Year 12 Outdoor Environmental Studies

Camp experience

By Torey Crosta and Remy Moore 

The Year 12 VCE Outdoor - Environmental Studies class had an exciting opportunity to go to Portsea Bayplay Camp. On May 5 we left for camp. It took us about 2 hours to get there, where we were greeted by the lovely staff. After getting settled, we were ready to go on a bike ride, but the weather had other plans. So instead, we went for a hike. Our hike was 8km We walked through Point Nepean National Park and saw old 19th century stuff. We visited a cemetery where many people who suffered from ship sickness were buried, and we got to see some amazing views and Bow, one of the staff, also gave us the history of Portsea and how it came to be. We walked to the army barracks and got to see the old hidden machine guns and where they were set up I had fun hiding behind the walls scaring Miss.Rogneda. When we got back to camp, we went for dinner. When we returned to the camp, we finished the night off by watching a movie, playing Jenga and connect 4 whilst Torey made warm chocolate MILO for the gang.

Day 2 kicked off nice and early where we set off kayaking through the bay. We partnered up and kayaked through the bay for a few hours. Kaleb and I won the race of kayaking against Isaac and Ahmed. We were also greeted by a few dolphins while we travelled through the bay which was an experience for all to remember. We then headed back to camp where we then suited up ready to encounter the cold Portsea waters where we went snorkelling and saw many species of fauna and flora which was very interesting, as we saw many sea dragons and little sting rays. We then had dinner which was fish and chips which was very fitting to the theme of beach and fish. We ended the night going on a night walk where Mr Gayfer took us on an adventure that he didn’t even know where we were going but he ended up taking us on a very nice journey which ended with us walking on the sandbags at Portsea which we were talking about during the day on why they were there to protect the land from the impacts of erosion. 

On day 3, we set off to the beach to start stand up paddle boarding. After having a very competitive warm up game we headed into the water ready to try stand up on this choppy Friday morning. We had fun during stand up paddleboarding, even in the harsh hard conditions it was still enjoyable. After we finished we went back to pack and soak up what a brilliant camp we had. Overall, we all had a great time and I think it was an experience to remember. Being our last year, it was so important to have a fun time away from school, before we start getting serious. Thanks to Ms Rogneda for organising the camp and also to Mr Gayfer and Ms Warren for making it a fun experience for us all to remember.