YEAR 8 CAMP

My care group that I was in went to camp on the Thursday and Friday session, which probably was the best because we didn’t have to deal with rain like earlier groups. The first activity that I did was The Labyrinth which is basically a massive maze going over two levels with puzzles and different ways to get down such as a fireman’s poll, a very long slide and two staircases. This maze is more confusing than it looks like on the outside and from the top as there is all sorts of random twists and turns to find your way out. 

The next activity we did was Challenge Hill. Challenge Hill is basically a very tall hill with a ton of different obstacles and challenges to overcome. While running up the hill some of the obstacles include a very tight crawling space which when you put seven male teenagers in it gets very loud and stuffy. At the end of the road there was a rope swing over a very cold river which only a few other members of my group managed to get over, and to finish a zipline to get to the finish line.

Now that everyone is becoming more tired, we ended the main part of the day with tubes slides! This was probably one of the most fun but tiring activities. When you got to the top of the hill with your tube you could choose to either go down the curvy slide that spins you around multiple times and then at the end sprays you with water, but on the other side there is a straighter one which gives you more speed and that you can go down with a friend. If you ask the person working the slide they can make it so you spin down that as well as going very fast. 

For dinner we headed back to the manor which is where we would be staying overnight. We had a choice of what we could have, the options were chicken, steak, or sausages. There was also bread and salad with many different dressings and different sauces for the meat. For dessert there was apple pie which was really good. After we had dinner, we got to choose between staying out at a campfire, watching a movie or playing boardgames. The movie was Jumanji from 2017. At the campfire there was marshmallows and songs around the campfire. Everyone got to play a song and some people sang along to some songs, I was able to rap in front of twenty-ish people and have them all clap once I was finished. We stayed around the campfire cooking marshmallows and partying for a while that night, but we had to go into our dorms, be quiet and turn all of the lights off at 10pm which was a bit hard for a few groups who still had a lot of energy from the day.

The next day people were waking up from six thirty to seven to start their day. The first thing I did was wake up and go outside for a walk with one of my friends so we could wake up to fresh air. For breakfast there was cereal, toast and pancakes which were fresh and nice and hot. There was syrup for the pancakes and juice for those who wanted it, and spreads for your toast. 

The first activity I did that day was orienteering which is using a map to navigate around the camp area and find different location which had a letter to a word. This made your legs tired and sore as you had to keep walking for about an hour to get back to the manor where all of our stuff was. After this we had morning tea or a snack which was a cookie and a piece of fruit. After this short, but well-earned break we had to go to our next activity, which was laser tag for me. Laser tag was a lot of fun there was only one type of weapon, but it had two firing modes, single fire or rapid fire. We played three games in total, two games of team death match then a free for all which Mr Brookes won!  After laser tag we headed back to the activity centre to have lunch. For lunch there was four different types of sandwiches salami, chicken, ham, and roast beef. While we ate our lunch we could sit around, kick and throw balls around and talk with our friends before we get on the bus to go back to school. 

Overall camp was a really good experience for me, and I would assume it was a lot of fun for everyone else that went as well. It was also a really good bonding experience and formed and bettered some friendships. However, it was really exhausting after the one and a half days of being at camp.