On Tuesday, my class went to Camp Toonallook on the Banksia Peninsula. It is the second Outdoor Ed camp that my school provides, and we keep visiting until Year 10. At Toonallook, you go through a range of activities that include kayaking, hand-reel fishing, bike riding, koala spotting and more. Going to Toonallook was a great experience that I will never forget.

On the first day, we got on the bus for the four hour drive to camp. It seemed to go so quickly. When we arrived, we dropped off our bags and went for a walk around camp to get to know our surroundings. Then, tent groups were called out. Then we put our bags in our tents, and were taught how to play King Ball. King Ball is a game similar to four-square, as in there are four spaces, but a little bit different.

King Ball requires a larger area to play in. At Toonallook, we use four underground water tanks’ surfaces for the squares. There also has to be empty space between the squares. In King Ball, the king – number one – serves. He or she always has to serve friendlily, otherwise it counts as one of the king’s two faults. In King Ball, if the ball is in your space, it has only three bounces, and then it has to come out of your square. If it hits empty space, or stops in your square, then you are out and someone from the bench comes in. This continues and can be stopped at any moment, as there are no boundaries to the end of this game. It was really fun to play at camp.

The best activities at camp were kayaking, and taking the boat to Raymond Island where we did koala spotting and fishing. When we were kayaking, my friend and I were in a kayak together, and we were so slow. At the end of the activity, we had a race. Guess who came last. Yes, you guessed it. Me. Everyone else had finished and we were only halfway, so everyone came to pull us. For some reason, I leaned over the edge of the boat and I tipped over our boat. Well, I fell out, but because we only half-capsized, and my friend didn’t lean over the edge, she didn’t get too wet.

The most challenging time at camp, was the night time. I was a little homesick at night because there wasn’t anything to distract me. On the last two nights, I woke up and I felt homesick, but I just went to the toilet and came back to bed. The night was a really hard time at Toonallook. I used the PLAs of courage and resilience to overcome my homesickness.

On the afternoon of the second day, we packed up and walked to our camping spot for Expo. Expo is an activity started this year where we go camping for one night. We set up our tents, and had dinner around the campfire. Then, we played Empires. Empires is a game where everyone tells someone who is not playing a random name. You can say any name as long as it is a character. So you could pick Hermione Granger as your name, but you couldn’t pick 2hjks9. We played for a really long time, and then we went to bed.

On the third day we went to Raymond Island, a place near Paynesville. To get to Raymond Island, you can either take a boat, or a bus. The first group took the boat to Paynesville to do some fishing off the pier. No one caught anything. The other group would take the bus to Paynesville, and then take a small ferry to Raymond Island for koala spotting. Then the two groups would swap. I was in group one, and I loved going on the boat to Paynesville. At first, it was moving really slowly. Our driver said that it was only going a five knots, but then we started moving really fast. At first, I thought it was scary, but when it ended, I didn’t want to get off!

After we’d done the activities, we went back to our expo site to pack up to go back to camp. Everyone was super tired. When we got back, it was time for dinner, and then we went to bed.

The next day, we woke up early to see the sunrise. It was beautiful. We watched it rise slowly above the horizon, and it was magical the way that it filled the camp with golden light. It was breathtaking. We all then packed our bags had breakfast, and then we had a last bit of free time before we got on the bus to Melbourne.

This camp was an amazing experience. There were so many great moments that made Toonallook so special. I loved waking up to see the sunrise, falling out of my kayak, going to Raymond Island and all the other activities in between. Going to Toonallook was incredible.

What is your favourite activity to do at camp?