So, I’m currently lying in my own bed for the first time in 5 days, and I’ll never take it for granted again after that Form 4 Camp of 2010. Before the camp you never know what to expect as you hear so many contradicting stories from previous groups, but when you get there you realise that those stories are hugely blown out of proportion.
Now I’m guessing you actually want to know how the camp went, right? Well here’s the breakdown:
Wednesday: Day 1
We left Parktown at about 7:30 in the morning. It was all smiles, although you could see some worried faces beneath the surface. We then stopped at an Engen 1-Stop, allowing everyone to buy something to eat or drink. This meant that some boys had the last sip of coke for 5 days (which can be torture to some, like Justin)
We finally arrived at the camp at about 2:00 in the afternoon. Everyone was excited, until they saw the massive mountain. It was huge! We were given a couple of minutes to pack the non-essential stuff away and leave it at the bottom of the mountain, and right after that we were on our way.
The hike up was something else, it was hot and I was supposed to keep up with the teachers (who didn’t have backpacks on their backs). We then eventually got to the halfway mark and this is the view that made the long, hot walk up more and more worth it.
Now that we were a bit more refreshed, we kept missioning up the mountain until we got to a ladder on the side of a rock face which we were expected to climb – I would also like to point out that there were no safety nets or harnesses to stop you from falling. Scary stuff…
To cut a long story short, we all made it up the mountain and by about 6 we were in our cabins getting ready for supper and preparing our group warcries. The evening was unfortunately ruined by someone dropping and F*** bomb and giving us a rather unpleasant night (I’ll let you figure out what transpired). After that we were served some tasty Milo and went to bed. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever felt so cold and uncomfortable in my life, but I managed to survive the first night.
The real fun started the next day ;)
Thursday: Day 2
Thursday started rather early, at about 3 in the morning to be exact. Seeing that we couldn’t take cell phones with no one had an alarm and as we found out, our alarm was 2 hours fast (how is a clock 2 hours fast, wtf?) We finally realised that it was way too early and attempted to get back to sleep. Most of us could, but others just stayed up till 5.
When the clock struck 5a.m there were 120 boys shivering in the cold waiting for their orders. Mr Kotwal walked out and started with his legendary push-ups. I don’t think those teachers actually know how to count because 40 comes after 39. You can’t say: “38 38 39 21” Back to school for you! Anyways after about 100 push-ups we were ordered to search for logs, and this is where camp got interesting. I won’t go into detail but we lifted logs above our heads about 60 times, and had to do six inches with logs on our legs about 30 times. The funny thing is that Mr Kotwal counts with such a calm voice, “he actually mind f*cks you” as Junior would say.
We finally made it through the first day of fitness and had some breakfast to fill the huge whole in our stomach. Nick and I then went to go shelter-searching and found a perfect location, we then started collecting logs, preferably the ones we were using in the morning (so we couldn’t use them the next morning). While searching for a long log we found a little snake. I didn’t go anywhere near it, but the “bravehearts” in our grade just had to pick it up with a stick and try to hold it i.e Alan Brown.
We then started our 1st rotation, which happened to abseiling. I had done it before but I really didn’t enjoy being pushed off the edge of a cliff by someone, honestly, not cool… Highlights were: Justin trying to go down the whole mountain; Mr van Zyl landing flat on his arse and the instructor slipping while trying to show off. Once we had finished up there, we headed back to camp and worked on our shelter.
We then had lunch which was Hotdogs. I seriously can’t survive on 3 Hotdogs, I’m a 17 year old boy, I’m not 5 you chops…
After lunch we headed off to the Zip-Line (foefie slide) where things got really hilarious. The problem was that if you didn’t stop yourself in time, you would crash into the pole. So we would tell people to keep their legs up and not stop themselves and we all know peer pressure always wins. :) It caused 2 legendary crashes, Mzwake and Mr Murabito. It was totally the highlight of my day! After that we played a few more games consisting of team-work, wheelbarrows and sand bags. Needless to say we got a good work out. Mr Murabito then had the bright idea of making us race each other and diving into an old fire place to get a bottle. His bright idea cost Neil Swart who suffered 2nd degree burns all over his arm. What chop makes us dive into a fire place that you used the day before that still has warm ash in it?
We then continued with our shelter once we were finished with our rotation and then made a fire, prepared some boerwors for supper and chowed. We were then told that we were going to play stalk the lantern, now that was another whole story… Brian and I met up with Junior and Dev while playing and stuck with them, and after getting scared sh*tl*ss by some snake or animal crawling in its hole, we decided to lie down, tell jokes and look at the stars, about 20 paces away from the lantern. The teachers started to get really pissed off because they could hear use but they couldn’t see us, and we finally made a run for it with 2 minutes to go in the game. We didn’t win though…
When we arrived back to camp we were served our awesome Milo and told to be up at 5’15 the next morning, with our logs of course. I didn’t sleep well that night, I think I might had a nightmare about logs ganging up on me and clubbing me to death…
Friday: Day 3
After a rather unpleasant sleep we were all up at about 4’30 in the morning. We were all dreading the fitness and therefore the search begun to find the lightest log. Pairs searched far and wide and finally settled with the lightest/most convincing log that they could find. We all waited in the cold wearing every piece of clothing we had (times were so tough that Quinton and I wore our underwear on our head, clean of course :) ) Fortunately the fitness wasn’t that bad as we just caught up on the athletics we were missing by running to the gate and back countless times, with and without our logs. The interesting thing is that we have difficulty in finding Grade 11 athletes on Saturday meetings, but all I know is that I saw Codie Jacobs in the front, go figure… (Exposed!)
We then had coffee and breakfast – I really don’t think I’ve tasted coffee that great. Most people basically lived off the stuff for the whole weekend. It was then off to the obstacle course. Due to many of our comrades getting ill or injured, we attempted the obstacle course with 8 people. Our main disadvantage was a log named Antony. We literally had to carry the fool through most of the obstacle course, not pleasant at all. Once we completed the course (In 30 odd minutes), we got working on our kick-ass shelter for the rest of the morning.
After lunch, which was a weird pasta sauce thing, we headed out Orienteering. I really don’t think I’ve ever walked through so much bush terrain in my life… It was pretty interesting, but waayyy too much walking and encounters with snakes. (just saying) We rushed off to finish our shelter that afternoon because there was no ways I was gonna freeze that evening.
So after everyone putting the final touches on their shelters (and Stuart Lewis’ group chopping down half the forest) we then proceeded to make our own potjie for dinner. Unfortunately I didn’t get to taste the other groups’ kos, but I heard it was pretty good. The problem is that everything tastes good on the mountain, even when it’s bad...
That evening Murphy’s Law prevailed and the night that we had to stay in our shelter, it was windy, but not normal windy, intense windy… The only problem we had was our shelter keep creaking. Surprisingly, it was the warmest, most comfortable sleep I had on the mountain. I think the warmth could attributed to everyone sleeping so close to each other due to the fear of snakes and bugs, just maybe ;]
Saturday: Day 4
After a rather refreshing sleep (for some), we all woke up, demolished our shelters and prepared to make our way down the mountain. We were told that the descent was much quicker than the ascent and there was excitement in the air as a refreshing warm shower was only a few hours away.
Our dreams were however dashed when we reached camp, as there were a few more activities to complete, which involved water, (extreme) problem solving, rock climbing and archery. I don’t think anyone will forget the “impossible” puzzle which other groups somehow finished, and then could not demonstrate how they made it. (cheats!)
Once all the activities were completed every person had a warm shower, for some it was the first shower in four days. As usual, hot water was scarce and everyone made sure they at least got a drop of it.
Once hygiene matters were seen to, we all had supper which consisted of REAL food and lots of it! Boys went up for seconds and thirds, a luxury we seldom had on the mountain.
After our delicious meal we proceeded to have our last gathering and reflect on the week and what we had learnt. Prizes were awarded to the top group, and special prizes were awarded to boys for things that happened on camp, such as “Dirtiest thing done on the Mountain” (You don’t want to know what it was, trust me).
Once all the formalities were taken care of, we proceeded to our rooms and just relaxed. When lights out time arrived, everyone looked forward to good night’s sleep in a comfortable bed.
