The camps!!! What can I say????
They were just too good. We were happy, excited and what not. We even used to count down for the big event to arrive. Once the day came at last…………………..we just couldn’t believe it. We were off to Ranthambore, leaving our homes and enjoying with our friends; all the while getting to know them better.
Day I
Waking up at 3 a.m. in the morning???? I guess we’re growing up, that is a part of growing, isn’t it???? Assembling near the buses was the time when everything seemed like…..like we’re going forever, and we just didn’t know what to feel. Happy and excited that we’re finally going for camps, or sad that we’re leaving our parents and our homes???? Although it was confusing, but we knew that this time would come, when we would be forgetting our daily habits and feeling different for four days.
We got into the buses and bid our parents goodbye. Ahead of us was a long journey. At least six hours!! We knew that this was all for a good cause. But think of it, SIX HOURS. During the first bus journey we were given chits and that was for forming teams. The teams were Eagles, Leopards, Bears, Hyenas and Tigers. We travelled from bus to train and after that long train journey, back to a bus and finally……………………to the camp site. It was wonderful (although we were very exhausted).
We assembled at the reception of Om Rudra Priya Hotel. We were very anxious and curious about our roommates. Soon, the names were given out. Most of us were happy with our roommates, but the ones who weren’t comfortable, soon got to know them better. This was the case with me too. I got to know my roommate better and soon all of us were best friends. So this way, the camps helped us get to know each other better and making new friends.
Later, we moved to our rooms and rested because we were very exhausted. It was fun exploring our room. But next it was time for a photography session. We learned some photography techniques.
It was now evening. We assembled in the garden and played tug of war. It was a tournament between the teams. After the first half, we had a cultural session where there was Rajasthani music in the garden and a girl danced to it.
After the cultural session, we had our dinner in the hotel restaurant. After eating, we were found in our rooms, ready to go to sleep.
The camps were a way for us to learn new photography skills and to respect nature. It was fun as well as a new learning for us as we explored the wildlife at Ranthambore. It was all worth it.
Day 2
The next day we went for a fort visit. We woke up in the morning at 5:30 and ate our quick morning snack and went to the fort. It was located on the top of 2 hills. There were about 200 hundred steps in the whole fort! We came to know much about the history of the fort and how it was named. This was also our first ride into the canters. The jungle was so green. We spotted beautiful birds and deer. Unfortunately we didn’t spot any tigers, though we got to know about warning calls and friendships between deer and monkeys because of tigers. Afterwards we had breakfast and photography session before lunch. After lunch we went for our first safari, we didn’t spot any tigers but saw mongoose, birds, lmonkeys, deer and that’s about it. That day we had a tug of war tournament between all five groups.
Day 3
As usual, we were given the wakeup call at 5:30 am and we got ready to have the snacks at the swimming pool area.
Then we came back to the hotel. The semifinals of India and Australia were going on. All the girls got into Ms. Reena’s room and watched it; the boys were in two rooms. Unfortunately it was time for lunch and then the safari. The safaris were one of the best parts of the camp. Although none of us saw any tigers, the safaris were the best way to try our skills in photography and learn about the wild.
Yes, and though we didn’t actually see the tigers in the wilds of Ranthambore, we saw many of them in a beautiful movie on Ranthambore – The ‘ Tiger’s Revenge’.
Then we also had a quiz based on the things we learnt during the trip. The Leopards won.
After the long safari, we came back to the hotel, had our snack and continued the tug of war tournament. The Leopards won, that, too.
It was now time for dinner. We had dinner and went to our rooms to pack our bags for leaving the next day. Then we went to sleep.
Day 4
We woke up at 6:30 this time and had our snacks. This was our last trip from the hotel. It was a temple visit. We went in the canters. We even saw two vultures with their chicks up on the cliffs. The Amruteshwar temple built into the same cliffs that are the nesting sites for the vultures. We also learned about ant lions and actually saw how they build traps for ants and catch them there! Our guide was very knowledgeable – he talked about the trees and about birds and also about the animal footprints.
The canters took us back to the hotel. We had our breakfast and were ready to leave. It was sad but again, happy too. We were leaving this wonderful place but meeting our parents and going home.
It was an equally long journey as it was while going to Ranthambore. But we took back a lot of memories. It was a wonderful experience. Ankit Sir and Bharat Sir really made the trip a great learning experience for us. In fact, on the train journey back, they reviewed our photographs. We’ve sent our best five photographs each for the competition they are holding for us! The results will soon be out! We’re all keeping our fingers crossed!!!
Grade 7 Camps to Nanital by Udit Methi Gr 7
This year, Form 7 went to Nanital for camps. Our camps were from 24th March to 27th March. We needed to reach our school by 4 in the morning. We left the school by 4:30. We reached the train station and had a very comfortable train ride. After a while, we reached our campsite by 1:30 and had lunch. Then, we went for a small trek and came back. After the trek, we had our snacks and got ready for the bonfire. At the bonfire, we shared some stories and sang songs.
The next day we woke up at 6:00am and freshened up. We went to the breakfast area to drink tea. We went to exercise after that. Then, we went back to our cottages and changed to get ready for rock climbing. We climbed two cliffs and they were pretty big. Most of the people completed the rock climbing, but some of us couldn’t. When we finished climbing the cliffs, it was lunch time. So we went back to the campsite and had our lunch. After rock climbing, we went for caving. We went in 4 caves which was one of the best experiences of the camp. After caving, we came back had our snacks. Today, again the bonfire was set. This time we were sharing ghost stories and only Miss Aprajita scared us.
The next day we went for rappelling. We came down one cliff that day. It took a long time for everybody to do it so we came back for lunch. Then, we went for zip lining and that was really awesome. We went to dance after that. We had a competition between boys and girls and the boys won. We went for dinner and then for the bonfire.
The next day we had our main competition. Guerilla Warfare. It was the competition which was held between the two teams, Red Spartans and Blue Commandos. We needed to balloons and things to make a catapult and tea. We even needed to sit on the balloons we blew so that the team could burst the maximum number of balloons so that they win. Red Spartans made better tea and won in the balloon game and Blue Commandos won the catapult game.
Grade 7 had a wonderful camp and it looks forward for the next one.
Gr 7 Camps - Mrs. Aprajita Ralli Form Tutor Gr 7
After a year’s wait, it was finally time for camps! The most adventurous, thrilling & friendly part of the year. Everyone was super excited and happy working together looking forward to the challenging events ahead. Camps is one time of the year, when everyone unites, and it is also the time of the year when we see our teachers joining us and having fun with us – Ms Aprajita was caving with us and Somo sir had the scariest ghost stories ever.
This year our camps were organized by Rocksport to Nanital. We stayed in a forest area 35 kilometers away from Kathgodam station. Our journey started at 4 am on Tuesday on 24th March when we met at the school. Inspite of the early hours that all of us were wide awake and chattering through our way till the afternoon.
As soon as we reached the camp side we were divided into two groups Spartans and Black Commandos. we were a part of many rock activities such as rappelling, rock-climbing, caving, zip lining and our trek too was pretty tricky too considering that we were trekking on a mountain made up of large rocky boulders. The night trek took our breath away. The night life of the jungle was just awesome, I had never seen so many stars in my life. We even saw a shooting star and we heard the sounds of animals and insects who we knew were very close by.
The most fun activity was saved for the last day – the ‘Survival Race’! This included Gorilla Warfare, the balloon bursting competition, and tea making competition. In the Survival Race both the teams had to be divided in different sub teams - one for the kitchen, one for artillery, one for navigation & the last for bombers. We all thoroughly enjoyed competing with each other and yet having endless laughs together.
Apart from all these activities we played cricket in the free time that we had, and also we shared some of the weirdest and spin tingling ghost stories at night around the daily bon fires.
To conclude I must say that we had the most fantastic and memorable moments of our life, the food was great, the camp we stayed at was epic, the camp instructors were very helpful, kind & had a great sense of humor & we were completely exhausted when our train pulled in at Anand Vihar at around 10 pm on Friday 27th March. I simply can’t wait for next years camps!!!
And somehow, reporting to school before dawn was totally worth it...
Grade 8 camp to Mashobra -Shatakshi Dubey and Varnika Gupta Gr 8
Camps - the best part of every school year for every Pathwayzian.
Like every year, as soon as camps were announced,
everyone was buzzing with excitement. This year Grade 8 went to Mashobra with Rocksport. We had to report to school at 5 AM, much to everyone’s dismay. We had an eleven-hour-journey to the location. When we reached, everyone’s bodies were stiff and aching, yet we were still smiling, mesmerized by the location.
The camp was surrounded by tall green trees and beautiful hills. During the four days, we challenged ourselves and pushed ourselves to our limits. We tried rappelling and zip-lining. We learned survival skills, made our own fire in the wild and made Maggi in the woods. We went for a night trek where we encountered a hyena by chance.
We engaged ourselves in other camp activities during the nights such as bon fire, singing, sharing horror stories and a dance party. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves through all these activities. Throughout the whole experience we learnt a new meaning of adventure, learning and friendship.
