Energy Burst Good Camping Guide

With thanks to EIJ for allowing use of their Good Camp Guide.

 

Highlights and rules will be shared in communications with everyone leading up to the event. If you have questions please ask, we will create a FAQ section to be added to the county webpages.

 

Camping Safety

• As with any camp it is important that the camp is set up, run and taken down in a safe way.  That said, there is more emphasis on safety due to the increased risk with the large amount of people camping in one place.
• We have a safety team, and we need your unit to work with us to ensure a safe environment.
• Please follow our guidance, and don’t hesitate to ask us if you have any safety questions or concerns.
• As expected by Girlguiding, please ensure you have a thorough risk assessment specific to your camp setting.   We will assess the risks from activities, and the running of the large-scale event risk-assessment-residentials.doc
  • Review and update it as needed, especially once you’ve set up your camp. Please ask if you would like any assistance.
• Girlguiding: taking girls to large scale events
  • This is a guide to taking girls to large scale events which you might find useful.

 

Tents and Space

The space you will be allocated based on your group size and needs

Our three top tips are:

1. Do not bring enormous tents
2. Only bring essential tents
3. Ensure that you use all your tents wisely: maximise the number of Guides in each tent and use porches for storage

 

If you are camping as a district (multiple groups) with a combined kitchen, please let us know. Party tents are permitted provided they fit into your allocated space and are erected to manufacturer’s instructions and are secured appropriately for the expected weather conditions (eg ratchets & straps).

party/ fiesta tent guidance

 

Key Safety Points:

• Each camping group must ensure a clean easy route out of their site onto the main traffic routes. This should not be obstructed by guy lines or equipment.
• The cooking burner table must be separated from the young people ideally by placing a serving table in front so there is clear separation from the flammable elements and hot surfaces, and the campers.
• Cooking tents must be five metres away from any sleeping tents to prevent fire spreading if it occurs.

 

 

Health and Hygiene

At a large-scale camp, it’s very easy for infections to spread so we ask you kindly to adhere to some simple guidelines.

Washing Facilities

Ensure you provide basic washing facilities at your site – this could be as simple as a bowl with hot water available, or a dedicated ‘wash cubicle’.

Your Guides will not be able to use the toilet facilities for full body washing or brushing their teeth. It’s important that you abide by the guidelines.

No teeth brushing at the water taps

Toilets

The toilets will be cleaned and maintained by the site, but you may want a toilet roll for just in case. If they need restocking, please speak to site office.

Absolutely no sanitary items, other than the toilet paper that is provided, are to be put in the toilets

Showers

Please note that there are minimal showers, and you should encourage your Guides to only take showers when necessary.

When they do use the showers, they should be reminded to minimise the length of shower and to be respectful of others by leaving them as they would wish to find them.

Hand Washing

Hand washing is so important
It’s imperative that you and your Guides maintain excellent hand hygiene:

• Ensure everyone washes their hands with soap and water after using the toilets
• Always wash hands before and after preparing food
• Always wash hands before and after eating
• Wash daily (this does not mean a shower; a bowl of hot water is a good alternative)

Our top tips are simple:

• Provide you Guides an induction to your camping area and manage their expectations
• Be prepared for minimal washing facilities, ensure you bring bowls, soap, and if possible, a small wash cubicle tent
• Show your Guides how to brush their teeth using just a mug of water, toothbrush and toothpaste!

Key Safety Point: Infectious Disease

it is important to take preventative measures to reduce the impacts of infectious disease. Infectious disease covers a range of illnesses which are generally easily spread. They can be spread via person-to-person contact, hand contact surfaces and within food and water.

It is important that anyone suffering from illness seeks medical attention. If two or more people in your Group exhibit similar symptoms, you must inform the event Team immediately.

We will be able to support/provide guidance and implement controls to prevent spread of the illness. We’re here to help.

Symptoms

Most infectious diseases have a range of symptoms which vary between types of infection. General symptoms could include a variety of the following:

Most Common Symptoms:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhoea

Other Symptoms:

• stomach cramps
• abdominal pain
• loss of appetite
• a high temperature (fever) of 38C+
• muscle pain
• chills

Preventing Spread

It is important that anyone suffering with the above symptoms adopts good hand hygiene practices and personal hygiene. This needs to include regular hand washing especially after visiting the toilet and before eating.

Anyone with symptoms should be kept away from the cooking tent and must not prepare food.

Clearing up bodily fluids

Ensure you have adequate and suitable antibacterial sanitiser and equipment.

Always wear disposable plastic gloves, follow the 3C method:

• Cover: Cover the area with paper towel
• Clear: Clear the area of people to prevent contact
• Clean: Clean the area. Use an absorbent material to soak up the fluid (cat litter or sawdust). Scoop the spillage from the area into a secure plastic bag. Wash the area with hot soapy water and then disinfect. (It’s important to use different cleaning equipment to that you use in your cooking tent

Water Collection

It is important that we use our water responsibly and minimise waste.
Please bring with you water carriers, remembering the tap could be located some distance from your site.
It is important that the carriers are filled carefully to avoid spillages around the tap.

Water Disposal

Water must be disposed of in the right way and in the right place. This will mean that you need to carry full bowls of dirty water to the disposal point. Therefore, we’d recommend that you bring one or all of the following:

• Bucket or two (with lids if possible) to carry the dirty water to the disposal point (remembering they may have to lift it high to pour out)
• A trolley to help carry/pull it bearing in mind the site is an open field and could have ruts, possibly deep
• A net to place over your wastewater to catch cutlery

Toilet Tents

Many groups provide their own toilet tents in their camping area.
It is important these are maintained in a hygienic standard to prevent spread of any illness and ensure safe disposal.

Top Tips:

• Suitability: Make sure your portable toilet is in good condition and stable when set up
• Cleaning: Clean the toilet daily with dedicated disposable cloths, antibacterial cleaner/sanitiser, and disposable gloves. Never use the same cleaning materials you use in your cooking tent.
• Emptying and disposal: Empty the toilet regularly as part of your daily routine. Don’t let it become too full. Use the designated Elsan points near the main toilet facilities to empty your portable toilet

Cooking on Gas

Fuel

The only fuel allowed on camping sites is gas.

You should not store excess gas on your camping site, with a maximum of 100kg per plot.

Pierceable canisters are not allowed

Any gas appliance onsite being connected to gas bottles must be designed for use with or converted for use with gas cylinders.

All equipment needs to be in good working order with no visible damage.

Gas hoses must be inspected before coming to camp, confirmed as ‘fit for purpose’, and have been renewed in the last three years.

It’s best to secure gas hoses to equipment and regulators using crimp clips. If you do use worm drive (jubilee) clips, do not overtighten these as they can damage the hose.

Inspect your gas hose across the weekend to ensure it remains in good condition. If a fault does occur or damage is noticed, then the equipment must not be used.

Key Safety Points:

• gas and your cooking tent Hoses must be kept as short as possible but be long enough for the gas cylinders to be positioned outside the tent and therefore accessible for the values to be shut off in an emergency.
• All gas hoses must be less than 3 years old.
• When using tents for cooking they need to be flame retardant, of an adequate size for moving around in and available exits for emergencies.
• Tents used for cooking need to have sufficient ventilation to prevent carbon monoxide building up from cooking.
  using gas safely

Fire Safety

Fire safety is very important when camping in such large numbers. Should a fire occur on a camping site the risk of it spreading quickly through tents is a MAJOR concern.

You need to ensure you take the simple steps below to prevent fire outbreak and also know what to do if a fire does occur.

Key Safety Points: Fire Rules

• No open fires, charcoal BBQs, pierceable gas cartridge cookers/lights or liquid fuel appliances are permitted
• Groups must have at least one fire blanket in the cooking area
• There are to be no naked flames in sleeping tents
• Cooking appliances must be positioned away from wall and roof surfaces in a secure position
• Full and empty LPG cylinders must be kept outside in a designated area and must be replaced in open air.
• Gas hoses must be kept as short as possible.
• Groups must keep spare gas to a minimum,
• No candles onsite
• Smoke in designated areas only
• No naked flames near gas bottles or pipework
• On smelling gas, immediately turn off all appliances, extinguish naked flames and raise the alarm.

Food Safety

This is an important area which is often overlooked when camping.

It can be more difficult to ensure food safety when camping due to difficulties at keeping food cold, effectively cleaning and storing of food.

It is also important to remember that cooking for a group of people is different to using your own kitchen at home.

The guidance below is set out to ensure good practices and safe food.

Storage

Ambient goods – These should be stored off of the floor, preferably in sealed boxes to prevent insects coming into contact with them.  Keep in mind that during hot weather food will deteriorate more quickly i.e. bread will go mouldy more quickly and fruit will spoil more easily.

Chilled/Frozen –  These foods need to be stored at their respective temperatures. Chilled, below 8°C and frozen, below -18°C.   If you’re unable to keep frozen food frozen, then keep refrigerated and use within 24 hours.

Cooking Food

All food needs to be fully cooked with protein-based foods achieving a core temperature of 75°C or above (this includes burgers).

All camping groups should use a probe thermometer to check core temperatures of cooked food.

You should make sure that liquid-based dishes such as spaghetti bolognaise are steaming and piping hot.

When cooking meats ensure they are fully cooked, check to ensure the liquids run clear and that the centre of meat has changed colour – poultry should go from pink to white, beef and lamb – pink to brown.

Personal Hygiene

When preparing, cooking and eating food, hand hygiene and personal hygiene is paramount.

You need to ensure that there is clean hot water available with hand soap and drying facilities such as hand towels or paper towels.

Hands should be regularly cleaned before cooking, after handling raw meat and in between tasks.

Clean aprons should be used in the kitchen.

No one suffering from diarrhoea or vomiting should prepare or handle food. They need to wait 48 hours after their symptoms have stopped before they start food preparation again; this is to allow the bacteria to leave their system.

Cleaning and Minimising Bacteria

Cleaning is an important part of food safety.

Prior to preparing food all equipment and surfaces need to be effectively cleaned and disinfected.

The use of a surface sanitiser is recommended to remove bacteria.

After preparing raw meat the area and equipment needs to be thoroughly cleaned with hot soapy water and then disinfected.

Key Safety Points:

• Cleaning is a two-stage technique:
• Cleaning – use clean cloths and hot soapy water or a sanitizer spray with some elbow grease.
• Use a sanitiser spray such as Dettol.
• Spray the surface and wait for a contact time so it can reduce bacteria levels. (For Dettol this is 30 seconds, for supermarket home brands it’s usually five minutes).
• Remove the spray with paper towel.
• Clean cloths, sponges and tea towels need to be available throughout the camp.
• Disposable cloths are recommended

Allergens and Food Sensitivities

Food allergies, intolerances, and conditions like coeliac disease are becoming increasingly common.

When camping, understanding these sensitivities is crucial for the safety of your group.

It’s important to understand the specific food needs of anyone in your group with allergies, intolerances, or other dietary restrictions.

An allergy sufferer can be triggered by a tiny amount of an ingredient, such as a trace left over after cleaning or cross contamination from using the same equipment or not washing your hands properly.

It is key that you review all ingredient labels (never assume), when preparing separate food for someone with an allergy, complete this in a clean area, with clean equipment and away from other foods which pose a risk.

Top Tips:

• Be Inclusive: Design your menu to accommodate various dietary needs whenever possible. This can really help when it comes to allergens.
• Communicate Clearly: Openly communicate with anyone who has a food sensitivity to fully understand their needs. Ensure others know too, for example, for those sharing a tent who may have their own snacks.
• Discuss Complex Needs: For complicated dietary restrictions, have detailed conversations with parents or guardians.
• Prevent Cross-Contamination: Take strict measures to avoid ingredient crossover during storage, preparation, and service.
• Prioritise Hygiene: Maintain excellent cleaning standards and always wash your hands thoroughly between handling different food groups