We started at Mayfair Park, located in a ulu corner of Singapore near Rifle Range Road, so zj was very happy. After some quick distribution of stuff, the j1s arrived and we had inspection! Jon Ed accidentally fell, but luckily it wasn't too major and he could continue with the camp. Inspection was not harsh, especially for Sup with his super super small bag (i bet his bag could fit into my bag haha)
Next, off to MacRitchie for Jungle Navigation! A long journey up Rifle Range Road, then we split into our patrols to go our separate ways. My patrol was Sup, Jack, Zi Heng, Zhong Jun and me. For the first checkpoint, we ended up pretty lost. Luckily, second checkpoint onwards we took dead reckoning dead seriously. 2nd checkpoint piece of cake (:
But journey to third checkpoint was the most stupid and most fun. To get to the next checkpoint, we just decided to go and bash through the whole forest, Rambo-style aka blind reckoning! woohoo. I held the compass and led the way through the trees... trying to keep at 22 degrees bearing haha. Even when the forest became thicker and more sloped (even up to 70 degrees!) we just man on, and eventually found the checkpoint. Chee Yeow was like -.-" yes, eventually we found out we could have taken the boardwalk, but would it be as fun? no no no. Jungle Navi, real man style (:
Last 2 checkpoints were much easier, and we found them quickly, meeting up with the other two patrols. Sadly they had not experienced the forest like we had haha. Anyway, next was to thomson forest for Survival Night!
Survival Night was dam fun. We went into groups of 2 or 3 and went to build our own shelter and cook our own dinner. I went with Jack, which was great! Brought to our campsites by the VTLs, and the first thing we saw was this fallen bamboo tree and a bamboo stump. haha PUR-FECT! debris shelter woohoo. Found more sticks and twigs for the skeleton, and then started weaving with long leaves. A bit time-consuming, so in the end we just improvised and piled up lots of big leaves strategically over the shelter.
By then it was a little dark, so we started with dinner. Ok, it was very dark. The sun went down in 15 minutes. Sad... we didnt manage to get a good fire going, and when the 1 solitary solid fuel went out we couldnt get a fire going at all, even with Jack's persistent trying. In the end called for help and it arrived in the form of Chee Yeow and more solid fuel. Dinner was egg and mushroom soup, with a bit of fish (burnt skin, slightly cooked meat).
Soon it was 10pm, and we were tired, stinking of fish and dirty. But we couldnt sleep yet, since there was sentry duty until 2am for us. So Jack and I just sat down back to back and talk and talk and talk about random stuff like school and friends. quite nice. it lasted for about an hour, then we had the smart idea to lie down in our shelter to do sentry. Almost fell asleep immediately, especially Jack haha. So we half sleep half talk until about 12.30, then we cannot tahan anymore, and went to sleep. XD
Day 2
Next morning, we packed up and went out of the forest. Turned out the other groups had some nice experiences too. Francis and Kenneth's group managed to cook all their food using their fire, Hiok's group were kept up by ants all night (lol), and another patrol almost experienced dumbcane. it causes itchiness. After breakfast we walked to Yio Chu Kang MRT and took a ride all the way to Tampinese MRT. i bet we stank up the whole carriage haha.
At MRT, we began our next activity, which was a roughly 8 km run from Tampines MRT to Changi Village. Mr. Chan took our bags for us, and we just started jogging. Not many of us had run this far at one go before (my second time haha) and some foam a bit, like soham. but later on, after a pit stop at the petrol station (加油!) he sped up to the front. Loyang Ave was long and hot but thanks to a kind guy tending to the Adidas Sundown booth we got free H20 to drink! thanks! arrived in Changi Point for a nice proper lunch with cooked instant noodles and nata de coco (strawberry, pandan and grape!)
From Changi Point we took a jetty to PU (pulau ubin) along with a lot of firewood. What for? For a massive beach cookout! Started a hugh fire, wrapped chicken, fish, potato, veg, egg, mushroom in aluminium foil, put in trays and put them in the fire. While waiting, jack, leonard, anurak and i went and dug out a beach shelter. Sadly, high tide was very high, so we couldn't use it :( slept in bashirs instead. Speaking of high tide, the rest were furiously digging trenches to protect the food from the sea. In the end the food turned out great! Again, one of the best meals i've eaten in camp. Not counting the egg, which got washed salty. Bleah.
We built our bashirs, again in the Survival Night groups. Because the ground was so hard, many of us resorted to using rocks to anchor our bashirs. For ours, we used my groundsheet as the top, so it was foaming big, and a little flappy, but otherwise not bad.
Mr. Chan and Zhi arrived, and Mr. Chan, showing his amazing skills, whipped out a delicious Korean Noodle + Curry Chicken dish and a Onion Omelette. imba sia. Zhi just came for the free food XD
When it got slightly darker, we started another fire with the remaining firewood and had a campfire, complete with marshmellows. it finished pretty quickly, but we just lazed around the fire and talked cock.
Random phrases:
"I lost the game!" "Me too!"
"Go Thailand, eat Tom yam, play WoW, then eat Tom Yam!"
"Eat KFC! When you bored then you eat Carl's Junior!"
"Hiok pangseh!"
"So fat!"
"The campfire sparks are like sperms!"
Ok the last one is quite random.
At about 10, we went to sleep. Again, sentry. We took turns doing sentry, and my sleeping time went like this: sleep 1.5 hour, sentry 1.5 hour, sleep 3 hour, sentry 1.5 hour, sleep 1.5 hour. The first time was stoning to Zi Heng's phone music, second time was watching Superhero Movie on Hiok's phone. lol not bad.
Yay! No night call. After that was just breakfast aka finishing whatever food we had left. Hiok took out his emergency rations and ate his 'sneaky' bar. Lol.
Coming to the end of the camp, we gathered together and reflected on ourselves, our batch. 01-06 is a great batch. Going in circles, we took turns to comment on the good and bad parts of other people. For myself, I got comments such as "easy to make friends", "reliable", "soft approach", which I guess i am happy for. its nice to hear people who you trust affirm you. Scouts really has changed me, from a very quiet boy in Sec 1 to a less quiet boy in Sec 4. lol.
After that, the VTLs and zhi came in and talked about the difficulties in their own batch, their own scouting life and their decision to join GC. It was interesting, but got a little long.
Finally, we got to the final activity of the camp. Blindfolding ourselves with the shirt, we stood facing the sea and thought about a dream, a fear and a change we would like to have. not just superficial ones like GPA and stuff. The three I thought of were real and important to me, and while talking to Yan Wei about them, I think deserves more thought than I have given it so far. And then, we shouted out a promise to our batch. I won't write any of the stuff I thought about here, but if you want to know, you can always ask me, and maybe i'll tell you (:
After that, a long bus trip to RI, lunch at food junction, before finally heading home.
And its fitting, as we finished our lunch and set off home, that Venture Camp, more than just a three day two night camp, was a camp that focused not on physical development, but on us, on us as a batch. 01-06. And on the first day of June, 01-06, we left with a promise of bonds of friendship that would last forever.
I would like to thank everyone, Mr Chan, the VTLs zx and chee yeow, haoqin and yan wei, yanzhi, and of course, the venture unit, the batch of 01-06, especially Jack for making this camp so memorable.
Why is scouts so fun? It's not about the pioneering, not about the orienteering, not about the first aid and all the other skills. I don't really especially like doing any of them. However, what I think makes scouts, especially 01 scouts so special amongst all the other CCAs, is the people inside, the people who are there to share the good times, to weather the bad times and to lend a listening ear and supportive hand when needed. To be with this great group of people, I am proud to wear the scout uniform and raise my fingers up in the scout sign, and feel the sense of satisfaction when we have succeeded as one.
