With Poacher 2022 having officially ended at Friday’s spectacular Closing Ceremony, Saturday morning brought the time to start loading up and moving back to the real world.
Some units had taken advantage of Friday’s warm and dry conditions to drop and pack away some of the large tents. Gates and maypoles, saloons and circus tents were folded, rolled and ready to go home.
The Showground gates opened at 9am to mums and dads, coach drivers and trailer towers collecting participants and particulars from each of the subcamps.
Making the most of some downtime before she was planning to leave, Martha from 7th Wakefield’s Guides told us that she was “visiting new friends”. She will remember the fun she had “meeting loads of people and trying new activities” all week.
Similar to arrivals day, drivers were advised to be patient, listen to Jam FM, and follow the direction of the friendly Poacher team, to make the journey through the site, and out the other side, as seamless as possible.
As they were waiting for their scheduled pick up, 9th Grantham Scouts’ Jacob and Tommy summed up their week at Poacher. “The week was great”, says Jacob, “I’m sad to be leaving, but excited to get home!”. “I loved the activities!”, adds Tommy.
Looking forward to their journey home Emma and Ebony from 4th Golcar Explorers, Wonder Fest, say that they will “sleep a lot”, and “sing a lot”, adding that ‘Take Me To Church’ would be requested at least once on the way.
As an unexpected treat, bundled complete copies of the week’s ‘Best of Fest’ newspaper were available at the exit, so that the participants could take home a few more memories from their Adventure of a Lifetime.