12th Midlothian Scout Group

Cubs Activity Pack 

May 2020

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     
In the absence of our regular Pack meetings, we  Dalkeith landmarks 2 
wanted to try and recreate some of the fun 
Epic maze 4
activities and challenges we would normally be 
taking part in. The following pages contain a  Books and authors quiz 5
mixture of map skills, games, code breaking, a 
Spooky story 6
spooky story and a fun recipe for you to try! 
  Code breaking 11 
 
Make mug cakes 13
Stay safe, have fun and as always, do your best! 
Answers 14 
 
 

1 
Dalkeith landmarks 
Below are a series of unique places from around Dalkeith town centre. Can you correctly mark 
their locations on the map on the following page? 
 

 
 

Corn Exchange  Miner and Farmer Sculpture  War Memorial 

This indoor grain market was  This modern piece of art  Originally unveiled in 1921 to 
constructed in the 19th century  represents the industries upon  commemorate the 173 local 
but eventually fell into disuse  which Dalkeith was founded.  residents killed during the First 
and lay vacant for a number of  The artwork was created by  World War, it was later updated 
years before being renovated as  local sculptor David “Dusty”  to include 62 local men who 
offices and home to the Dalkeith  Miller in 1976.   perished in World War 2. 
Museum. 
 
 
 
 
If you’re struggling, you might 
want to see if you can use 
Google Streetview to go for a 
virtual walk! 
 
 
What other places do you know 
that you can locate on the map? 

 
 

Burns Memorial Fountain  Watchtower   

The fountain was erected in  Looking like a mini-castle, this 
1899 to mark the centenary of  building was constructed in 
Robert Burns. It was originally  1827 and housed watchmen 
located on the High Street, in  who would guard the 
the middle of the road.  surrounding cemetery overnight 
from grave robbers! 

2 
3 

 
Epic maze 
Can you find your way from the entrance at the top of the maze, to the exit at the bottom? 
 

4 
Books and authors quiz 
Below is a list of well known books written for children, but the authors have been mixed up. 
Can you successfully work which book belongs to which author? 
 
How many have you read? 
 
 
 

How to Train Your Dragon  E B White 

Treasure Island  Kenneth Graham 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid  Roald Dahl 

Horrid Henry  David Walliams 

Flat Stanley  Cressida Cowell 

Gangsta Granny  Francesca Simon 

The Hobbit  Enid Blyton 

Fantastic Mr Fox  Jeff Kinney 

The Wind in the Willows  Robert Louis Stevenson 

Truckers  Jeff Brown 

Charlotte’s Web  Terry Pratchett 

The Secret Seven  JRR Tolkein 

   
5 
Spooky story 
 

The Gobber and The Bothy 

 
 
“What did your brother say the Gobber looked like again?” asked Lucas. 
“Don’t listen to him,” replied Emir over his shoulder. “He’s just winding you up.” 
The two of them were going to camp out in the woods by themselves - something neither of 
them had done before, but in a spot Emir frequented with his dad and older brother. It was only 
half an hour from the house, but to Lucas it already felt like a world away. 
“He didn’t sound like he was kidding,” Lucas continued. “He said people he knew people who 
had seen it. He said some folk had even disappeared around here.” 
“Honestly - do you ​really​ think a flesh eating monster stalks the woods round here?” scoffed 
Emir, gesturing to the peaceful woodland around them. A pair of butterflies danced overhead. 
Birds chirped out of sight in the trees. 
The pair walked in silence for a while, enjoying the summer afternoon and relative peace. They 
had sandwiches and flasks of hot chocolate for tea - no fires allowed. But that was okay, they 
had been sure to pack plenty of sweets. 
“Why are you so keen to know anyway?” asked Emir after a while. “About what the Gobber 
looks like?” 
Lucas didn’t respond and so Emir turned to look at his friend who was now looking down at his 
feet. Above, the sun must have gone behind some clouds as the air had cooled a little. 
“Well?” 
“I dunno,” said Lucas, then added after a moment: “Thought I saw something.” 
“Saw something? Like what?” 
“It was probably just a dog or something. It was only for a moment. Thought I saw it was 
watching us from the bushes.” 
“A dog?” 
“Well, maybe a really fat dog. Fat and big.” 
Both boys had stopped walking now. 
“Like… a pig?” asked Emir cautiously. 

6 
“Yes!” Lucas replied. “That was it - like a big wild boar!” 
Emir had gone very still. About them the trees started to sway more. A cold wind was picking 
up. 
“Everything… alright?” asked Lucas. 
“Did my brother put you up to this?” said Emir coldly. “Telling you about the boar thing?” 
“What boar thing? What are you talking about?” 
“About the Gobber! It’s like a wild boar! That’s what they say, it’s some big, wild pig that got so 
big it started to eat other animals and even children. The villagers couldn’t kill it, so they chased 
out into the woods. Did he tell you this!?” 
“No, honestly Emir - I hadn’t heard any of this before,” swore Lucas. 
Emir looked like he was about to say something more when both boys heard something that 
sent an icy chill shooting up their spines - a loud, deep grunt. Not like a human grunt, or a dog 
grunt. Like a pig grunt. 
Somewhere nearby, something was moving in the undergrowth - breaking its way through 
long grass and bushes. 
“Run,” whispered Emir and Lucas didn’t have to wait to be told again, they both took off 
sprinting as fast as they could, hearts pounding in their chests. 
The grunting came again behind them, followed by more crashing foliage. 
Emir and Lucas ran and ran until their legs ached and they couldn’t go any further, both slowing 
to a halt and grabbing at their sides as they tried to catch their breath. They looked around but 
could see no sign of anything following. 
After a while they both started to laugh at their foolishness. 
“Did you see your face!” cackled Emir. 
“Me, I thought you were going to wet yourself,” Lucas replied, wiping at his brow. 
At first he thought he must have sweated a lot more than he’d expected as his head and hair 
were both damp, but then realised it was cold droplets of rain, breaking through the trees 
overhead. It had started to rain. 
“Come on,” said Emir. “Let’s hurry up and get to the campsite, I think it’s this way from here.” 
After fifteen minutes walking though Emir was starting to feel less sure. The trees had evolved 
from wide leafy oaks and birches to a narrowing, spiky maze of pines. The path before them 
had whittled to almost nothing more like a slightly worn trail in the moss and yellowing grass. 
“This definitely the way?” asked Lucas and Emir only puffed his cheeks in reply. 

7 
They carried on for a while longer till there was no path at all and they were having to duck and 
fight their way through low hanging branches. The day’s light was rapidly vanishing now - 
even if they found the campsite soon, it would be a challenge to pitch the tent. 
“This is no good, I’m phoning my dad,” said Emir and started to fumble for the emergency 
phone tucked away at the bottom of his rucksack. 
After a few minutes he’d located and powered it on, but Emir’s face fell when he looked at the 
screen. 
“No signal. What about you?” he asked Lucas. 
“Same,” tutted Lucas, holding his own phone up as high as he could manage but to no avail. 
Somewhere nearby a branch snapped loudly and the boys froze. 
A long moment passed and just when they were about to relax - grunnnttt. 
Panic crossed both their faces and together they took off again, darting through the trees trying 
to dodge the branches that scratched at their skin and caught on their clothes. 
They had no way to know if they were going in the right direction, or even in a straight line - 
they could only lunge on blindy through the darkening forest till, without warning, the trees fell 
away around them and they broke free of the tree line and onto a windswept hillside. 
“Where are we?!” said Lucas, peering in the cloudy haze that had descended whilst they were 
under the cover of the trees. 
“No idea,” Emir replied. It was clear they were high up but visibility was limited, and no lights or 
roads were visible as handy landmarks to guide them. Rain was blowing around in all 
directions. 
There was no longer any sign of pursuit, and glad to be free of the pine labyrinth, they started 
to make their way out across the hillside. Before long they were soaked to the skin and 
struggling to stand up against the wind. 
“Hey Emir!” shouted Lucas. 
“What!” Emir replied. 
“I don’t think I like camping!” 
The two of them tried to laugh but in reality they were now very scared, whether there was a 
Gobber on their tail or not. Home seemed a very long way away. 
Eventually they found a huge boulder and decided their best option t was to stop there and 
cower in what little shelter it offered. 
“What’s that?” asked Lucas, cocking his head to one side. 

8 
Emir listened carefully too and over the howling wind, he thought he could hear footsteps. 
Heavy, wet footsteps. They were drawing closer. 
Too tired to run any more, both boys braced themselves for the worst. 
Something seized at both of them, heaved them up and half-dragged them away from the rock 
and in the night. The world around them was a greyish blur till suddenly light spilled around 
them and they fell onto a hard, but warm, wooden floor. 
They were in a sort of small hut. A wooden stove spilled light and heat outwards welcomingly. 
There were cupboards and a few bunk beds. 
Towering over them was a figure, huddled in layers of dark waterproof which he was now 
slowly discarding, revealing an old man underneath. His weathered face, lined with a white 
beard was hard but not unfriendly. Deep, crevasse-like wrinkles lined his eyes. As he looked 
down at them, a necker dangled forward around his neck, a knotted leather woggle holding it in 
place. 
“You lads got yourselves in a bit of bother there diddin ya?” he grinned. 
“Yessss, yes sir”, they said through chattering teeth, looking up at their saviour. 
“Were you bright enough to bring spare clothes on yer adventure?” 
They both nodded. 
With that, the man headed back outside, instructing them to change out of their wet clothes 
while he was gone. When he returned with an armful of fresh logs for the fire, he set up an old, 
wooden clothes horse for their soaked clothes to dry on and set about pouring strong, black tea 
into tin mugs for them and produced energy bars and tins of beans from a cupboard. 
“What is this place?” asked Emir after a while, looking around the tiny hut. 
“A bothy,” said the man with an amused grunt. “Whatta they teach in schools these days?” 
“A bothy?” 
“It’s a hut, out in the middle of nowhere. For people to shelter in - if they’re out hiking. Or like 
you two - lost!” 
“We were running from the Gobber,” Lucas explained, which sent the man into great guffaws 
of laughter. 
Before long the boys were yawning from exhaustion and the man directed them to fresh, dry 
beds. Gratefully they both did as instructed as were asleep moments after their heads hit the 
pillow. 
 

9 
The next morning they awoke to find themselves alone in the bothy. Just a few embers burned 
in the stove, but the old man was gone with no sign of returning. Once they were feeling up to 
it, they packed their bags and headed outside to find a gorgeous, bright day - no hint of the 
brutal weather they had experienced the night before. And best of all, down the hill they could 
clearly make out the town - they could even see Emir’s street. Quickly they set off down the hill 
and before long were back on a proper path and then the pavements of familiar streets. 
“Hello you two!” called Emir’s dad from the front garden where he was working, waving as they 
approached. “Hope you got pitched before that rain okay.” 
Both Emir and Lucas looked at one another and then unleashed a torrent of information on the 
man, recounting the previous day’s events - from their flight from the Gobber, getting lost in the 
storm to their rescue by the kind, old man. 
“You say he was wearing a necker and woggle?” asked Emir’s dad with a frown. “That sounds 
like Mr Riddock. He used to be the local Scout Master here. Why that’s his bothy - he built 
that!” 
“Sounds like him,” shrugged Emir. “White beard, laughing at everything you say.” 
“But it can’t have been,” his father replied, looking puzzled. “Mr Riddock died over twenty years 
ago.” 
 
 

   

10 
Code breaking 
 
Morse code is an internationally recognised system for representing all twenty six letters of the 
English alphabet to be represented as dots and dashes. This simplicity allows messages to be 
transmitted in print form (as done here), using audio (short and long beeps), using light 
(flashing a torch on and off) and many other ways. It is named after Samuel Morse, inventor of 
the telegraph. The most well known message in morse code is the signal for distress, SOS 
(three dashes, three dots and three dashes).  
 
Using the key below, can you successfully decode the four short messages on the following 
page? 
 
Afterwards, why not try encoding your own message in morse code for someone else to try 
and decode? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

11 
1) 
- ●●●● ●● ●●● / ●● ●●● /   
 
-- --- ●-● ●●● ● / -●-● --- -●● ● 
 
 
 
2) 
-●-● --- -●● ● / -●●● ●-● ● ●- -●- ●● -● --● /  
 
●● ●●● / ●●-● ●●- -● 
 
 
 
3) 
●-- ●●●● -●-- / -●● ●● -●● / - ●●●● ● /   
 
-●-● ●●- -●●● / - ●●●● ●-● --- ●-- /   
 
●●●● ●● ●●● / -●-● ●-●● --- -●-● -●- / --- ●●- - /   
 
- ●●●● ● ●● ●-● / ●-- ●● -● -●● --- ●-- 
 
 
4) 
-●●● ● -●-● ●- ●●- ●●● ● / - ●●●● ● -●-- /   
 
●-- ●- -● - ● -●● / - --- / ●●● ● ● /   
 
- ●● -- ● / ●●-● ●-●● -●-- 

   

12 
Make mug cakes 
 
This is a really easy recipe to make a yummy cake with just a mug, a microwave and a few 
ingredients! 
 

Ingredients 
 
● 4 tablespoons self-raising flour 
● 4 tablespoons caster sugar 
● 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 
● 1 medium egg 
● 3 tablespoons milk 
● 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 
● 0.5 teaspoon vanilla essence 
 
 

Instructions 
 
● Find the largest mug you have - make sure it is okay to use in the microwave 
● Put the self-raising flour, caster sugar and cocoa powder into mug and mix together with 
a fork 
● Crack the egg and pour into the mug - mix again with fork until there are as few dry 
lumps as pobbile 
● Pour in the milk, vegetable oil and vanilla essence and mix with the fork until the mixture 
is smooth 
● Remove the fork and place the mug in the centre of the microwave 
● Cook for 1 minute 30 seconds 
● Check the top of the cake - if it is still wet to the touch then put it in again for another 30 
seconds - you may have to repeat this a few more times 
● Whilst cooking your cake will start to rise out of the top of the mug - a lot, this is normal! 
● Finally your mug cake is ready to enjoy - you can eat straight from the mug with a spoon 
● Remember that both the cake and the mug will be hot! 
 
 
   

13 
Answers 
 

Epic maze  Books and authors quiz 

   
How to Train Your  Cressida Cowell 
Dragon 

Treasure Island  Robert Louis 

Stevenson 

Diary of a Wimpy  Jeff Kinney 

Kid 

Horrid Henry  Francesca Simon 

Flat Stanley  Jeff Brown 

Gangsta Granny  David Walliams 

The Hobbit  JRR Tolkein 

Fantastic Mr Fox  Roald Dahl 

The Wind in the  Kenneth Graham 

 
Willows 
 
  Truckers  Terry Pratchett 

Charlotte’s Web  E B White 

The Secret Seven  Enid Blyton 

 
 
 
 
 

14 
 Dalkeith landmarks  Code breaking 
1) this is morse code 
 
2) code breaking is fun 
 
3) why did the cub throw his clock out 
their window 
 
4) because they wanted to see time fly 

 
 
 

15