Daily Journal

The first three days of camp we were set to sleep in tents, this annoyed most of us because we were camping out on the Wambana campus and the Wardli were about 100 metres away. But it was okay, because we were doing the cycle tour at this time, and it was better returning to the same place every night, rather than packing everything up every day and setting it up again that night...

I shared a tent with Turns (Jams Turner) and Corz (Corey DeCandia), it was great fun for most of the time, but after three days of solid riding and not having access to a warm shower that we wanted to use, it started to smell a bit, especially Turns. But having three people in our group was a massive advantage, because we got a massive tent and could fit all our bags and everything inside, while everyone else has smaller tents and couldn't fit everything inside. We also had two trangia's to cook on, while everyone else had one, and besides the cleaning, this was a massive advantage for us. We also all had a goal to get very fit and much stronger by the end of camp, so we started by pushing eachother, both on the bik ride and our daily push ups and sit ups before bed, so it was a good combination between us three, besides the fact that no one wanted to clean anything.

By this time of the extended stay program it still felt like a normall camp of 3 or 4 days. But when we throught about it, we had about 3 more weeks, and we were already physically and mentally tired, but still couldn't wait for the rest of the camp.

Overall, the time in the tent was good but not great. We worked well together, but did have the ocassional mishaps. It was awesome fun at times, but we all just couldn't wait to get into a Wardli and have a shower and have a better sleep. But it was still a good experience and good fun.

Saturday 2nd May 2009

Today we moved into our Wardli's. It was great to know that we wouldn't have to cook on trangia's any more, or have to sleep on mats that are approximately half a centimetre thick. Also knowing that I wouldn't have to sleep almost on top of other boys and I would get to sleep in a bed of my own. Overall, I was quite excited about moving into my Wardli, especially because I had a good Wardli group.

The transition was quite annoying, because we had to get everything out of our other tents, and our other bags, and convert them into the room we were staying in. Therefore, we had to take everything out of our tents, including the dirt, and pack them away, as well as cleaning our trangia's, as well as moving in, and as well as getting the Wardli's all organised, hence we had a busy day.

We also learnt about free time and how that works, as well as learning about chill out time and learning where our spots were for this. But after this it was about 6:00 and we were to start cooking dinner. This was when we met our two nannys who help us out when we were cooking dinner.

Overall, I was stoked to have moved from the tents into our Wardli's and be able to live in a house.

Monday 5th May 2009

We have recently moved into the Wardli’s and are starting to realise the stress of living together, and getting along as ‘one big happy family’. We have three bedrooms in the Wardli, and 6 people, hence there are 2 people sharing a room: Gavin and Campbell, Callum and Ned, and Logan and myself. These are all functioning bedrooms except for Callum and Ned, who have a bit of a conflict and had been paired up due to there being no one else left.

It has been an interesting transition time for our Wardli, with the shopping, the cleaning and generally helping each other wherever possible. With not everyone willing to do the hard work to keep the Wardli clean and not everyone getting on, at sometimes we have been in complete havoc. But for most of the time we have gotten along well, and made a joke out of most of the situations. After the scare of nearly getting kicked out on the first night, we have learned to function well and keep the house in supreme running order.

Tuesday 6th May 2009

The extended stay program has been an extremely enjoyable experience for me to this point, and I hope that it continues that way for the remainder of the stay. Despite the amount of fun I am having over the camp, I still look at how many days I have been here and how many days I have left, and I am flabbergasted. I realise that we have so much time left, and that I still won’t get to see my parents for a few weeks yet, and if it was any other camp it would probably be finished by now.

I am missing my family and everyone back home, but I definitely wouldn’t give up this camp just to go back. I love the co-curriculum activities we are experiencing that we wouldn’t get a chance to do back in normal school life, as well as the fitness program and the chance to build yourself up physically.

Thursday 8th May 2009

We have been living in our Wardli’s for longer now, and after improving as a Wardli, we have once again fallen back down into a small hole. We have started to fight and argue on a regular basis, but still manage to get everything done. We still haven’t got around to sitting around together and having a Wardli meeting and sorting everything out between each other. Also, by this time we are meant to of had at least one meeting, and yet we are probably the most disfunctioning Wardli, and we still haven’t had a meeting.

Although we haven’t functioned so well together, we have still been at least passing the inspections every day, until our latest scare. With us starting to relax and thinking we wouldn’t get kicked out and we were doing fine, we got taken 7.5 points away from us, leaving 2.5 points left. On this same inspection Wardli 5 got kicked out, so we weren’t the only Wardli that began to relax, but I’m sure that they were more functioning than us at the time. This was leading to another Wardli meeting really soon…

Saturday 10th May 2009

Today we met James Ellis and learnt about the Hooded Plover for the first time. We learnt about how the Hooded Plover is seriously vulnerable and needs to be looked after. We met him at Ethel Beach after he had been surfing and we set off to West Bay beach to look and record information about the Hooded Plover.

For the rest of the day we went to Dolphin Bay to write a poem. It was the most beautiful beach in the world, even despite the cold weather it still invited for a nice, warm swim. It had some greatly shaped rocks, with the great surrounding of the scrub. It was a beautiful place, the greatest beach I have ever been to and I would love to visit it again.

Tuesday 12th May 2009

Today we had to be at the shed at 6:30 instead of 7:00, because of the NAPLAN tests that we had early in the morning. We got up, and arrived at the shed with everyone half asleep and yawning but still ready to go and have a power training.

When we arrived at Flaherty's Beach we immediately got into some hard training, as we had limited time today than usual. We didn't spend long at the beach, but the time we were there we definitely worked hard. Having to do rapid sprints, turns and push ups, it wasn't easy.

When we arrived back we had to get ready to meet at the classroom quicker than usual, for the tests, and we all had to have a shower before we came.

Soon after we arrived at the classroom ready to take our NAPLAN compulsory tests. Dale read out the details and we started, with everyone trying to perform at their best, despite the lack of classroom conditions and how sleep thirsty we were. I tried my best but regrettably afterwards I thought I could have done better.

Wednesday 13th May 2009

Today I woke up early, as I was leader and went around to every Wardli and woke everyone up and told them to get ready for our run. It was a 3.4 km, but it was significant because it was the last run before the 11 kilometre. As I was leader, I decided to run with my room mate Logan. He is not as good of a runner as myself, so I helped him out, and I really admired him this morning. He had never ran the whole 3.4 kilometres going into the run, but with me in his ear telling him to run the whole way without stopping to improve his time, he ran the whole way, not stopping once, pushing through all the pain that confronted him, and bettered his time by over a minute. I was very proud of Logan this morning, and I know he will continue to better his time now that he knows he can run through the pain.

After that we headed off the the classroom to participate in another NAPLAN test. I thought I did better this time :).

Thursday 14th May 2009

Once again we had to wake up at 6:30 this morning, because we had some more NAPLAN tests early on in the day. We were set to play another game, and I was determined to play footy for as change, but as we woke up so early the sun was not yet out and we were forced to either have a casual strol along the beach, or do some push-ups or sit-ups on a mat, I was deeply dissapointed.

After this, we participated in the two NAPLAN mathematics papers. For me, this was quite easy, and I hope that I only got minimal questions wrong.

Today we once again had Sea Kayaking, and I noticed over the last two days of Sea Kayaking, I have worn my skins and my thermal, and have realised how much they have helped me to stay warm, and keep my body right before the 11 kilometre run. Which brings me to the subject of the 11 kilometre run. It is tomorrow! And I am trying to repare myself for what seems like a marathon run for everyone. Trying to get my body and mind ready for tomorrow. Until then, I wait...

Friday 15th May 2009

We all woke up, with the dredding thought of running 11 kilometres in our mind. We all had to be phisically prepared -- which we had been preparing for over the last 3 weeks -- and mentally prepared, which became totally up to our mental toughness.

We jumped on the bus all a bit nervous, but I couldn't wait for it to start. The way I saw it, the quicker we started, the quicker it finished... So from the start I was ready to go. 56 Minutes later, I had finally finished, but I decided to walk back amoung the people yet to finish and will them on, make them determined to finish as quick as they could. After jogging back 2 kilometres I ran with Rafae, pushing him to the finish, where he didn't walk the whole sand trail. Everyone was so proud of him.

Later on in the day, I prepared to go to the parent weekend, when Turns and Zee, anounced that they were staying at the Marion Bay Motel with me, I was over happy. Because I got to share the motel with two of my closest mates. Also, when we were having dinner at the Marion Bay Tavern, about 5 other boys from the class showed up and we had a great time.