Wednesday August 28th 

On the 28th of August, the class of 2021 left to Kithulgala to bond and to create new memories. We took off at 6 in the morning, all packed and ready to sleep the entire bus ride. We arrived a few hours later with tea and cake waiting for us as we arrived, which we obviously dived into as soon as we could.

The next part of our journey consisted of jumping, sliding, hiking and slipping. All the chatter, the laughter and the memories made all the fear go away and the whole experience so much fun.

Us freezing our butts off, trying to hang onto each other and stay standing in the river whilst waiting for everyone else to jump off the third rock.

Once we had finished our full morning of canyoning, we stopped by the side of a river where we had the most amazing curry, or maybe just because we were so hungry that at this point, anything tasted good. We barely had time to sit down and take off our bright yellow jacket, that we were told to hike back up for 45 minutes to reach the best part of the trip that we were all looking forward too: rafting!

Upon arrival, the rafts were getting ready to fit all of us in, we were explained all the safety instructions and put into groups. My group was the “Antitanics”. First of all, we completely jinxed ourselves… of course we ended up getting stuck on the rocks and took 15 minutes to loosen the bottom of the raft and glide back down the river. It was the most entertaining part of the day and I was so glad to be on this raft with the most hilarious people.

The ANTITANICS!!!!

We ended our day by diving off the rafts and slowly floating back to camp, where we had soup and took river baths. The night passed by so fast, playing cards, drinking hot chocolate, eating popcorn and Borderland’s infamous garlic bread.

Thursday August 29th

We were woken up by the multiple alarms going off in the girls room. It was way too early and none of us wanted to get out of bed. Our first adventure started off in the rain, so our morning stretches got cancelled… this resulted in a yummy breakfast that none of us could complain about. We embarked on a journey to the TOK cave, where we drew maps and had a brief philosophy lesson with Mr. Leigh, that made all of us feel so awake and peaceful at the end of it.

Our cave philosophy lesson.

An amazing panoramic view of us creating our maps that we traced from the start of our journey.

After all of our seeing, thinking and wondering, we were ready to absail! We hiked for what felt like ages and of course had a few injuries on the way… but once we arrived it was all worth it. The view was so beautiful despite the pouring rain which made the adventure even more terrifying. We slid down the water fall one by one, with our wonderful photographer Mr. Lockwood. It was full of excitement, our legs were tense and looking down made my whole body shriver. I am so scared of heights, and this was something that I was really happy to accomplish!

We arrived back at camp, ate so much food, hung out and bonded. That night, it felt like everyone was so happy, we all bonded and everything felt warm and full of love. Even though we were creating new memories, there was obviously work to do as well… we spent the evening coming up with questions for our last task of the trip: the interviews. We split into five groups and spend the rest of the night creating questions before lights out!

Friday August 30th

As soon as we woke up, we were split into our five groups and off we went to our interviews. My group had interviewed a dam worker that told us about the town’s reaction to the creation of the dam and how this affected the population, it was a very positive outcome. We were able to have all our questions answered with the use of our fantastic translators.

Overall, this was an amazing trip with an amazing 2021 bunch. It was a great way to get to know the beautiful island we live on and discover even more adventures this place has to offer!