Class 4 - Camp at Rajaji National Park, Chilla

When I came home from adventure camp my parents kept asking me to tell them how everything had gone. I had already lost my voice. So I told them nothing exciting had happened. But that wasn’t true.

The truth is that we saw ‘ animals’! They were very different from city animals. We saw a leopard, a mongoose and wild hens. We even saw spotted deer, sambhar deer, common deer, ten or twenty bandars and wild elephants.

 A wild elephant came after our jeep! But we were not scared. We saw langoors sitting like humans on trees. We even saw fish in small streams. We made a small stone dam in a creek. The first activity we did was ‘Mission Impossible’. The instructor hung us on our stomachs and we had to pick up all the mines on the ground, and I was one of the few who picked up all the mines. The second activity was ‘Zip Line’ and I was the one of the fastest zip liner. The third activity was ‘Rappeling’. In that we had to go down to about 20 feet. One day we walked to a village where we met the villagers and they told us how to make atta. They grow wheat in the village and then use a chakki.

On our way back from the adventure  my friends and I made doggerels on each other.

One thing I was not happy with was the food. I liked the bon fire and we did fun things like telling stories, jokes and singing songs. That is why I lost my voice. The thing that fascinated me the most is that we slept in tents. The tents were all named after birds. My tent’s name was Oriental White Eye. I did not count but I think there were more than 13 tents. When I came home I did not speak for a day. When I was well rested I asked my father why he had put a hanky in each pant of mine when he packed my backpack for the adventure. But my father did not answer my question! I am still waiting for an answer.
Adi Singh Vohra IV- C

I had butterflies in my stomach the morning I woke up at the crack of dawn to reach school at 5:30am. We were going to Rajaji National Park.

We reached the sanctuary at lunch and it was a beautiful site with mountains and greenery. After lunch we sat in the reception. Two lucky tents were without teachers and ours was one of them.

After all of us had settled down, we went for a walk on a pebbled path and saw Langur’s and Kites. In the evening, we prepared a skit and performed it around a bonfire under the clear, star-studded sky. Then, we ate dinner and went back to our tents and jumped so hard on the bed that it broke!

The next morning, we ate breakfast and got ready. We were then divided into three groups. Group 1 went for Mission Impossible, Group 2 went for Rappelling and Group 3 went Zip lining. I loved Rappelling and it was exciting to be hanging from the edge from a mountain and as for  ‘mission impossible’ it was easily mission possible for me!

Later in the afternoon, we went for a safari in an open gypsy. We saw lots of elephants sun-bathing, deer and birds. In the evening, we ate dinner and watched the nail biting match between India and Australia, which India won.

On day three, we ate breakfast and went for a long trek that took us to a small stream. We dipped our feet in the ice-cold water. After lunch we went to a village where the villagers were friendly to us. We saw their homes, fields and animals. In the evening we performed our hilarious skits in front of everyone.  On day four, we woke up and were sad to be leaving the camp but were excited to meet our parents. We ate our breakfast and boarded gypsies that took us to the buses. We finally reached school at 5:30 in the evening. We were exhausted but happy to be home. It was a wonderful, memorable trip!

Anya Malhotra IV- B