Monday, September 11, 2006

Sec 2 Camp

I know its a little late, but nvm.

Secondary 2 Annual Camp 2006

Actually I am not looking forward to the camp. =.= Anyway, on 23th of August, we set off towards the camp site in a bus, called 'Saribum Scouts Camp' if im not wrong. Im sure im wrong though. Our class got separated for the bus trip there (but fortunately not for the entire camp activities), and I went with Class 2C. When I arrive there, I find teh entire place enormous. Ok, somewhat large. It looked like a jungle for me, because everywhere I looked there were grass and trees.

We began setting up our tents after the long briefing by the camp instructors. The type of tent we set up was ridge tents. The group Lollipop were supposed to set up 4 tents. 2 people have to hold the sides of the unfolded canvas, put a pole underneath for support, and wait for the rest to finish hitting the pegs deep into the ground. Guess its a little hard for the ground =S. We tied strings to the pegs and went for lunch when we finished everything.

I find the camp food plain but quite ok. There were about 3-4 dishes, followed by a random fruit of teh day. Sometimes it was bananas. Sometimes it was apples. We have to wash our own plates after the meal, and the nearest toilet was very crowded indeed. I couldn't squeeze through the crowd to get to the tap. zzzzzz.

After lunch was the hike. We have to go around searching for answers or checkpoints, and they are located around the district, but still, the distance was quite long. Some people picked up suitable brances lying on the ground to aid them in walking the long distance. For me I picked up a twig o.O. Then I kind of decided that the twig was no use so I threw it away. The value of water rose throughout the hike, due to the inavailability of water. There was a water parade to hydrate all the Lolliporeans. I figured out that we were one of the few groups that went all the way to the final checkpoint, near to Sungei Beloh. The camp instructor gave us the answers for erm... im nt sure, but I think its courage and strength. Towards the end of the hike we were singing a song about bottles falling off the wall. It went like this:

Let x be a random number.
(x) bottles hanging on the wall
(x) bottles hanging on the wall
if 1 (random colour) bottle should accidentally fall
there will be (x-1) bottles hanging on the wall

At the end we ate dinner first because we impressed Kala.

There were some night time activities, and on of them got something to do with blind men. We blindfolded ourselves and walked in a chain, which means holding the shoulders of the person in front of u. I remembered going up and down. zzzz. Whee. fun . After that we discussed a little about the item we were supposed to present on campfire night. It was getting late as we washed up, and the washroom was again, very crowded. And a little stinky.

When I woke up the next morning (in the tent) , people were already rushing off to eat breakfast. So I was a bit late. Oh, there was this morning exercise thingy. I still remembered Bobby's (camp instructor) quote "Hands on your waist, Feet apart, exercise ready!", and we were supposed to call out "ready".

I think the first activity of the day was River Challenge. It was definitely wet, so I wore the extra shoe which I brought. It goes like this: someone jump in the pond (milo?) and swim accross to tie a string round the tree, so that there would be a line stretching accross the river. Then people will start sitting on the raft and pull themselves accross the river. We made the raft, and all the Lolliporeans got accross safely. At the end only Bowie was left on the starting shore, so we all sang the Bonnie song.

Oh bring back my Bowie to me . Lalalalala.

Next wass nature rumble. Many people shudder at the name of the activity but I do not know why, till that day. Stuart (our instructor) led us to some random door at the back of the campsite, and we were out at the open. That place was really a jungle, with some lake and tall trees. We followed the small and narrow trail, and it went fine till there was a descend into a little pit filled with mud. It didn't smell nice. o.O The tricky part was to climb up the stone ledge, as it was very slippery. It required teamwork, and all were fine except someone who had to rest due to a cut. The conditions got worser, and the mud got higher, till about up to the knee, or maybe much higher.

Lunch was about the same, then it was time for teambuilding activities. I am nt sure of the order, but there was this spider webby which is full of holes. Big holes and small holes. Cavin went first to the other side and helped other people through the holes. lol. I don't think I could even squeeze through the biggest one. There was the electric fence too. The idea was to carry people safely accross the electrical barriers, made of strings. We went to this big see-saw, and tried to balance ourselves. We almost made it. Just then Benjy came.

There was also a Standard Obstacle Course. I may miss out some.

1) Low Wall.
The low wall is easier than it seems. I climbed up the wall and did some victory dance(err.. forgot what exactly it was, involve swinging the arms). There was a high wall in the army camp too.

2) Handle bar
Not sure what it's called. Anyway it involves a lot of strength. As it is slippery, we skipped this section. Kah Hong sustained an injury though =(. There was a cut and he had to go to the hospital to stitch it up.

3) Suicide Window (or is it swiss window?)
The aim is to swing over the metal thingy using your hands. At first I thought it was quite scary, but in the end it was quite fun. Ppl like Nel and me were doing it over and over again.

There were still others like Jacob's Ladder. Reminded me of Jacob's biscuits. It was under maintainence i think.

We had dinner afterwards, and washed up before the campfire event. So when it came, I guess that all of us were ready. We sat at the place overlooking the Milo Pond. The campfire was good, and most of the groups' items were nice. For the Lollipop, we sang the bottle song and some other stuff. It was quite late when the event ended.

Finally, the last day of the camp. We packed up the tent and went for breakfast. Afterwards, we took the bus back to school. It was certainly a memorable experience.

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