Year 4 The Great Aussie Bush Camp Recount by Gabe Lee

Monday 11th May 2015

I remember waking up on my blue and red bed, then I went downstairs surprised to look outside the windows and see it was dark outside. I was the only person awake in our house because I did not want to miss the bus for camp. It was different driving to school at an earlier time than usual. When we got there, there were no parking spaces and when dad found one near the high school it was twenty minutes to walk to school.

In the front of Wyvern there were two buses and each one looked like it was the size of three cars together. On the bus it was noisy, I couldn’t even hear myself thinking. Most boys were chatting to each other while I read my book for a while. I must have woken up really early because I fell asleep on the bus.  Then when I woke up again we were in Kincumber. I saw a sign for The Great Aussie Bush Camp and when we got there it took the bus driver 10 tries to get into the driveway.

Kincumber was a lot calmer and quieter. I could hear the gum tree leaves rustling which was very soothing. At the camp they use logs as chairs and a fire as a heater.  Some of the activities were canoeing, pioneering, dodgeball, rock climbing, giant swing, mud run, high ropes, bush craft and archery. My favourite was the giant swing because it was the only activity that pushed me out of my comfort zone. The reason why they do canoeing in a dam is because they used to do it where the beach was but the instructor and Ann told a boy not to capsize and the boy did and he got carried away by a bull shark. So now they do it in the dam where there are no sharks and and we played games in the canoes which was fun.

Mum does not know but I did not shower for the whole time I was at camp or brush my teeth either.

Photo captions from L to R: Dinner on the first night and this is where the bull shark was

Tuesday 12th May 2015

I actually had a good sleep on the first night even though I am not used to having such little light in the room and ten other people snoring like a chorus. It was ten times louder than a mammoth put together. The first activity was high ropes.To move around in high ropes we had two carbinas and if one fell off, the other one would lock. This is a safety thing. Instead of getting on a flying fox we had to attach to a flying fox and hold on to the top of it. Up next was the mud run. I was planning not to do the mud run but then when I saw that Lewis was doing it I decided I was going to do it as well. When I plunged into the mud it was freezing! There was a part in the course where we had to all get down and wait for 20 seconds, if felt like we were in the war crouching down in the trenches. Next was rock climbing and we were responsible for our partner who was climbing as we had to heave him up, there was a group of six boys and five of them heaved the climber up the wall. I trusted my group of five boys even though I was nervous. My hands were still shaking after I came down. In bush craft we were given dough to put on the end of a stick and then put if over the fire. We could tell when it was ready because it was a golden rich colour. We pulled the stick out from the damper and we put maple syrup in the hole where the stick was. It tasted like pancakes but even better. One of my favourite things about camp was the county fair. County fair was basically like a shop where our group had face painting and we had certain money to spend but I didn’t get to spend any money because I had to run the business the whole time while everyone else spent their money. Other shops were a bakery which sold buns and fairy bread, a goal where you could get someone arrested and a bush camp FM where you could request a song or you could get your nails painted, I really didn’t sleep well on the second night as there was a scary story after county fair and my eyes were like spotlights looking for the ghost all night.

  
Photo captions from L to R: Camp Fire, Lewis and myself at the camp fire

Wednesday 13th May 2015

On the last day of camp we had two activities. The first one was the giant swing and my favourite of the camp. It was different from last years camp because there was three people and a bar which you held on to. Even though it keeps you safe, it gives you a huge wedgie and takes a long time to go away. I think if you are older it doesn’t hurt as much as for kids. Mr Cross went on the giant swing and he loved it. It was really hard to pull up the teachers when they went on the giant swing, My last activity for Year 4 camp was pioneering. We did this on the oval and we had six poles and we had to make a triangle and a cross in the middle that held somebody whilst they picked balls off the ground. Whoever had the most balls at the end won. 

After that we got our bags and bot on the bus. I sat up the front with Lewis and had a great view. I guess the activities were really tiring as I fell asleep on the bus home. When I saw mum, my heart went crazy. I was so happy to see her again. I loved camp!

Photo captions from L to R: Camp fire in the morning and upturned tree roots

Year 4 The Great Aussie Bush Camp Recount by James Lydon

As our sturdy bus nipped through the isolated bus lane I imagined what camp would be like after having a conversation about it with Matt Potter. Seb shouted, “Go faster!” to the bus driver as the other bus strayed out into the lane in front of us. After a tedious journey we pulled up at The Great Aussie Bush Camp. It was a struggle to get into, such a vast bus fitting up the skinny driveway but we managed! Everyone’s head blurred for a moment until Seb shouted that we won the bet with the other bus and we started singing We Are The Champions.

The mood was buzzing as a busload of optimistic boys sat peacefully chatting around the charred ashes of what appeared to be the last bush fire. Then our instructor Rachel went through the cabins, in mine I had ten others including Max Franco, Matt Potter, Johnno T., Issac Z., Jett L., and Ryan L.. Our first activity was rock climbing. I was hopeful about this, as scary as it was, and was happy with my result. Next we had lunch. I remember pioneering, making damper, which was fun then shower hour and free time. After that we had dinner then went onto the oval to have a game night, then supper and bed.

In the morning we had free time and then the ‘Mud Run’ activity, up to our necks in icy water, slopping through the mud like pigs and staying in the water on your knees in Antarctic conditions. We had to have showers as our faces and clothes and hair were caked with mud. An expressionless tawny shirt turned as black as the ace of spades. We had an hour of games to warm up after that.

We finally had my favourite, the high-ropes, a course with a variety of different activities including a barrel, a wooden plank and a huge flying fox. After that we had shower hour, dinner, free time and then one of the best nights of my life, the Country Fair. We all got stalls and about $800 and we painted nails, drank milkshakes and played sock wrestling on a mat without shoes, the aim being trying to get your opponent on the floor. In the morning we had clean up time, we had to bring our backpacks and roller bags up into a room to be put on the bus. Our second last activity was bush craft when we made a shelter like the ones semi-nomads would build. Finally came the time for our last activity. After being strapped into harnesses, swinging, turning around in the motion of a sheer drop, now was time to say goodbye. As we boarded the bus I realized why the camp had great in its name, because it was.