IB Orientation trip to Borderlands- Day 1

On August 27th, our class left to the Borderlands River Camp in Kithulgalla where we were to stay for two nights. However, we did not get there only on our buses. We used a much more unorthodox method:

Left: Sid  Center: Shwetank  Right: Me!
(Photo credits: Mr. Lockwood)

After we reached the Kithulgalla River we got off our buses and went down to the river (after we had a few refreshments). In the river, five rafts we waiting for us along with the Camp leader- Wade and four other guides. I was able to undertake a new challenge here since I have never been rafting before. We got in to the rafts, I was in Wade's Raft along with Ms Snyder and four other people. We were given instructions on how to hold and use the paddle and then we were off! 2 hours of rafting, passing through around 6 rapids; these are places in the river where there are many rocks and the water is very shallow, due to this the current is very strong here and will literally make your raft bounce up and down this area. Half way to the camp, we stopped and had our lunch on top of some very slippery rocks under a bridge (those sandwiches were amazing by the way!). When we finally reached our camp we dried off  and were given books where we had to write our reflections of the day. These reflections helped me increase my awareness of my strengths and areas for growth and hopefully apply these to the days to come.

The picture on the left shows us before we embarked on this journey where Yohan (a camp guide) was giving us instructions on rafting. We also did some trust activities and got used to the cold water in to which we may have fallen in while we were rafting.

What I learned that day and what I took from it:

• On that day, I learned that team work was essential in order to achieve the task of rafting to camp and also in our survival had anything gone wrong. I was able to work collaboratively with others to get that raft to the finish line. 
• You must always be careful, but you should never pass on anything just because there is a chance of injury. If you use your mind correctly you will be able to overcome it and still have a lot of fun.