The start of our DP years took off with a bang right from the very beginning. How you may ask, well it involved a lot of hiking, jumping, sliding, walking, running, singing, dancing, and most importantly a whole lot of laughter. You’re probably thinking “what did the DP 1’s do” well we all went on one of the most exciting trips of our lives.  This trip is most formally known as the DP 1 Orientation trip or as i like to the call it “The trip that brought us together. Now your probably asking yourself “where did they go”, well went to an adventure camp called Borderlands.

Day 1

First of all, we had to wake up bright early to get to school before the bus leaves for Kithulgala. After that we all head towards Kithugala. Before going to camp the students take part in the White Water Rafting which is a popular activity done by the Borderlands group

White Water Rafting

Before the group lest for the rapids we were first to given safety instruction and then thought how to raft. were taught various class such as “Foward, Get Down!” and more, in . After that it’s off to the Rapids!

 

(Will Duncan Photos)

After the group finishes the rafting, the whole class then hikes up towards the lunch spot. During this hike, the students are exposed to the building of the Kithulgala Dam they are also are briefed on how the Dam is negatively affecting the Kithulgala region.

 

 

 

The Hike

Canyoning

After the group finished lunch, we hiked towards the canyoning spot. The canyoning encourages to the students to really breakthrough through their comfort zones due to its thrill-seeking activities that include sliding down rocks and jumping from waterfalls. This is fan favorite amongst the class.

 

 

After the group finished the canyoning, they hiked back down towards the river and then told that we would have to float down the river into the campsite!!

 

 

 

 

Day 2

On the second day of the DP orientation, we started off the day with morning stretches and a river bath to living up and prepare of the bodies for the long hike up to the Balangoda Mans’s cave.

 

 

The Balangoda Man’s Cave

 

We first drove for 20 mins to the starting point of the hike. After that, we unloaded our backpacks and supplies, filled our water bottles and did a head count. After everything had been checked the group headed off towards the cave.

 

 

The group hiked up for about an hour until we reached the Balangoda Man’s Cave. When we reached the cave, we all took part in outdoor Theory of Knowledge activity. This is activity has the class draw maps of the path we took to the cave. This was done to show us how we each have a different notation of the path we took. We also all the similarities and differences between all the maps.

 

After we finished looking at the cave and the Theory of Knowledge class, we head back down for lunch.

 

 

Abesailing

After we finished lunch, we put on our life jackets and helmets and hiked up 2.5km toward the waterfall where we would abesail down. This activity was the most challenging for us as it was completely new and out of our comfort zones, no one in our class had abesailied before so were all scared. However most of pulled through and said that this was the most exciting experience on the trip.

 

 

 

After we finished the abesailing we headed back to camp were we told that we would be put into groups and would be interviewing different people on the third day of the trip. Were told who we were interviewing and were then told to create questions.

 

Day 3

On the final day of our DP Orientation trip, we started them off with morning stretches, a jog, and river bath. After that, the class got into their pre-assigned groups and we headed out for the interviews. The some of the interviewees were a Monk and a ferry driver. The class questions on how the made a living in Kithulgala and how has the damn affected their lives.

 

 

Going Home

After the groups returned back to camp were told to pack up and get ready to leave. During the trip, the whole OSC 2020 class learned something about themselves and broken down their own borders and comfort zone as Borderlands goal intended.

 

 

(OSC Class of 2020)

 

(Photo credits: Mr. Ian Lockwood, Mr. William Duncan)