On the last week of term 3, the whole of year 7 attended a 3 night camp, full of thrilling once in a lifetime activities that started on Tuesday morning and ending on Friday afternoon.
On Monday we were split into 6 groups. I got placed into group 4 with Mr. Port, unsure about how the camp experience would be like. On Tuesday we hopped onto the bus, everyone filled with adrenaline, and aspiration. After a long hour of travelling up and down rough hills and through pine tree alleyways we finally arrived in Forest Edge where everyone just stood and took in the view of the barren fields that rolled over the earth like a carpet.
On day 1 my group went for screen printing where we went through the process of creating bags with different designs that we would use all through the next years of camp. Next, we moved to rock climbing, our first activity using a harness, (our best friend on camp). We were taught how to effectively put on and take off a harness. At the end of the day my group gathered in the dorm building to participate in a quiz night before sleep.
On day 2, we had to get ready our overnight bags as we would be going to a different campsite to sleep overnight there. In the morning group 4 did journaling, where we received our camp journals we would use until year 12. After that we ate lunch and fixed on spare trainers or muddy shoes, where for 2 hours we hiked through cow patty fields and mud holes, treading through yellow flower meadows and crawling under electric fences. After an exhausting 2 hours we finally reached the overnight campsite where we cooked stir-fry for dinner and got ourselves ready in tents for bed.
On day 3, I woke up to my tent buddies groggily wishing me happy birthday and singing kum ba yah. As soon as I stepped outside for some fresh air, nearly the whole campsite was woken up by clusters of happy birthday wishes. I was overwhelmed with the amount of wishes i received that morning and am grateful for them. After the morning breakfast group 3 and group 4 traveled down to the dam for 2 hours for fishing where it was nice and peaceful just calmly waiting for fish to bite the corn of your line while the tranquil waves hit the shore and fell back into the dam. As soon as we got back, we had lunch and did two toned down activities. Low ropes and Orienteering. After that it was dinner, where some of my friends organised for the lights to go out and practically the whole of year 7 were singing happy birthday and a cake was in front of me even before I knew it.
On day 4 we had breakfast and group 4 met outside where we were involved in pamper pole and abseiling, the two most thrilling activities. I completed both, hitting the ball twice on the pamper pole and going down the 20 metre wall on abseiling. After the activities, it was time to say goodbye to the amazing forest edge staff, as we got back on the bus and headed back to the college with our driver Terry.
The year 7 OLP experience was great and it felt like the whole experience went over in a blink of an eye. This camp opened up my view on things a bit more and I learnt new skills that I could use in my everyday life. The camp definitely helped me to develop my strengths of teamwork, communication and resilience and I really enjoyed it, if I could do it again, I definitely would over and over again.
link to group 4 olp video