Class 10 - Camp Koudiyala, Rishikesh-Devprayag Road, Uttarakhand
The wheels of the train squeaked on 6th March 2020 as we sat, sleep creases marring our faces, and began our much awaited journey to Camp Kaudiyala. The bustling carriage was filled with excited chatter and we were full of anticipation.
Upon reaching, our lungs finally breathed the fresh mountain air at the camp site, as we played our usual tent politics and hid our tuck during the inspection. After a delicious dinner and a dodge ball game with our teachers we got our much needed sleep.
Early morning, the next day, after doing the camp power up and having our breakfast, we set off for gruelling trek. We bathed under the pure and icy water of the Mahadevchatti, played some fun games and buried our friends in the sand. The journey is said to matter more than the destination, but we soon realised that this was quite the opposite. By the time we reached back, those 8 km we had trekked felt like 25, our muscles had already begun to collapse. The day was not over just yet, and the rest of the evening was spent doing engaging activities that brought out our competitive side. The intense but comedic teacher v/s student game of volleyball was interrupted by our bedtime, and we crashed into our beds and slept like we had never before.
The following day it literally rained on our parade and dampened our hopes of an exciting day at the beach. We spent sometime playing indoor games, and the sun finally decided to shine on us, and we took off for a day of sandy exhilaration. After a short and sweet trek (that we were extremely thankful for!), we separated into our groups and headed for the activities that our instructors had organised. From building our own raft and riding it, to kayaking and running around in the sand we just could not have had more fun than this. The highlight of this excursion was surely the fun in the freezing waves of the river, and we ensured that out teachers got drenched as well! We went back to camp looking like something the cat dragged in, and freshened up after scrubbing our sandy bodies, to make the most out of our last evening at camp.
The next day had many highlights. Manoeuvring down the lane of teamwork, we used our engineer minds to the highest level, and successfully built a rollercoaster! A bonfire was lit as we sat around, listening to terrifying stories that haunted us all night and witnessing the 'One Man Talent Show'. After an extended lights out we went to sleep with droopy faces, dreading the departure the next day. We could not believe the days of endless conversations over Uno and Bluff games and senseless jokes (and riddles!) evoking soulful laughter from students and teachers alike had all come to an end.
This was truly an extraordinary camp, characterised by zealousness and participation from everyone. We had left with memories and deep bonds with initial strangers, ones we would remember forever. To top it all off, we ended our bus journey with a song mashup of our favourites through the eras. As we reached back home with sad faces, hoarse voices and baked skin, our penultimate camp had surely been made the most out of!
Advaita Sehgal and Siddhant Nagrath 10B