About Us...
What being an Explorer Scout in South Liverpool is Like.
Explorer Scouting is the mixed 14-18yrs Section of Scouting. Our programme offers a unique blend of Adventure and Skills4Life. The aim is to empower you to develop your abilities and confidence in unique settings and approaches tailored for young people, with young people.
It doesn't matter if you have not come from a scouting background, the Aardvark unit delivers a scouting programme that can meet your needs, with an emphasis on Fun and Action.
Programme & Activities
Weekly Meetings, Activities and Trips
The Explorers programme is aimed at developing you as an individual, your ability to work in a team and will give you the opportunity to be a leader of activities and events.
Each event such as trips, Xmas meal, summer BBQ etc are all ran by members of the unit, with support from the leaders.
We mix the weekly meetings with organised challenges, fun and intense activities, regularly meeting up with the other Explorer Units in the area.
Weekly Meetings
Wednesdays 7:30-9:30pm
We meet every week, throughout the year (except August) and the year is structured on three terms:
Autumn, Spring and Summer.
Activities
Activities happen during the weekly meetings and typically a Saturday/ Sunday activity each week.
Activities include:
Autumn Term - Night Hike, Ice Skating, Toffee-apples/ Bonfire, Xmas meal.
​
Spring Term - Camp prep (see camps below), Development Challenges, Rock-Climbing, First-Aid and Archery.
​
Summer Term - Rafting, Shelter-building and Backwoods cooking, Summer BBQ.
Camps & Trips
We typically go away 3/4 times a year.
Autumn: We either attend the Merseymoot: a Merseyside County event for all Explorer Scouts and Senior Section Guide Units or a smaller camp for ourselves, usually involving some activities/ Survival theme.
​
February: we usually have a bunkhouse weekend or similar with one heavy outdoor activity day and a second day with lighter activities/ games.
​
Summer Trip: Our summer camp is usually some sort of journey, in the past we’ve taken mountain bikes (Yorkshire Dales), or used a different mode of transport each day (North Wales), Kayaked in Poland, Climbed the highest mountain in Ireland, Dutch Pancakes in Rotterdam.
The Summer trips are the most challenging and rewarding part of the year and gives everyone an opportunity to take charge and shape the events.
Leadership Team
Get to Know Us
All leaders are volunteers, who undertake mandatory Safety and Safeguarding training.
​
As well as being DBS checked to work with young an vulnerable people, the leaders also develop skills and qualifications to enhance our delivery of the programme.
Andy Emmott
Explorer Scout Leader
Andy is the shortest of the team and very much the Papa-Smurf figure. Obsessed with cake, Andy loves Climbing and paddling. Andy is Learning Polish for our Next international Trip.
Lucy Wilde
Assistant Explorer Scout Leader
Sensible and straight-talking Lucy keeps the group on track. She loves animals and there is always a part of camp where her super skills lead to saving a stuck sheep or discovering the colour of beetles' stomachs.Â
Lucy recently completed all of her leader training and was awarded her Wood Beads. She particularly loves dogs and turtles and is an Ecologist for her day job.
Ste Welsby
Assistant Explorer Scout Leader
Ste is the dynamite of the group, and often helps flip a "standard" activity into something unforgettable. Ste shares Allan's love of fires but is also a local guru for incident hikes and expeditions. He boasts he has more than 20 different day routes to/ from our County campsite, Tawd Vale.
Allan Rowe
Assistant Explorer Scout Leader
Allan is often 'Grumpy' until he has had his first coffee at camp, but his super-skill is cooking on wood fires. A lot like the sloth from Ice Age Allan is the true "fire king". Allan works on the railways for his day job, and loves nothing better than camping beneath the stars.
Emily Rowe
Assistant Explorer Scout Leader
Emily is always happy and can often be found in possession of ice-cream. She is a recently qualified maths teacher. Emily's super skill is her can-do attitude and it is contagious!
Amanda Ashton
Assistant Explorer Scout Leader
Amanda is AWESOME, our resident DJ and singer she can and will burst into a tune at any moment.Â
Although not a fan of long hikes uphill, she's never left on the bus and joins us anyway!
Kyle Stopford
Assistant Explorer Scout Leader
Kyle is a science mad, short wearing enthusiast. A teacher in his day-job, he loves being active and organising things.
Dave Batty
Assistant Explorer Scout Leader
Dave is a glow-in-the-dark radioactive bundle of fun. Never seen without a beanie hat, he loves water activities and a good First-Aid incident.
Although from the NorthEast we think he fits in fine, he's mad enough for us!
News and Updates
Recent activities
Success in the Netherlands
July 2023
We had a brilliant Trip in Rotterdam with 20 explorers and 8 leaders.
​
The real success of the trip was meeting German, Dutch and other UK scouts, sharing stories and songs round our campfires and seeing how they camp.
2023 "an International Year"
March 2023
We are planning a trip to Rotterdam for our Summer Trip in July! and continue to support Freya who is our representative to the WSJ in Korea.
Feb Camp 2023
February 2023
We are joining the Liverpool South District Explorers for a large Winter Camp at Plas Cardaeon, near Barmouth! Other Units include the Rocket and Phoenix ESUs.
New Addition to the Leadership Team
September 2022
Check out Kyle's bio in the Leadership Team section, who has joined us. Kyle was an Aardvark some time ago, with his most memorable camp being the Cycling trip in the Yorkshire Dales..
Summer Trip 2022, Northumberland
July 21, 2022
We have had a really successful Summer trip this year, with amazing activities planned: Hiking, Rafting, Rock Climbing and a Wild Camp on the Beach.
New addition to the Leadership Team
May 2022
Take a look at Amanda's Bio in the Leadership Team section, she's a great addition to the team and working her way through her Leader training currently.
Great Tower, July 2021
July 28, 2021
We had an amazing summer camp to the Lake District this year. Highlights included:
- Cooking all meals on wood fires.
- Rock Climbing
- Swimming in Windermere
- Ice creams in Bowness
- A night Expedition, sleeping under the stars
- Camp Olympics
- The most amazing chocolate brownies!
​
Summer Trip 2021
20th June 2021
BREAKING NEWS!!!
​
We have had confirmation that our summer camp can go ahead in July 2021.
​
All places are now full. We will travel by District Minibus to Great Tower Scout Campsite, Lake District.
Return to F2F Meetings
31st March 2021
We can return to Face to face scouting. See you all at the hut at the revised times of 7:15-8:45pm. As per our Risk assessment we'll be outdoors, so bring a coat and Social distancing throughout.
Contact Us
We have spaces for the 2021 academic year, get intouch if interested.
​
Age requirement is 14+.