tired Cubs fell asleep…

Hope you all enjoyed it! Thanks to all the Leaders and Adults who supported this event and special thanks to Adele, our Assistant District Comissioner (Beavers) for arranging it all – it was brilliant 🙂