Leading my patrol in an outdoor exploration.

December 25, 2019

Leading my patrol in an outdoor exploration.

Yesterday, my patrol (which consisted of spencer, asvind, jerald, lisan,kevelle and myself) went on an outdoor exploration. Our outdoor exploration started from school where we embarked on our first checkpoint at sunshine park. After that we began to walk to our second checkpoint which was the Singapore Scout Association at Bishan where our patrol mate,lisan led the way. On the way to the SSA we took a break at a petrol station on our way where we bought drinks and snacks for energy. After we reached the SSA, we then headed for our lunch and began our journey to Potong Pasir MRT station where another one of my patrolmates, kevelle led the way. During the journey to the MRT station, we took a small break at a shelter to keep ourselves hydrated. Also, this journey was smoother than the others as we could already see the ‘slanted rooftops’ that only some hdbs at potong pasir had. From there, we made our way to the MRT station. Afterwards, we began our journey to Boon Keng MRT with Kevelle leading us again because it was his neighbourhood and he was very familiar with the area. After reaching Boon Keng MRT, we took another short break before heading to our next checkpoint which was sota at dhoby ghaut area. For this leg of the journey, i led the patrol to our destination by giving them direction and info about landmarks that we passed by (e.g. the name of the landmark)so that they would not feel very lost and may have some idea on where we were and also feel assured that we were on thr right path. When we reached sota, we then took another small break there before heading to our next checkpoint which was the fort canning park.This time, it was my other patrol mate, asvind who took the lead and led us to the park. However, we did not take a break this time when we reached, this was because we were running short of time and some of us had to go home early and so we immediately left for Chinatown MRT where our other patrol mate, jerald led us and gave direction. Same for Fort Canning Park, we immediately left for our next checkpoint once we arrived. For the last leg of the journey to marina bay, we had Spencer to lead. After around 30 minutes, we finally reached marina bay and was rewarded with a beautiful view. Honestly, this was a very rewarding experience because it was my first time doing an exploration that was this long in terms of distance. Not only that, it was also very fun as we got to bond with each other throughout the journey.Also, i got to go to or pass by places which i never thought existed and felt they were pretty interesting just like the underpass under the bridge at potong pasir and also the bridge connecting braddell heights and bishan which looked very nice. After this exploration, i have learnt that communication was important. This was because there were times when i felt quite lost when i was leading and this was when my patrol mates helped out and guided me by telling me that there were landmarks that were close to our destination. I have also learnt that perseverance was important because it was a very long journey and without perseverance, i would have given up halfway and not complete it.

What went well

- We managed to complete the entire journey

What went wrong

-We got lost a few times

What can be improved

-Improved planning by starting our planning earlier. By planning earlier, we can also decide on our checkpoints better because for one of our checkpoints, (bishan-potong pasir) we had to backtrack alot and take the same way as serangoon- bishan