Monday 

We hopped on the bus at 9:00am, it was a long ride, but we kept ourselves busy by playing Mr Dunn’s game and using the Camp Illawonga booklet. When we got there, we had our fruit then went into our dorms to get changed into our swimmers. After that, we got our life jackets and went down to the river and split into two groups. One did the Illawonga challenge and the other did kayaking. In the camp Illawonga challenge, we had all sorts of puzzles and fun challenges. We also made a ferry and had to pull ourselves across the marina with a rope. Then we went back to the meeting place to have lunch. We swapped over and the people who were kayaking next had the Illawonga challenge. With kayaking, we practiced how to paddle before we got into the kayaks. While we were kayaking, we went into a lagoon where we saw some pelicans. We tried to get as close as we could to them. When we finished our activities, we walked back to the camp, hung our life jackets up and had some free time to get familiar with camp. For dinner, we had spaghetti with garlic bread which was so tasty and delicious. For dessert, we had custard and fruit. After dinner, we went to the gym. The gym was built for the Australian Olympic Gymnastics Team and in the gym, we listened to the instructors while they explained how to use the equipment. We also taught Mr Dunn how to do a cartwheel. We had lots of fun in the gym, but sadly we had to get ready for bed.  

Tuesday 

In the morning, we got up at 6:00 am, got dressed and went to breakfast, for breakfast we had cereal and toast with butter, strawberry jam, or vegemite. After breakfast, we had a chance to go head-to-head with the teachers in basketball, the teachers were winning, but we had to go to our activities. When we got to our activities, we split up into our groups. Our activities include Bugs Life, Aquatics, Cave Tour, and River survival. In River Survival, we needed to construct a raft using pipes, tyres, and ropes. Our challenge was to paddle the raft across the marina. This was a great test of teamwork and there was a mix of successful and unsuccessful teams. For the cave tour, we hopped on a boat and travelled to the cave entrance. We trudged about 200 meters into the cave where we faced challenges such as darkness and confined spaces. For bugs' life, we tried to scoop them up and examine them; we also had a choice to fish in one of the groups, one of the instructors caught a catfish and Miss Moll-Short caught a carp. We also did Aquatics, which includes pedalboats, swimming, and fishing. The day went by fast, and before we knew it, it was dinner where we had sausages and chicken tenders with salad. After that we had dessert which was vanilla ice-cream and chocolate or strawberry sauce and sprinkles. Then we had a quiz night with the instructors joining in. Mr. Dunn was the host. We had teams, and the instructors won, but they did not count so the Girly Pops won the chocolates. After that we got ready for bed. 

 Wednesday 

On day three, one group had Safari Trailer and the other had Pedal Karts, Maze, Archery. On the Safari trip, the instructor told us about the past of the people who lived in the olden day house. They had two primary areas, the house had an area where they slept, and an area was the kitchen was. The house had a long drop out the back (toilet) and a farm where they farmed horses to go to church and sheep used for wool and chickens for eggs and cows for milk. For the pedal cart, maze and archery it was a challenge where you got into groups and scored on each activity and whoever got the highest score won. For the maze, we had to find a bunch of different things in the maze, and we also had to go through the maze as fast as possible. For archery, you had to shoot at a target and try to hit the middle which was quite tricky. For the pedal karts, we had to ride around the course as many times as possible. After that we had to go onto the bus and then we kept ourselves entertained by playing Mr Dunn’s game and using our Camp Illawonga booklet. When we got back, we unpacked our bags and then went under the tree and got icy poles.  

We loved the people who were there, they were always helping us and encouraging us. We all loved the swimming, and the gymnastics gym and all the other activities. It taught us life skills. This is an amazing camp and in future years, I hope others will have the opportunity to come to this extraordinary camp and have as much fun as we did.  

 Written by Ashton, Lucia, Anna and Grace