Duke of Ed

Top left: Konnie coming out of the smoke. I love this photo!

Top right:Konnie, Caitlin, Mel, Tessa and me

Bottom left: Caitlin and me rapping to "Hiphoppotomous vs Rhymnoserous"

Bottom right:Me Bee and Konnie roughing it and getting water from the river and cleaning.

On Monday, me and a group of amazing yr 10s from East tramped off into the middle of nowhere. On Tuesday, we came back again. So what did we get out of it? Wet tents, sore backs, shoulders, necks and legs, a sleepless night, photos, scars and scratches, and some fantastic memories.

The first day, we tramped for hours, from 10 til 4, up a steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep hill, about 85 degrees, I swear, and them we, well not really tramped, but bumbled and fell our way back down the other side, all with heavy packs on our back, Ella weighed hers, and they were 10kgs. On that day, some boys from snots porridge (scots college) were also there for a day trip. They walked up behind us with their packless backs, and started running as they passed us, and kept going until they thought they were out of our eyesight. Day-amn! I said that, just as on of them stopped by us. Crack-up. Then, because those poor tired boys had to have a long lunch break, we were ahead of them, and the next time they passed us, we clapped and cheered them on saying things like "Good work, Theodore, keep it up Oswald, dig it in Clarence." Good times.

Anyway, once we'd left them to be picked up by their private helicopters or whatever snots use, we kept tramping down through a river until we came to the campsite, which wasn't really a campsite at all, just a place with a couple of trees less than its surroundings. There, we set up our tents, and the real fun began. Me, Caitlin, Nicole and Konnie filmed a mock survivor, there was lots of singing and dancing and posing for cameras and mucking around. Some of the others did a crack-up ambush; they smeared mud over their faces, stuck leaves and branches in their hair etc, and ran through us making freaky tarzan noises, and performed an East Duke of Ed version of "In the Jungle" with harmonies and everything. We built campfires and cooked our food and millions of marshmellows on them, using river water, our only source of water, to do so. We were really roughing it, there weren't even toilets, so we had to go in the bushes, and bury our toilet paper and ... yeah, you know what I mean. After it grew too dark to be outside, we, about ten of us, squished into a tent and told scary stories, alothough it was more funny than scary. That was real fun. Finally, the teachers came and kicked us out, making us go back to our own tent and to bed. But of course we didn't go to sleep, we stayed up talking and joking, but they were the kind of things that are funny at the time, but you don't get it unless you were there. Finally, we went to sleep, after it started to rain... uh-oh. In the crazy hours of the morning, me and Caitlin woke to hear a voice saying "Is there any room in your tent? Min'es flooded out." Gutted for Abby and Ella. Of course, there wasn't any room in our tent, but we squeezed up and Abby came in with us. Lucky her.

The next morning, we packed up and left, carrying on down the river until we came to a waterfall which we climbed up next to. It wasn't a proper track, it seemed to be a psycho guys path, but it was really cool and fun, even if it was so steep you were going backwards and the packs made it interesting. Then we continued tramping and reached the carpark early, about 1.15 for the bus to pick us up and take us home.

It was so much fun, more than I can give it justice in a blog, but I've done my best. good times.

bayla

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