Year 11 Camp
Year 11 Camp
Wednesday to Friday Week 7, Term 2
Despite initial doubts that the camp would be cancelled (as it had at the start of the year), the morning of June the 8th came around, and there we all stood in the freezing cold, waiting for the buses to arrive. This was to be the first winter camp for twenty whole years, and it would not disappoint.
We joined the buses with great excitement. 45 minutes later, we arrived at our new home for the next three days, put down our suitcases, and gathered in the bunker.
The Class of 2023 was no less extravagant than the instructors at the centre had seen before, coming prepared with multiple kettles (coupled with too many instant noodles), milkshake makers (along with 5 litres of long life milk) and hairdressing utensils (this was Mr Guy), among other things.
We were then introduced to the dining hall: our hub of social interchange during our time at camp. Many lives had already been lost to the brutal game of assassin, and the rush for complimentary water bottles would claim a few more careless souls.
After lunch, we broke off into our day groups and began our activities. Over the 3 days, we had 8 activities:
- Archery tag, which involved shooting each other with foam-tipped arrows across a tennis court while donning Squid-Game style masks;
- Initiatives, which saw us attempting a variety of hands-on problems in teams;
- Puzzle room, an escape-room type activity riddled with perplexing problems to be solved together;
- Dark Water, most enigmatically named, which was essentially canoeing and kayaking;
- Chariots, where we desperately tried to construct billy-carts with planks whose pre-drilled holes refused to align;
- Damper-making, where we learned to build a campfire and enjoyed the warmth by the lake
- Life Ready activities, preparing us for life beyond high school.
Questions surrounding the true nature of the ‘Dark Water’ activity were resolved when the first participants returned, shivering from the cold with wet shoes and sore arms. After this initial round of activities, we enjoyed an hour and a half of free time to kick back and relax.
As night fell, Year 11 trooped to the dining room for dinner. Afterwards, our instructors started off our trivia night. To our surprise, it wasn’t just about drugs and alcohol (as it had been originally labelled): it was a battle of the wits over topics like Harry Potter, film, and finally, 2 rounds of a ‘name the song’ quiz that turned into a whole grade sing-a-long. Following the victory of team ‘Matty B Raps’ at trivia night, everyone returned to their cabins, and all the luxuries hidden within suitcases came out, most students indulging in mini-feasts to celebrate.
We woke up into a piercingly cold morning, with some brave souls venturing outside to admire the views of the lake at sunrise. After breakfast, an exciting day’s activities lay in wait.
After dinner we all convened at the gym, where the SRC ran a night of activities, starting with a grade-wide round of musical chairs (which got quite competitive), then a tense match of cat-and-mouse, an entertaining and intellectually challenging game of ‘limbs’, and finally, a game of ‘marriage, proposal or divorce’ which fitted in well with the pattern of team development activities.
The final morning saw a flurry of activity as cabins were furiously packed up and cleaned. The buses back to school were considerably quieter than on our journey there, with most people asleep and others too tired to talk. The long weekend provided welcome rest to the weary, and sufficient time to catch up on work and assessments for the stressed.
Thank you to Mr Guy, Mr Morrison, Ms Starr, Ms Maddox, Mr Prasad, Ms Kaur, Ms Thompson and Mr Boyle sacrificing their time for us: we hope you may have derived some entertainment watching us flounder about!
Despite the relentless complaints of the cold, this camp was a great success and brought us all closer together as a grade.
Aslesha and Sebastian (Year 11)
P.S. Check out some awesome vlogs below!