An autobiographical response by Blair Mayer.

An autobiographical response by Blair Mayer.

My first two weeks at Reddam High school were amazing, this is what we did. First was a day where we met more teachers and did some tests to determine our classes, then we had the swimming carnival the next day were Bennelong won (I was sad as I am in Darling). The next day we set off for camp, but this camp was different to other camps.

                                              Cataract Scout Park

    This camp was very memorable, on the first day we were put into cabins; my cabin was me, Jordy, Bryson, Zac, Mason and Jono. We were then put into groups to go and do activities with certain group leaders. My group was number 3 and first up we had orienteering.

Orienteering was a lot of fun, we all split up into groups of 2 or 3 (I went with Lucas Brown) we had to follow maps and stamp our cards at each post. Lucas and I came back 2^nd but another team already took the winners flag. A couple of minutes later we realized we weren’t all there. So we set out in different groups to look for the missing students, of course I was in the group that found them.

Then, we went back to camp to have afternoon tea, they gave us cake and cordial, after that they told us what our next activity was, it was challenge valley. Challenge valley was extremely fun, we had to crawl through mud, swing of ropes, walk on balance beams and crawl through pipes. We got very dirty.

After that we had dinner.  It was kind of fatty and the meat was dry, but I’ve had worse. After that was the most amazing part of the camp, the waterslide, (I mean how many camps have a waterslide?) it was long and bumpy and it was so much fun.                                       

  That night was pretty fun, after the waterslide we had supper (Milo in a small plastic cup), but I’m talking about after that when it was lights out. When it was lights out my cabin was actually quite tired but that didn’t stop us we were having loads of fun until some people wanted to sleep, after a moment silence we would hear, “shut up Mason” even though he wasn’t even talking.

The next morning breakfast was at seven, we had fatty bacon and oily eggs, but everyone ate as many hash browns as they could. After we were done eating we were told our activities for the day, I had rock climbing.

Rock climbing was pretty fun, I didn’t climb but I enjoyed belaying. Dan Butler was one of the best rock climbers I’d ever seen. After that activity we went to have morning tea, (more cake and cordial), next up the giant swing.

The giant swing was 15 meters tall, you would be harnessed up then you would be tied onto several strong ropes and when you are ready the whole group pulls you to the top, and then when you pull the rip cord you freefall about 10 meters and then you start swinging. This was very painful for me as the harness was twisted and was rubbing the whole time.

After that we had caving. I couldn’t do it, I went about 10 meters inside and I couldn’t breathe everything felt so small and like it was going to cave in. Although I couldn’t do this I could do what was next, afternoon tea that was a lot easier for me to do.

We all had waterslide next so that was again lots of fun. Then we had dinner, but after dinner tonight we went and played games but after about 10 minutes we had a black out and we continued using torches.

But with no power when we got back to our cabins this meant no showers because there was no warm water and we also couldn’t see our bags so we slept in our dirty smelly clothes.

This was our last day at Cataract scout camp, so we packed our bags and went to breakfast. After breakfast we had pioneering where e built a chariot and a catapult. But next we had the 12 meter giant flying fox were we also had to be harnessed up but this time we had to jump from 12 meters.

Then it was time to leave, the bus ride home was pretty funny because when I fell asleep Philipa drew all over my arm and leg. When I got home I slept until 8 o’clock the next morning, but it was one of the best camps I had ever been on and an even better first 2 weeks of school.