We went to a camp at Birrigai from Wednesday the 27th to Friday 29th of March. On the first day, we were told which cabins we were in and who we were with. Then we got to choose what bunk we wanted to be in and we had to unpack. I was on the top bunk of the corner bed and there were eight bunks for all of us to share.
Rhea, me, Edith, Freya, Sylvia, Sophie, Maria, Frida, and Shasmeen were in the same cabin. Then we had dinner which was lasagne. That night it was games night and we also had a quiz. Tables one, three, five, seven and nine did the quiz first. Tables two, four, six, eight, and ten went in to the games room while the other tables were having the quiz.
There was one sheet of French questions and one sheet of English questions. They were all quite easy and the teachers were supposed to tell us who had won and give them certificates on the last day but they forgot.
Some of the games were giant like Checkers and Snakes and Ladders. You had to use yourself as the counters. There was also a giant Twister sheet and two giant Connect Fours. When you squeezed the dices they let out a squeaky sound. There was also a piano and a dance floor.
There was also a normal-sized Snakes and Ladders and Connect Four.
We had to go to bed at 8.30 but we had to turn the lights out at 9.00. I woke up at a quarter to seven and got dressed. Sylvia didn’t want to get up so the teacher had to make her get out of bed and get dressed. Later that day Sylvia said that she stayed in bed because she wanted to stay in bed and miss breakfast.
For breakfast we had hot food or cereal and the hot food was either baked beans on toast or spaghetti with sauce on toast. We could have just plain toast if we wanted. You could have one or two pieces of toast. We could also have vegemite, jam, honey or butter. I had two pieces of toast, one with baked beans and one with just butter and then I had cereal.
At breakfast we got orange juice, lunch was apple juice and dinner we had tropical juice, all with water. After breakfast we all went down to the meeting area and got organised into three groups. We had a, b and c and I was in a. Rhea was in b and Kaiya was in c. We had three different activities for all of the groups to complete. Group c did the traditional class, group b went on the explorers’ walk and group a got to make fires.
The traditional class was supposed to look like in an old school with no windows and we had to dress up like schoolchildren would. The teacher was quite strict but I didn’t really mind. The explorers’ walk was like when people first came to Australia and started exploring Australia. There were four things you could be: a botanist; a geologist; a navigator or an artist. I chose geologist and Rhea chose botanist. Geologists collected rocks, sand and dirt. Navigators would draw where they were so that we’d be able to re-trace our steps and they also had a compass.
Artists would draw the area so they could send it back to England so that everyone would know what it looked like. A botanist would collect leaves and plants to take back to England to study.
The last activity we had to get in to groups of three, four or five and collect sticks. Then when we got to a place that had lots of areas to make a campfire we had to make three piles of sticks: kindling, medium sticks and big sticks. Then we had to get newspaper and tie a knot in it and then get the ends out as wide as we could and place it in the middle of the fire.
Then we had to place the sticks in a tepee shape, one above the other. We had to leave a little opening where we would light the newspaper. In my team I had Yasmin and Lillian. Yasmin kept throwing her stick in the fire whenever she lit it. On her third attempt she was really lucky because it caught on the newspaper and she started a fire. I got it on my first attempt but lighting the stick was really hard. After our fire was lit then we had to choose a stick to toast our damper. It’s like bread dough when it’s not made.
When we had finished cooking our damper then we could have maple syrup in the middle. We had put the damper on the stick so that it was a bit like a cup and the bottom of mine was burnt so when I bit it, all of the syrup came out (I bit it on the wrong end) and it was really annoying. I found one that no-one wanted and the teacher said I could have it and luckily that one didn’t have a hole in the bottom.
On the explorers’ walk, me, Lila, Serian, Mr Duncan, Aisha and a few other people got separated from the group because everyone else was going too fast and then we accidentally followed the sound from a group from another school that was staying at Birrigai. Luckily for some reason they went quiet and we were able to follow our own group’s sound and when we were close enough Mr Duncan shouted (because he’s got a really big voice) to the last person to wait for us and she shouted to the teacher to slow down. I got a really big graze down the back of my leg but I don’t really mind.
When we got back it was lunchtime and we had apple juice with lunch and after we had finished we could have watermelon.
After lunch we went to the meeting area and did the last activity. We did the traditional class and I got in trouble because the teacher said I was using the devil’s hand. I had to write with my right hand.
At recess when we were doing the traditional class we had a break and me and Lillian were playing with hula hoops on the rocks. I was trying to roll the hoop down the biggest rock I could find and that was really big (from the floor to the roof and a bit bigger).
For dinner we had schnitzel with gravy.
I’ll tell you the rest another time. I’m going to watch Octonauts.
