This week’s blog post is Mitchell’s very detailed account of our school camp. Well done Mitchell, we think you covered everything really well!
Monday
Packing Up
On Monday the first thing we had to do was pack up so I put my big bag down with all my clothes and then I put down my day pack with some extra things like my lunch and morning tea. Then I went in the car to Governors Bay and walked the rest of it. I didn’t like the walking because it lasted a long time and my legs got sore but it was worth it, but we were only three quarters of the way there.
The Farm
We finally arrived at the farm and there were a lot of sheep, 1 deer and 1 goat. We got put into our activity groups and got chosen first to go on the tractor. When I was on the tractor it was very bumpy because we were in a trailer. After that I got to feed the goat and the deer. The deer keep licking me so I feed the goat. After that we got to see a dairy cow, the difference between a food cow and a dairy cow is that a food cow has more meat and doesn’t produce as much milk but a dairy cow produces a lot of milk but has not that much meat on them, you can tell this if the cow has white spots on it because a cow with white spots is a dairy cow and a black cow is a food cow. After we saw the cow we got to pet it. The cow was so soft. My favourite bit was bottle feeding the calves and they really loved the milk but the calves are too old to have milk and their mother doesn’t produce any but the calf likes it because it reminds the calf of the great days he had when he was really little.
Walking to camp
After the farm we walked up a huge hill to go to camp. My legs really hurt because we were walking uphill. My asthma started to kick in so I had a quick break using my inhaler and started to walk even more, I even saw 3 horses on the way. The feeling of walking so much and getting to the end was so good.
Afternoon
In the afternoon I played some football with the year fives and sixes and soon enough had afternoon tea, for afternoon tea we had Raro and a belgium slice. I didn’t like the belgium slice that much but at least i tried it. After afternoon tea we put up our tents, lucky for me I’m a scout so putting up tents was easy. After that I had dinner and it was curry rice and naan bread. I didn’t like the rice or curry but I enjoyed the naan bread. I ate all my dinner because I didn’t want to starve.
Burma trail.
A Burma trail is when you wear a blindfold in a forest and you don’t know where you are going. It was super fun! I didn’t even know where I was when I took the blindfold off. When doing the Burma trail I tripped over some tree roots quite a lot because I didn’t know where we were going.
Sleep
Getting to sleep was tough because people were yelling and screaming in the middle of the night for no reason, plus we were sleeping on yoga mats. I finally got to sleep after reading a book.
Tuesday
Morning
In the morning there was a thunderstorm, it was hailing too, so we headed into the main building. Lucky enough there was breakfast ready, I had lots of toast, it was sooo… yummy.
Swimming
For the first activity on Tuesday we went swimming, it was super fun. My favorite bit was doing the biggest manu in the manu competition. At the pool they also had a basketball hoop there and I shot some 3 pointers.
Morning Tea
I loved morning tea on Tuesday because they had the best cake in the world because it was a caramel slice, my favorite. They also had juicy watermelon, which is one of my favorite foods in the whole wide world.
Archery Tag
After morning tea we went archery. First in archery we practiced in buddies, I chose Koby because he is my friend. We each got turns shooting the bow at the targets and I hit a target! After targets we got to hit Joseph, Joseph is the leader when we go on walks, we first saw him at the farm. Joseph was wearing a mask and he had a shield to deflect the arrows, I almost hit him but Koby did. For the final activity at archery we did archery tag which is grabbing a bow and shooting arrows at the other team. I got someone in the shoulder when I was hiding behind some cover.
Lunch
Lunch was amazing because they had nachos with sour cream, guacamole and chili beans. They also had some watermelon that tasted amazing. I ate all my lunch up quickly and got seconds because we had a lot of things to do.
Initiatives challenges
The Intavites challenges are a lot of different very hard challenges and my favourite was the one where you have to climb a wall using your teammates only. The first people were easy because the lightest went first. My other favorite challenge was the balancing challenge, where you got to balance your whole team on the platform at a time and sing a song. We chose abc because it is a really short song. I figured out if you are at the end of the platform it adds more weight and the middle of the platform adds less weight. I also liked the tyre challenge, where there was a giant pole and there was a tyre, we had to get the tire on and off as quick as possible, we couldn’t throw the tyre. For our strategy we have to lift the lightest person up with the tyre because you can’t throw the tyre.
Afternoon Tea and Rock Climbing
We had afternoon tea in an old shed called Don’s Shed and I saw a room with a whole rock climbing course. I was so excited. I ate my watermelon and headed into the building and started climbing. We were climbing so much I got blisters on my feet and hands. I got one of the hardest courses to do!
Dinner
For dinner we had burgers and chips, the chips were amazing but the burger was better. Dinner was super yummy and I wish I could have the same dinner every night.
Monorail
I was super excited to go to the monorail because it is a roller coaster. Once I arrived it was super windy and cold, I could barely stand because it was so windy. I was wearing my warmest clothes but I was still cold. The carts were very heavy because we had to lift them up a hill and put the cart on the tracks. I lifted the cart up the hill and put it on the tracks, got my seat belt on and I got sent down. The ride was really short but I felt like I was going to fall off but I was all good. I did it twice but the second time I picked up a lot of speed. At the end of the tracks the momentum doesn’t keep up so we have to push the carts at the end.
Sleep
Sleeping was really hard because the wind was howling but I eventually got to sleep after reading, and putting on another blanket.
Wednesday
Breakfast
For breakfast on the last day it was some good toast and some spreads like apricot jam, Vegemite, butter, strawberry, marmite and honey. I chose butter and put it on my toast and ate it all up.
Packing up
We packed up our day packs and put them by where we had breakfast and then we packed out big bags, our sleeping bags and our pillows. My favorite bit was unpacking the tents because it’s super easy.
Team building challenges
We had to do some team building challenges where we did archery tag. For the first activity we had to get the grass skis, we had to get half our team on one set of grass skis and another half on the other grass skis and then we raced. If you don’t know what grass skis are then grass skis are a big wooden stick that you put one foot on and the other wooden stick and strap your feet to the wooden sticks. I was the leader telling people what foot to move because otherwise we wouldn’t go anywhere. After I led the team we had to turn around.
For the next challenge we did the magic carpet. For the magic carpet you have to turn the carpet over with your whole team on it. We kept trying but it was too hard because everyone was squished together so we gave up. For our 3rd challenge we had to take a chicken some grains and a fox over but we cant leave the chicken with the fox because they will fight and we cant leave the grains with the chicken because the chicken will eat the grains we also can only take one at a time. For our first move we moved the chicken to the end and went back, then we put the fox to the end and took the chicken back and for our last move we moved the grains over to the other side and then took the chicken to the other side. For the final activity we had magic glasses that made you walk on water. For the goal of the activity we need our whole team to get to the end but we can only wear the glasses once. We were thinking for a long time and we had an idea, I got 2 people on my back first, and gave the glasses to someone on my back to then carry someone else. We tried the strategy but my back started to hurt really bad and we ran out of time. I was so disappointed but at least we got some activities done!
Lunch
For lunch we had some pasta that didn’t look very good but tasted amazing. After I ate we played some four squares with my friends.
Going Home
I was super excited to go home but not really because I really wanted to see my family but the camp was so amazing. Thank you for the amazing camp because I really enjoyed everything. My favorite part was definitely the monorail because it was so scary. My second favorite part has got to be the archery tag, I loved it so much now I want to do archery.
By Mitchell
