Dave's Camp Recount

­­­­­­­­Camp at Glentui

On Tuesday, 28^th of February, most students who are year 7 and 8 in Merrin School went to Glentui Camp. We went there by parent’s cars because if we went by bus, it would cost more money. I was in Zia’s father’s car. One of my friends, Sam, was in the same car with me. Sam and I talked while going. We also heard music that Zia turned on. I was excited.

When we arrived at Glentui Camp we left our bags in our bunkroom and we went to the common room. Mr Barr, Mr Russell and Mrs Mac had already divided us into 5 groups. I was in Group 1.

My group did abseiling first for our first rotation. I had never abseiled before and I thought it would be hard. I was third from last at abseiling in my group. The height that we abseiled was about 5~8 metres. I felt scared because I thought I might fall down. When I was coming down I felt easier. I felt more confident. Finally I finished abseiling. I wanted to do again because it is exciting to abseil. I will abseil next time as well.

After when we finished abseiling, it was already time for lunch. When we all had our lunch we could play until 1:30. At 1:30 Mr Barr, Mr Russell and Mrs Mac blew a whistle and we went to the common room. Mr Barr said my group is going to river to study. My group and Group 4 went together. There were too many people so my group went to river to study while Group 4 stayed and played softball with Mr Russell.

I saw some insects that I never saw before. I learnt some things about the river. One hour later, my group played softball with Mr Russell. We divided into two teams and we played softball. My team lost by few points but I still enjoyed playing softball.

From 4 o’clock to 5:30 was free time. We could do anything and we were able to swim. Jeremiah and I swam but Sam didn’t because he didn’t have swimming togs. I had fun playing with Jeremiah in the pool.

5:30 to 6:30 was dinner time. We had delicious dinner. After dinner the teacher who taught us how to abseil came and she told us what we needed to go on a walk. We played games as well. She talked for long time and it was already time to go bed when she finished talking. They gave us Milo before going to bed.

At night I couldn’t sleep because I wasn’t tired. Sam, Jeremiah and I didn’t sleep until 10 o’clock because we could talk until 10 o’clock. But still I wasn’t tired and we talked little bit more. We started to feel tired and we slept. Sam woke Jeremiah and I up at 7 o’clock and I went to have shower. The water was very cold when I went to have shower. At 7:15 Jeremiah went to have his shower. After he had showered he told us that the water was warm. I think water turns warm from 7:15.

9’clock was breakfast. We had to get ready for third rotation which was outdoor cooking with Mr Barr. From 9 o’clock to 11 o’clock we were going to cook. We had to get wood that is easy to burn. Dried wood is easy to burn. Mr Barr told us if it breaks easily then that wood is dead but if it doesn’t break easily than it is still alive.

We cooked pancakes. We needed to make fire and put a can on top and we had to put pancakes mixture on top. My partner was Shunto. We made together and we shared our pancakes. We made about 3 pancakes. Mrs Thornton helped us. She is my ESOL teacher. I gave some pancakes to her. They tasted good. I wanted to make more but we had to stop cooking.

From 11o’clock we started a fourth rotation. My group did sketching with Mrs Mac. I drew one tree because I thought that was the easiest thing to draw. But it was very hard. I had to finish drawing it. It was 1 o’clock when I finished drawing.

At 1 o’clock we had lunch and the last program started at 2 o’clock. My group was doing indoor with Mrs Black. We played lots of games and I enjoyed playing with the ball the best. We needed to stand, make big circle and three people will be in the circle. One of those three people is standing in the front and another person will stand behind the first person and grab the front person’s clothes. Lastly the person will stand at the back and try not to get hit. The first person and second person have to protect the last person from getting hit by the ball. If the last person gets hit by the ball the first person will join the circle, the second person will be in the front and the one who got hit will be the last person.

From 4 o’clock was free time. Jeremiah and I swam but Sam didn’t swim again. Paige, Lisa and Melissa were there as well so Jeremiah and I splashed water on them. We had a lot of fun.

We were very hungry after swimming so we ate some snacks. 5:30 was dinner time and we lined up and went to eat dinner. Jeremiah, Sam and I were going to the long walk on Thursday so after dinner we had to meet with those people who were going to do the long walk. Mr Russell and Mr Barr told us what we needed to take for the long walk. After, when they finished talking, Jeremiah, Sam and I went to pack our bags for the next day.

Dinner finished at 7:30 and some people were allowed to play outdoor games with Mr Barr or play board games with Mrs Mac. I chose to play outdoor games with Mr Barr. We played non-stop cricket. I had lots of fun. I like playing sport where we can hit and catch balls like cricket, baseball or softball.

About 8 o’clock it was dark enough to play spotlight. We could hide in one area where Mr Barr said we could go. Sam and I went together and we hid beside trees. But we got caught by some people. We played three times but Sam and I got caught every time. There were some people who didn’t get caught. I don’t know how they hid and where.

Everyone was tired after playing spotlight. I felt really tired. Sam and Jeremiah felt tired as well. We all went to bed as soon as we arrived into our bunk room.

On Thursday morning, I couldn’t get up at 7:30 because I was very tired. So I woke up at 7:50. I brushed quickly and Sam, Jeremiah and I ran down to the first floor. We had to go down because my bunk room was on the second floor.

We were going to go for a long walk to the mountain but it was raining heavily so we had to wait until it stopped raining. Meanwhile, we divided into 3 groups. Group one, two, three are same but group 4 and 5 people went into the group one, two or three. So I was still in group 1. My group played with balloons with Mrs Mac. We did lots of activities.

We had to hit the balloon and it shouldn’t have touched the ground. And we had to pass the balloon as well. In our group, we divided into 4 groups. My group wasn’t good and my group was last. But I had a lot of fun playing with balloons.

From 10:30 group one did one thing with Mr Russell. He gave us some things to put on my eyes so I couldn’t see. We played games without using eyes and I found out that eyes are important. It was very uncomfortable not being able to see.

At 1o’clock we rode to one place where we started walking. We waited until everyone who was going on the long walk and met at that place. We started walking from 2 o’clock

 It was windy but it wasn’t raining. Sam and I walked together. We were tired. I regretted going on the long walk. Sam and I talked while walking up the mountain. About 30minutes later since we started walking at about 2:30 we rested and started walking. At about 5 o’clock we reached the top. We stayed for a few minutes and we came down again. The ground was muddy when we were coming down. Some people went in the mud but I didn’t. I thought we would be back at camp in 3 or 4 hours but we arrived back at 7 o’clock. We had been walking for 5 hours.

I had to have a shower because my feet were muddy. We had dinner after we came back from walking. It was about 7:30 and we usually had dinner at 5:30 in camp.

From 8:30, we watched a movie called “Mr Bean’s Disaster.” It was funny but I was very tired and I can’t remember the story well. It was about 10:30 when the movie finished. I was very tired. We went to our bunk room. I was going to go to my bed but people in the bottom bunk found some stones in their sleeping bags. But when I checked my bed there was nothing. I was very tired and went to sleep as soon as I went to bed.

On Friday, which was the last day I woke up at 7:30. I talked with Sam and Jeremiah and at 8 o’clock we went down to eat breakfast. After breakfast Mr Barr chose 20 people to stay and help with cleaning. The rest played some sports with Mr Barr. I played sports and I played cricket. We could choose to play cricket, soccer or volleyball. We played until 11 o’clock and we came back to camp again. We had morning tea and at 11:30 we went to play again. I played cricket and my team won a few times and lost few times. At 12:30 we had to go to camp again.

At 12:30 we ate lunch and it was the last food that we ate at camp. We had a sausage sizzle. It was delicious and we came to school after lunch. I enjoyed the sausage sizzle so I ate twice.

I enjoyed staying at camp. I think this camp was the best camp that I have ever been to. I like camping because I had the chance to abseil and other fun things and had delicious food. I enjoyed everything that I did at camp. I want to go camping again.