Year 8 Camp

In Week 7, Year 8 embarked on their 3-day camp to Biloela with the Outdoor Education Group (OEG). Upon arrival to school, we were delighted to be gifted home-made lolly bags from Year 11s, as part of the Sister-to-Sister program. There were handwritten notes in these bags which had advice and their own camp experiences to guide us for the next few days ahead. With this we boarded the buses and started our camp journey. 

When we finally arrived, we were greeted by the OEG staff/camp leaders and instructed on what our activities and days would look like. In our groups we had to divide the camp equipment evenly and began hiking to our first activities. The hiking had many challenging aspects such as reading maps for directions, scaling up and down large mountains and carrying heavy hiking bags full of equipment. 

Many activities came with their own difficulties and created incredible memories of the hardships they included. We took part in activities such as abseiling, canoeing, mountain biking and initiatives. Our camp instructors taught us about the valuable safety measures and gave us the opportunity to scale down 3 metre through to 12 metre cliffs. This challenged those who had fears of heights which they overcame with the positive encouragement from group members. While canoeing we had the opportunity to play games like world domination and tip while testing our new knowledge on properly steering a canoe. One of the challenges we attempted was paddling against rapids to make it to the opposite side of the lake. This came with many difficulties because to succeed we had to communicate with our partner to keep our stability and to make it to the other side. With mountain biking we were given many different options and trails based on our confidence in bike riding. Some took larger risks going on harder tracks which were steep and narrow. We also had the option to challenge ourselves by attempting to ride across wooden planks of different widths.

During our first night at camp, we stayed in our two-levelled ecofriendly cabins. This was where we had our first meal. For each meal we alternated roles for who prepared, cooked, and made the fire. Various jobs were needed to produce the dishes such as chopping vegetables, rehydrating the meat and at the end we all came together to clean up. Before we went to sleep, we had the pleasure to sit along a campfire and look back on the challenges and achievements of the day. This first night was a great experience and reflecting underneath the clear starry night was a perfect end to the busy day. 

On the second day, we hiked down a large rocky mountain into the valley which was our second sleeping area. This area was where we had most of our activities, where the valley consisted of an extended lake intertwined amongst the forest and intricate trails that snaked against the mountain. A difficult team building experience was setting up our tents, as we were given little instruction and left to work with each other to construct our tents. Before we were set to sleep in our tents we combined with other groups and sat around a campfire to take part in a karaoke game to win marshmallows.

During this Camp, Year 8 went through many difficulties and challenging moments that completely tested us. We found throughout this camp that being surrounded by encouraging teachers, group leaders and friends made us push ourselves and create unforgettable memories. A huge thank you to the SCEGGS Staff who accompanied us and made this incredible camp possible! A big thank you as well to Ms Thompson for all her organisation behind the scenes.

Yolanda Liu and Stella Wilson