SUNDAY, 4th NOVEMBER, 1945
by RSL A J Clarke
We had the Canoes out at Pioneer Bay today and enjoyed pleasant day canoeing and swimming. Unfortunately it is a rather rocky road down from the road to the beach and it is no joke with the large canoe. We are hoping to find a better bay somewhere else round the Island.
Returned to the Den about 1830 for plenty of tea, cakes etc. and later we had our first Rovers Own, where Pop outlined our future policy regarding the service and how it could be run by different Rovers each week.
MONDAY, 5th NOVEMBER, 1945
Having more or less settled down in the Den, and most of the work being complete, we spent the evening arranging our future programmes. Meetings will be held on Mondays and Thursdays at 2000 hours and several suggestions for future discussions were brought forward, next Monday's being "How to start a Troop". We all agreed that we should hold our Rovers Own every Sunday at 2015 and that outings on Sundays should continue.
SUNDAY, 11th NOVEMBER, 1945
By way of a change, we took the canoes to Big Wave Bay today and found that although they afforded some sport, we might just as well have left them in the Den, for what sailing we were able to do in them. Our first difficulty was to get in with bows pointing out to sea without a wave washing us away. Then we had to paddle like mad into the oncoming waves and hope they wouldn't swamp the canoe. What a hope! We spent most of our time returning the canoe to the beach to empty the water out of it. Even so, I think everybody enjoyed the day out and returned to the Den, tired, but really happy. At our Rovers Own we had every reason to thank God for the great pleasure the open air affords.
MONDAY, 12th NOVEMBER, 1945
by RSL A J Clarke
We had a good yarn from Abdul tonight, on the difficulties which arise from starting a troop from scratch, with no equipment or funds at all. The various opinions of the Rovers present helped to make it an interesting discussion and I think it was a great help to all. In view of the fact that so many of our Crew would be going home to civvy street in a very short time, we decided we would bring up the subject again and discuss it further. Fred was not present again tonight until it was time to leave, when he called in for a few minutes. I asked Les Jennings to give me a hand with the programmes in future, to which he readily agreed, and we closed the evening by talking over our future possibilities, now that it seemed that the Den was to be run by the assistants and not the R.S.L. Harry Tucker is giving great help with the accounts, etc and I can see he is certain to become treasurer at least until we hold the A.G.M.
SUNDAY, l8th NOVEMBER, 1945
by RSL A J Clarke
Feeling adventurous, we spent some of the afternoon which would otherwise have been devoted to swimming, in searching for a new bay which would be more convenient for the canoes, and finally came across a bay a few miles beyond Repulse. Situated in a comparatively lonely part of the Island. Although the road was still quite a distance from the beach, we thought it possible, with careful handling, to paddle the canoes round from Repulse Bay, while the main party went by truck.
It was decided to try it out in the near future, while for today we manhandled the canoes overland to the beach. It is a good bay for the boats, and in favourable weather I see no reason why the canoes cannot be taken right out of the bay, round the headland and into Repulse.
The new bay will be known as Kelantan Bay and wil very likely be used in future instead of Pioneer Bay. Our Rovers Own brought a very fitting conclusion to another really happy day in the open air.
