Going into only the second week of my arrival at OSC, this was definitely one of the most unique experiences I’ve had in relation to any school activity. Having done something similar previously on a personal trip, I was certain that the experience that would be underwhelming, considering my last experience was not too good. However, this trip proved to exceed my expectations.
Day 1: It was an early morning start as we embarked on the adventure at 6:30, separated on buses by homeroom. It took roughly 3 hours to arrive at our destinantion. Following the descent off the bus, we went straight to the Marvel Canyon and began traversing through the river. The canyoning experience was actually quite challenging and required us to work together as a unit to complete obstacles. It certainly required physical, muscular and respiratory endurance to go through river, in addition to good luck (to avoid the nasty leeches). After this, we hopped back on the bus and travelled to the kayaking zone. This was the most underwhelming experience of the trip because there were no challenging channels we had to go through, it was all quite moderate and easy kayaking. Then, we went back to the borderlands base, ate dinner, reflected and prepared for the next day.
Day 2: This was the day of the big jump, an event that i was mostly excited for. We suited up and left for the second canyoning site. The initial hike was quite challenging as it had rained the previous night and the trail was very slippery. However, we made it to a large boulder and began our descent into the river. The most challenging part of this trip was gathering the courage to jump off a 10 meter cliff. However with a little bit motivation from peers, I agreed to jump off of the cliff. The feeling after was that of great joy and pride for being able to complete the obstacle and jumping the 10-meter cliff. Following this, we went back to the base and had a campfire to celebrate the eventful trip. We also celebrated our peer Yethmins birthday.
Day 3: On the final day, the hottest day of the trip, we had a long and tedious hike up to a cave, where Dr Leigh demonstrated a TOK presentation involving the puppets we had made the previous night. Unfortunately, Sandeep broke his foot and had to leave early. Never the less, I had gained valuable knowledge about the importance of perspectives and subjective reality from the demonstration of Platos cave.
Overall, it was a very unique, eventful and a great bonding and collaborative experience.