My Experience at Camp

                                          Monique Belovukovic

What I’ve realised in the first couple of weeks is that Reddam is a whole new world full of different people, a different environment  and  intense homework. I know that Reddam was the best school for me right form first second of orientation. The things that really helped me get into the school is new friends I made from camp at Cataract Scouting Park. If there wasn’t camp it would be a whole lot more different. So far camp has been the highlight of year 7 2011.

Camp started with everyone gathering at school to catch a bus leaving at 9:00 in the morning.  Everyone was exhausted but so excited. During our camp we enjoyed the outdoors, we noticed there was mud everywhere.  My friends and I gathered together pumped up to get muddy and dirty.

One of my Grand activities I did first was Caving. Caving was never what I expected. I thought it was like walking through a rocky underground tunnel full of rats and dirt. So thinking this I was terrified until I saw the entrance door I was extra terrified.

It looked like I could’t crawl inside the entrance door and possibly  slide to enter. Alicia our team leader kept telling us that the biggest loser (TV show) had no problem with finishing it but that was pretty hard to believe. Just imagine all the creatures you would be with in the tunnel like spiders, geckos, crickets and other insects maybe even snakes.

I stood right in the middle where I knew I would be safe with one of my good friends Rachel and another boy I met called Noah. It was dark and tight, extremely hot inside the cave all I could feel was my sweat trembling down my burnt, warm face. I was so uncomfortable but so happy when I saw light from a distance. I started to speed up my  crawling untiI I could stand. I was nearly outside while hearing a yell “who’s ready for level two”, my lungs felt like they dropped. My eyes couldn’t help notice the scratches and blood mark on my back. I felt like whingeing but than I saw everyone with the same problem.

Level two was the same thing until the very end were we got to a point where we couldn’t climb jump or slide, so we waited until everyone caught up. We were now all hot and scared. Alicia was trying to tell us that the brick wall moves if we push really hard and work as a team. So we all started to push hard until I saw in the corner of my eye steps leading up to a small rabbit hole. Next thing you know we hear Alicia’s voice coming from the rabbits whole “coming or not”. So we followed her in, everyone had trouble fitting through. We waited twenty minutes for everyone to squeeze through. I couldn’t believe I got through level one and level two. It was tough but somehow I finished it. I was very happy and proud.

One of my other favourite activities was The Giant Swing. It was amazing but very scary. I didn’t want to do it at first but then Rachel kept whispering you will regret it. So I put my helmet and harness taking my time.  I walked up the ladder as if I was an elephant step by step. They took the ladder away. I was now hanging on the rope, five metres above the ground with a massive wedge. They attached me to the rope and told me to hold on tight. They raised me higher and higher until I screamed “ stop”! I was around fifteen metres above the ground when count down started for the giant swing. My mouth immediately became dry from nervousness. My heart was pounding at full speed. I pulled the blue rope and woof,  off I went. It wasn’t scary at all. So our team leader told me I could have another go if I go all the way to the top, which was around thirty metres high. For me that was extremely high. I closed my eyes stop breathing went red and pulled the blue rope. All I could hear was the wind in my ears and me screaming.

Camp was a life changing experience that will stay in my mind forever. I also made lots of friends from my cabin .I now know that I want to be in Reddam all the way through until year twelve.