Outdoor adventure
By Bella Rossini and Grace Longhi, Year 5, Holy Cross School
AN obstacle course, raft building and a canoeing expedition were just a few of the activities Year 5 students from Holy Cross School, including Isaac Lukin and Leo Magri (pictured), enjoyed on their first school camp.
RECENTLY, the Year 5 cohort of Holy Cross went on their first school camp.
It was a wonderful new experience for everyone.
We went on a three-day camp to Camp Paterson.
We were worried that we would miss our parents, siblings, pets and other family members, but we ended up having so much fun and we were with all of our friends.
We didn’t want to leave Camp Paterson when we had to go back to our families.
Some of the best parts of our camp experience were the wipe-out, obstacle course, raft building and canoeing.
We all loved the obstacle course because it was learning survival skills, it was fun and it tested our agility, balance and strength in the mud pit.
We carried a life sized dummy called Betty around the obstacle course.
Betty is a test dummy that is stuffed with newspaper, has a green uniform, blue eyes and ginger hair tied up in a ponytail.
The wipe-out course is a wet course.
There are teams of three to four people from your group and you race against the other teams in a range of obstacles.
There is a giant climbing tower and slide, paddle boats, a water trampoline that you walk on the outside of, a swing, a bit of swimming, agility and upper body strength required.
Raft building is where your team is given only pipes and rope, you have to tie them together to make a raft.
Your team chooses a king and queen and the raft crew push the raft around to points where they then pick up the king and queen.
Then the raft is pushed with the king and queen on it back to the starting point where you then take apart your raft and take off your life jackets and your time will stop.
Another favourite activity was canoeing.
Everyone hops into the canoes in pairs and they paddle around the lake and get used to canoeing.
After this you race around the lake and in a little channel and back.
It is heaps of fun. If the canoe sinks it will not matter, life jackets will save us. It was so much fun.
At night we played a game called spotlight, where you had to get your torch and look for little animals and flags that were hidden in trees and on the ground in the dark.
It was exciting being outside in the dark with all our classmates.
The cabins at Camp Paterson were nice to sleep in and are cosy. The food was also delicious and the campfire perfect to sit around in the cool of the night and we even got to toast marshmallows.
I think everyone would recommend Camp Paterson — the place where we made the best memories of our life, learnt new skills, made new friends and had heaps of fun.