Sec 3 Camp 2008

AAaaaaah, it's the "holidays".



In inverted commas simply because there's so much to be done.. but at least it's not super fast-paced action like during term time. So no matter what, still thankful for the space and time to breathe and sorta recuperate from being on my toes all the time.







Sec 3 Camp



Started my term break with sec3 Adventure Camp at Taman Negara, which I consider as my June holiday trip, coz I'm not really sure if I'll be able to get away on my own holiday this June since the sec4s are taking their 2nd prelim in the 4th week. Friends and colleagues keep nagging at me when I say that coz they feel that I should go on a REAL break, like my own relaxing holiday elsewhere before Term 3 of school descends upon me...........well, I'll see how la.







Well, back to Sec 3 camp.



So this year I'm finally NOT doing the combination of Cycling-Trekking anymore. YAY!



Haha...been doing that combination for 2 years running...so was really glad when I was finally assigned to this year's combi of Caving-Trekking. Also was glad that the group had a large portion of students from my class, so was pretty fun doing the activities with them.











This year the camp started off on an "exciting" note! Haha...after the whole cohort had lunch together, we split up to our respective buses to move towards our respective campsites. Then lo and behold, one of the buses broke down on a FLYOVER. What better place to break down right.



So the poor busload of people had to split into 2 other buses, to later changeover back to another bus that would be sent to pick them up.

Counting to make sure that no sheep was lost during the changing of buses.. :)

After an almost full day of travelling, we FINALLY reached our campsite (that's after 2 failed attempts at finding our cave site :P).

Thought it was a pretty interesting site to camp in, and a well-sheltered one too. At least if it rained, there's still a shelter over our headds, so no chance of our tents flooding out ;) But due to space constraints, the tents were almost like side-by-side to each other.

Our first meal 'outdoors'. I always marvel at the fact that our campers get to eat catered food during their ADVENTURE camp outdoors..haha..what a luxury....

Our first night's activities saw us walking through the forest (on a proper road, not on soil and mud..haha...another luxury :P). What caught my attention immediately was the stars that I saw in the sky...it's been such a long time since I saw so many stars twinkling above me coz Singapore's too light-saturated/polluted/cloudy? It was such an beautiful sight...and I felt transported back to the time when I was in pri/secondary school...where such a sight could be seen by just peering out of my window on the 9th floor. And for the first time in my life, I also saw fireflies! Wooohoo...I'd always wanted to see them....very interesting little creatures. They just give out light in rhythm...'on-off-on-off-on-off...'..

The night's activities ended off with a night exploration of a cave, and then it's back to our tents for our powder bath and sleep. :)

Next morning after wash-up, some of my class boys offered to help me dismantle my tent. Always nice to have boys take the initiative to offer help with stuff without having to be asked. Thanks guys, really appreciate it :)

And these are my class boys...before we started doing our morning warm-ups in preparation for the day's activities : Caving, Climbing, Abseiling

Heh...just a funny pic I took...coz the car's number plate has the word CAR on it!! Hahah..as if afraid that people will mistake it for a trishaw :P

This the entrance to our cave...this little hole that requires us to manouvre on all fours....hehe...so fun... :)

As can be seen..the cave is actually pretty dark...if we had no torches..we'd be walking blindly and falling into cracks and holes...

After climbing up and down and jumping up and down... walking left and right and all...we reached this big open space in the cave which had an opening where trees were growing....very nice.. =)

My kids and me.. :)

From all the horror stories that we heard from previous caving groups...I was all geared up and prepared for truckloads of bat shit and pee raining down on me while caving.. But seems like this time round, the guides took us to a different cave from the previous years. One which required us to do much more body contortions in order to get through the cave, rather than just brave through lotsa bat shit and pee. Which I feel actually is so much more meaningful. And thus, this is the only bat that we saw in a cave.... a baby one, on the floor..which was fluttering a little helplessly...

An addition to this year's Caving activities was the natural rock climbing. Ever did natural rock climbing at Krabi before, and really enjoyed it. So was quite looking forward to the climbing...

Conquered my route in....mmm...8min + according to my kids who were TIMING me...haha..siao ding dong...
And this is a pic of our climbing instructors doing a lead climb up the wall to set up one of the routes. Quite amazed at how they do it actually...What do you think this little creature is?

. .

. . .

Monkey?

. . .

. . .

It's a baby squirrel!!

It apprarently fell down from its nest which was near one of our climbing routes...so pooooor thiiiiiiiiiiing........... :(

So after lunch we went for abseiling....one of the slowest moving activities coz there was only ONE abseiling line, and about 25 of us waiting.

I think my group had an afinity with squirrels or something...after our instructor gave us a briefing.....a squirrel fell down from a tree that was just about a metre and a half away from us. *SPLAT* on the forest ground..........struggled a little................and then died, with its eyes wide open :( Very sad...haiz...but I guess we have to accept the fact that accidents do happen...and that in the wild, this may just be a common occurence.

And this is one of my boys abseiling out of a hole in the cave...cool right??

Heh...too bad I didn't get a chance to coz there were simply too many people waiting and too little time... and since I'd already had quite a few abseiling opportunities before...I thought I'd just leave the chance to the boys.

At taman negara the next day, my 3rd time trekking. Quite enjoy it actually...and this is me along the bridge at the tree-top walk =)

Seems we have quite a few who have height phobia this year...but glad that most of them made it through the walk :)
And this is my attempt at being artistic...haha...
And this is my group and I along with S at the peak of our trekking route. I know I know, the picture is a little dark and I should photoshop it. Aiyah...lazy la.... :P

The name of our hill, Bukit Terisek. :)
One of the higlights of being at Taman Negara...the travelling about by the boats! :)

So the day at Taman Negara passed real quickly...and before we left the place to meet up with the rest of the camp, I spotted this beautiful cat sleeping on one of the tables....

It's like the SLEEPIEST CAT I've ever seen on planet earth. No matter how I tried to wake it by touching its ears repeatedly, it didn't even twitch. Haha...

For those of us who were or have ever been to Sec 3 camp...the WAIT for the trainride home must have been a deeply etched memory. Haha...all the boys and bags lined the waiting area..making us effectively look like refugees.. This year, we waited all the way from 12.45am till 3.30am for the train to arrive!!! Goodness me. Thankfully there was this small little coffee shop at the entrance to the station, where a lot of us sat to have a hot cup of drink in the cold cold morning while waiting for the train to arrive.

All in all, still an enjoyable trip, and a great start to my June break :)

Now it's back to my 20 000 stacks of TYS that I need to mark to return to my sec4s!