By Ramya Bhagirathi S, Poorna Pragna School, 6th Std

My first adventure camp was a memorable one because it was filled with games, treks and of course adventurous. The camp was for 3 days at Bhagavathi Nature Camp in Kudremukh from 10.04.2008 to 14.04.2008 organised by Bakpackers. Bhagavathi Nature Camp has set up so many interesting things.

We left Bangalore around 10.30pm and no one did sleep in the bus. Everyone’s eyes were wide open. Each one were telling his or her story and chattering and laughing. We all slept around 1.30 or 2.00 the next morning. We reached the campsite at 11.30am. The tents were so cool and neat. We freshened up and had our breakfast. At 2.00 we went for a nature trail around the camp site. We were taught about the Leave No Trace (LNT) principle. We saw many insects like Leeches, spiders and tiny crawlies. We waded through a stream which was so clean and pure that the stones and fishes in water were seen. Many of us got leech bites. The forest was so nice and very quite, but we were the noisy ones. We heard many sounds of birds and insects. The water was so cool that while wading through most of us had ourselves were half wet. It was an hours trek.

We were back in the campsite and cleaned ourselves and ate lunch. At 5.00 we did tight rope walking which gave us a lot of fun. It started to drizzle at 6.30, but we still stayed out. Later we were divided into our teams and moved on to different tents. We had fun after dinner and went to bed at 10.00pm.

The next day was so cool that we did climb a hill called kurinjal. We did an African tribal dance named “Jiguja” and did some stretching exercise, had our breakfast and set off for the trek at 9.00 am. Our trek was very long and came back to the camp site at 2.30pm.We walked about 15 kms. We then had our lunch at 3.30 and then rested. AT 5.30 we had a team activity. The activities were to change a nursery rhyme to a film song. The second was a war cry. The third was to make a name for the team.

At 4.00pm we did river crossing which was very fun. We had dinner at 8.00 and played anthakshari. The next day was a sad day as we were leaving. We did some stretching exercise, ‘Jiguja’- the African dance, had breakfast. Then we did Jummaring which was fun. Later we did Ladder climbing. It was also fun. We also learnt about First Aid. After Dinner we went for a moon lit trek where we saw owls and some sounds of different animals and insects.

After Lunch we packed our bags and got ready to leave. We played Tug of War and the result was announced and were issued participation certificate.

We departed from the campsite at 6.00pm and reached Bangalore at 5.00 am. It was a fun filled camp. The food given was very nice. Every participant was given equal importance. I hope many more children come to the camp every year.