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Patrol Camp was held from the 9th to the 12th of November 2005. I went there a little late, that was on the 10th due to the prefects' painting project and also had to deal with tuition. How I wished I went there on the 9th.. Sighzz.. Well, then again, I think I might not have enjoyed the first day there either. Cuz the committee members wanted to camp at Commonwealth Park but somehow, there were some complications to it. It seemed like the DU scouts were having their USAHA Camp there. And we met them too, in Templers Park. And i was surprised they have several tens of scouts vying for the USAHA badge and my scouts troop just has 2 scouts proudly owning this badge. Sadly... Well then, their agenda states that the activities were supposed to start at abt 10 o'clock on the first day and guess when it commenced? At 6 p.m. after desperately scouring for a new campsite.
When i reached there, all of them looked half dead already. From the looks on their faces, i knew something was amiss. The campsite was at the waterfall abt 2500 metres from the entrance of Templers. I was an invited guest and so, did not have anything much involved with the camp, but it seemed as though I paid for the camp to HELP the committee members instead. Well, I practically enjoyed helping out anyway, so, guys, dun worry about it.
There wasn't much to do. In short, for nearly the entire camp, it was raining and raining and raining, while we seek refuge in a small little hut which was supposed to be the kitchen.Tents got flooded soon after and most of the QM tools got wet and some rusted. It seemed that the drains dug by the participants were not deep enough and hence, could not hold and channel the abundant water from continual downpours. On the second night, everyone was seen shivering, rubbing their hands and huddling around for warmth. Even I could not pull myself together from the cold. I made a small fire at a corner of the hut and soon, that too was "hijacked" by those seniors. What was worse was that we ran out of gas!!! Seniors, supposedly VIPS, had to hike all the way down and up again carrying a 15.8kg gas cylinder, spending about 3 hours with toil and hard work.
On the 11th, we did the following things:-
- river trekking
- chop bamboo
- chop firewood
- build gadget
- splash around at the waterfall
- start fire
- and BBQ night!!
On my second day(third day), me and Julian wanted to hike down and get some tasty nasi lemak for breakfast, but i wonder who stopped us from doing so. Later in the afternoon, Choo Xiang arrived at the campsite while we saw the ex-form 6 scouts take leave. Lazed around at the waterfall, wanted to take pictures, but sky was dark, threatening to rain all the time, making my pictures all blur and shaky due to the low shutter speeds. In the evening, we started our own fire. Choo was just flawless at firelighting, placing his firewood at places where are most advantageous and strategic. I learned by watching him place them. The juniors kind of failed to light theirs and had to fry the chicken instead while we three form three's toasted bread on our crackling fire.
Last day wasnt much, packing up, saying goodbye to the campsite and stuff like that. The committee wanted to have their photo session, but again, it rained, enveloping the environment in bleak darkness. Just too bad, i thought, since i was the only one with a camera there. Had to run the risk of getting it wet. Anyway, the camp was good although not a total success. I thank all the committee members for inviting us three to this camp and we are thankful to be part of it, with all the help, ups and downs and the trouble we all went through together. It's al the past now, so time to pen off. Check out some of the pictures i managed to capture there. Leave a comment if you do not mind.. Bye ppl...
 
PioGadget™Neering™ Masters™
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