Read about how Grade 4 camp was!

Camp Jungai by Maeve Sweeney-Rajki

Wednesday, the morning of camp I screamed so loud the house might as well have fallen down. All I could think about was how excited I was. I had packed the night before and I really did overpack. Me and my dad had to haul my duffel bag into the car, the bag was already bulging, I really shouldn’t have packed my giant stuffed toy. Then me and dad drove to school.

Day 1

I heaved my duffel bag onto the bus, once I sat down on the bus and said goodbye to dad, I melted into the seat. The bus trip was two and a half hours long and we had a ten minute break in the middle of the trip to eat snack at yarra glen. On the second half of the bus trip you get to find out who's in your activity groups and cabins. Once we got off the bus everyone had to grab a bag and take it into the hall at camp. In the hall we met the cultural leader of camp, her name was Aunty, she told us all the rules and expectations at camp.

Then everyone got their luggage and headed up to the cabins. PS the hill that leads up to the cabins is rrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy steep and I found It hard to get my duffel bag up the hill. I was assigned to cabin six. The beds were very squeaky and even though the teachers say that the mattresses don’t feel like gym mats, they do the really really do also the bathroom floor was sticky and there was only one toilet, one shower and one mirror in every cabin and I had twelve kids in my cabin. After we unpacked everyone got morning tea, fruit and anzac biscuits. Getting into activity groups we then headed off. My first activity was possum pull, It was AWESOME! The way it works is you get harnessed up to a rope and everyone else is harnessed to the other end of the rope then everyone runs the opposite way of the possum pull and you get pulled into the air. I loved flying through the air but I didn’t like pulling everyone else though. Our other activity for the first day was a cultural session with Auntie. We painted a giant picture with aboriginal symbols on a piece of cloth. Everyone had 30 minutes of free time. We then had dinner roast chicken, potato, peas, pumpkin and gravy. For dessert we had chocolate mousse. It was a nightmare getting to sleep in fact I

didn't get any sleep on the first night because everyone was whispering.

Day 2

We had to be up and ready by seven in the morning because practically straight away we had breakfast, it was toast and cereal. Our first activity was canoeing, the instructors made you sit in wet and I mean WET seats. Canoeing was pretty fun apart from getting wet, but overall canoeing was pretty good because I didn’t fall in the lake. Morning tea was brownies and fruit. The next activity I did was bush walking, we played bingo and had a singing contest. It was pretty good apart from we had to step in giant puddles and streams and our shoes were wet the whole time. Afternoon tea was cake and dinner was weird pasta bake, for some reason it was sweet. After dinner we had a movie night but the movie didn’t work! At least I got a full night's

sleep.

Day 3

For breakfast we had hash browns, then we played this thing called initiatives where you play loads of random games. We also played Indigenous games like where we had to knock down blocks with balls and hop like kangaroos with balloons in between our legs, for lunch we had sausages in bread and I basically slept the whole bus ride back to school. Overall camp was pretty good but the food was meh so I give camp jungai a four star rating.

Camp Jungai By Elia Naimi

Grade 4 were lucky enough to visit Camp Jungai on the 6th of August. It is a 2.5 hour drive from Clifton Hill primary school. I was really excited to visit Camp, but sadly I could only stay for day 2. It was a long drive, but luckily I made it in time for the first activity - it was canoeing. Canoeing was extremely fun, though it was very wet! The life jacket was a little puffy, (and the ground was muddy). The canoes were a little wet, or actually really wet! But it was the best activity and really worth it! Then we went to lunch! The food was good but most people didn’t like it, I think that the potatoes are really yummy (the bacon cubes are just cubes of uncooked bacon). Possum pull was okay, but it was not my favorite. The grade 4s from last year did a letter thing so I did it too.

Cool games!

Amazing potatoes!

Mandarins were okay?

Photo rally was a little stressful!

Jumping into lake is a bad idea.

Unique boats.

Not easy to climb to cabins (steep hill).

Good hiding places in photo rally.

Awesome canoe class!

Impressive banana bread.

Everyone got some free time on day 2 (I don’t know about day 1 or 3), it was kind of boring since there is nothing to do but after lunch you would get rewards like extra dessert. But I am not sure. I was really sad when I had to go home. I wanted to stay forever! At the beginning I thought that it was way nicer than I expected! I was pretty sad that it was a 1 star rating. If I could,I would rate it 5 stars. Camp Jungai was really fun! The people there where really nice! Camp Jungai was the best camp of my life! And I hope I can go again someday.

Camp Jungai By Aniana Champion

Introduction

4GP visited Camp Jungai from 5th August to the 7th of August. It was really fun and exciting, I recommend going there if you ever have the chance. I think that if I ever go back, this time I will definitely remember to bring gumboots. Anyway, let me get back to the story of my amazing marvellous adventure at camp.

Day 1

It all started when I was rolling my purple suitcase over the brick walkway to get to the downball courts. Bursting with excitement, I stepped onto the rough, pastel coloured four square box. The crowd was grouped in small clusters dotted around the basketball surface, the path, and the downball surface. As I searched for my best friend to say hello, and my teacher to find out where to go next, I noticed two large buses pull up just outside the school grounds. The buses were here! That meant that in less than ten minutes, me and all of my friends would be on our way to camp! Just then, my BFF wandered into view between two clumps of parents chatting casually. We hugged each other and then set out to find our teacher. Once we had found our teacher and been marked present, we got directed onto the bus. Elated, we hopped up the tall steps and strode down the aisle that seemed in that moment to go on for forever, and finally, slid into a pair of seats to the left of the bus. Everyone was dying to know the cabins and activity groups, but the teachers stubbornly insisted we wait until after we had our snack break at a playground along the way. Teachers can sometimes be so annoying! Since the bus ride was going to be two and a half hours we had to wait: One. Hour. And. Fif. Teen. Minutes. Until. We. Could. FIND. OUT. OUR. CABINS.

To pass the time, I took out my book (Obernewtyn) and

began to read. Once and a while, I would pause to look out the window. Slowly the scenery changed from crowded streets and modern skyscrapers to large front yards and green parks, then to fields of horses and farms. After about forty-five minutes of reading I began to feel nauseous from reading on the moving bus and put down my book. My friend and I played Uno for a while and then just talked about how amazing camp was going to be. The vehicle halted next to a park with a huge sprawling playground. But, to the student’s great dismay, the adults informed us that we could not use the playground since it was raining. Once we had piled out of the bus we all dashed undercover and snatched spots at wooden picnic tables or standing up at ledges. I ate my cake quickly, sweeping up the last of my cake crumbs and shoving them into my mouth. Rain was starting to splatter my face. As we began to lie up and walk toward the bus the rain got a bit stronger and the mist thickened. We all hurried toward the buses, the seats quickly filling up.

Outside, the fog curled around the windows and the rain fell like glass beads. Cold air seeped through a crack under the bus door. Soon, the bus was moving again, and a teacher (Dylan) strolled to the front of the long aisle and stopped up the front. I leaned forward in my seat. Dylan was going to announce the cabins! I desperately hoped that my bestie and I would be in the same cabin.

He read out cabin one.

Cabin two.

Cabin three.

Neither my friend nor I had been called out yet.

Cabin four.

Cabin five. Still, we hadn’t been announced.

Cabin six. Wait— Cabin six! I was in cabin six! Not only that, but I was also with my best friend! Relieved, I slumped back in my uncomfortable seat. Then, I just sat and looked out the window for a while. In a flash, we were parking next to a sign that said: Camp Jungai. At last, we were here. We were instructed to take a random suitcase out of the bus and roll it into a room with floor to ceiling windows all around.

We ate lunch there and they introduced the people that worked at the camp. The woman that would take our cultural session was called Auntie. After that they read out the activity groups–Dylan hadn’t done it in the bus, and I was dismayed to find out I wasn’t with my best friend, but I was with some of my other friends. Mora ( another girl in my year) was grouped in the witchety grub group. Poor her! My friend was canoeing first, but my group was bushwalking. As soon as we were allowed to, we dashed up the steep hill to our cabins and, puffing, scoured the row for the right number. Luckily, number six was right at the front, and we ran in so fast that I nearly got knocked over. We all bagsed beds and then surveyed the room we would be living in for the next few days. It had one bathroom with one shower and a separate toilet, with most of the beds being all together, but four were separated by a half wall so that they couldn’t see the other beds. Since I had one of these beds, to chat with the other girls meant to lean over the side of my bed so much I had to make sure I didn’t tumble over the side. I kicked off my shoes and looked out the window. There was a river running around the whole camp. But the canoeing classes took place in the dam to our right. Also to our right was the basketball courts, with a bucket of assorted balls next to them.

On our left there were two main buildings, one was the dining hall and the carpet room, and the other was the room where we have our cultural session with Auntie, and the room we put our suitcases in at the very start. In the middle of the whole camp was a green wonky oval that you could play AFL or soccer on. A teacher came around to our cabins to tell us that we would be going to go to activities soon and that we better unpack. I pulled my suitcase out from under my bed and unzipped it. A bundle of clothes exploded everywhere. I flashed back to when I was packing all the requirements for camp, such as T- shirts that are not cotton, two pairs of thermals, collared shirts, and about one hundred pairs of socks. It had barely all fit in. I placed my books in a neat pile next to my pillow and rolled out my sleeping bag on the thin mattress. Since I was already wearing pants and a T-shirt all I had to change was my cardigan. I unbuttoned it and then zipped up my rain jacket, grabbed my backpack and headed down the hill.

We met our group leader (Ollie) and our parent helpers (Rosie and Shidan) and our classroom teacher (Grant) was coming with us as well. We put on these annoying leg thingies that dug into my calves and were supposed to protect us from snakes. Then, before I knew it, we were in the bush. Since it had just been raining the path now had a large stream of water running along it. I had partnered up with Aashi, and we were walking together, dodging the mud and puddles. A while later, Ollie announced that we were going to do a longest leaf competition, and the winner got second servings of dessert. Aashi and I immediately started looking all around us, trying to spy a dropped fern leaf or a big gum leaf that we could pick up. In front of us our teacher trudged through a puddle of mud and picked up a fallen lomandra leaf and continued hiking forwards. We both squelched through the huge mud puddle and caught up with Grant, not caring that the thick

brown substance soaked through my sneakers and socks, and about how whenever I took a step, the mud in my shoe would squelch loudly. We begged Grant to let us have the leaf and finally, he gave in. Now we were surely going to win!

We stopped at a small clearing to eat our Anzac cookies and play a hide and seek game called camouflage. How it works is: there is one person (Ollie) who stands in the middle of the clearing with his eyes closed, and counts down from 25, then 20, 15,10 and 5. Then he has to open his eyes and try and spot us, but he has to stay still the whole time. We had to tap Ollie’s hand and hide behind nearby trees or bushes and hope that he didn't see us. If he does, then you’re out of the game. As I was running to a thick tree, I slipped in a patch of mud and SQUELCH!!! Landed flat on my face. After camouflage had finished, it was time to announce the winner of the longest leaf competition. When we put our leaf down beside the others, it was clear we won. But the others lined up all their leaves, but then no-one was sure who had won.

“ And the winners are… Aashi and Aniana!”

Later, I trekked up the hill after the bushwalk, peeled off my damp shoes and once-white socks, and flopped onto my bed, flinging my bag to the side. Itching to get into the shower, I gathered my fresh clothes and towel, and lined up outside that bathroom door.

Once I had my shower and changed into clean clothes, I brushed all the tangles from my hair and read a book until the dinner bell rang. Excited, I grabbed my head torch, slid on boots and slowly descended the large hill to get to the dining hall. In the vast room, there was a buffet kind of table at the back and long room length benches to eat at. To the side. There was a roller door set in the wall, and the smell of undercooked bland potato. The other students filed into the room and took spots at the benches. I hoped the food was good. I was starving. After all the people with dietary requirements had been served peas, pumpkin, potato and a half capsicum with rice and melted orange cheese filling, our table got called and we eagerly jumped up and collected our cutlery and plates. We got served the same except that instead of capsicum, we got seasoned chicken. When I tasted the peas, they were all mushy, the pumpkin was flavorless, and not to be rude, but the potatoes tasted like gym mat. The chicken was okay, though.

Scraping my plate into a plastic bin and placing it on a soap rack, I wondered what we were having for dessert. Soon, I had my answer. The roller door opened again to reveal rows of metal cups containing a fluffy chocolate mousse and a swirl of whipped cream on top. But after eating that dinner, I wasn't so sure. Luckily, it was really good and my friend Daisy licked her and another girl’s cups clean. After dinner, we were on scullery duty, which meant we had to clean the tables and floor. By the time we left for the evening session, I had five mushy peas in my boots. Anyway, since we weren’t allowed to wear shoes in the carpet room, I took off my black boots and padded into the room. Auntie told us stories of the dreamtimes, and of how a couple of lazy wives got the yidaki (didgeridoo) banned from all women forever. On the topic of yidaki, she invited four of the teachers and parent helpers to come up and have a turn of playing it. We all insisted that Ben do it, but even when we chanted “BEN! BEN! BEN! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!” He still refused.

Even Auntie joined in with the chanting. When the teachers tried to play, it mostly sounded like farts and raspberries. By the time we made our way back to the cabins, I was utterly exhausted. All the girls were whispering and talking until two o’clock am. Several people ding dong ditched(knocking on someone’s door and then running away) us, but we only did it once. Finally, we all slipped into sleep.

Day 2

All I could think as we walked into the sunlit room was today is a whole day at camp! Breakfast was a long buffet with toast and cereal down one end and tinned fruit, yogurt and juices down the other. I chose toast and jam, and excitedly munched my toast, thinking about what we would do today. I was pretty sure that we had a cultural session first, then canoeing, possum pull, and after that the photo-rally. Dropping my cutlery into a soapy tub, I thought about the day ahead. I was particularly excited for the canoeing and photo rally, but everything else sounded fun as well. After we had changed and slung our packs over our shoulders, we headed down to the room where Auntie holds the cultural sessions. It was really fun. She taught us how to draw aboriginal symbols and we made a poster using just the symbols. Our main topic was frogs. We did a practice and then a good copy with markers and fingerprints (we dipped our fingers in paint and then

stamped them on the outside of the waterhole in the picture). When we had finished that up, we went outside where Auntie had two boxes of water and a box of blackwood leaves on the ground.

She plucked five leaves and folded them over twice, held them tight in her fist, and dunked both hands in the water. Taking them out, Auntie placed her hands flat and started to grind them together. She ground them for a while and then she took the hand not containing the leaves and plunged it into the water again, then continued grinding the leaves, and before you know it, you have a handful of bubbly green soap! Next, we went canoeing, but first we had a break for afternoon tea at the picnic tables outside the dining hall. The rule was, if you ate one fruit, you got one slice of brownie. I was really excited, because I’d never been canoeing, kayaking or rowing before. At the last minute, I decided to change into shorts because everyone had said that the seats were full of water, and I didn’t want to get my pants soaked.

To get to the dam, we had to walk over the oval (which was riddled with poop) and on the way, Winston slipped and fell in a big puddle of mud. We buckled up life jackets and grabbed paddles from a large rack. Then we partnered up and climbed into faded pink canoes, pushing off from the side of the dam. Once I got the hang of it, it was actually really fun. Back, forth, back, forth. Canoeing was definitely my favourite so far. We played a really fun game called World Domination, where you had to choose a country and try to get other people to join their team by tapping their boat on the back three times. We chose Spain, but we didn’t win. The next game we played was called King of the Animals, and it had the same rules except that instead of countries, there were animals. And this time, we were the Snow Leopards, and we won. After all that canoeing, I was starving. For lunch we had bland potatoes with toppings, but if you had heaps of toppings you could mask the bad potato taste with heaps of cream cheese or coleslaw.

Right after lunch, we had the possum pull. Time was going so fast! It seemed that just moments ago I was standing on the school downball courts, waiting for the buses. We changed out of our waterlogged clothes and walked toward the wooden construction. It was a big wood frame, with a rope looped around the top that trailed down to the ground on both sides. Directly underneath the frame was a bucket with two stuffed toys in it. While we buckled up our harnesses, the instructor explained how it worked. One person got attached to one side of the rope, while the rest of us had to hook on to carabiners on the other side. The person took the stuffed toys and then chose one speed, slow medium or fast.Then the teacher would shout “GO!” and the team attached to the rope would go at a walk, jog or sprint. Then the other person would be jerked up, and then throw the soft toys at the bucket below. Soon, it was my turn. It felt like flying.

We had our afternoon tea break— fruit and a slice of banana and spice bread—, and then it was time for our last activity of the day, the photo rally. We went back to our cabins quickly to change and prepare for the next activity. We met Ollie at a picnic table, where he had a pile of pictures and ropes. We got handed pictures with numbers on the back, pencils, and paper with numbers and spaces underneath to write the letters, and then we had to find that place and a little letter plaque and write it under the number of the picture on a separate piece of paper. It was a race to find all of the letters first, and if you won you got a prize out of Ben’s bag. There was only one Stringy Fun (or Cat’s Cradle) left, and everyone wanted to get it. There were plenty of prizes to go round for the room inspections and activities, but most of the good ones had been used up. It was the hardest activity out of all of them, but it was still good fun.

“ Found it!” Kitty yelled

as I jotted down the letter.

“Could it be this?” Clara called as she inspected a wooden pole. As we puff back to Ollie, I peel my eyes for any letters.

So far, this was my favourite activity, save the canoeing, which was definitely still the best. The only downside to the photo rally was that our group had to hold onto a rope the whole time. When that was over, we freshened up in our cabins and headed down for free time. For most of it we played netball, and then we just walked around. When the dinner bell rang we went to the dining hall and it was announced that we would be having a pasta bake. When I dug my fork into the mushy pasta and took a mouthful, it tasted like tinned pasta, but mushed into one dish. For dessert, there was jelly, and since we had forgotten yesterday that we had our prize of second servings, we got extra jelly today. By the time I collapsed into my sleeping bag, I was already asleep.

Day 3

For breakfast, there were delicious hash browns and the normal buffet. After breakfast, it was time for aboriginal games with Auntie. We played a hide and seek game, and a keepy uppy game. Then it was time for a sausage sizzle, with mustard and onions on top. In a flash, we were buckling our seatbelts in the bus, ready to go home. On the way, we sang pop songs and school songs. I felt sad. It was the end of camp already!

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