Magazine 2020

137 2020 | Edition No. 23 | GRADE 12 ORANGERIVER OnTuesday afternoon, a group of nervous and excited grade 12s set off for a long bus drive to Namibia. It took a while to find a comfortable position to sleep in on a somewhat cold bus, but eventually it was possible for most campers to get a few hours of sleep. Day 1 started off well and each rowing partnership soon got into a river rowing rhythm. Quite a number of adventur- ous campers enjoyed the cliff jumping and were also happy to cheer on those who lingered somewhat longer before taking the plunge. The afternoon was less pleasant when a headwind challenged even the strongest of rowers, but our first river - side campsite was luckily just around the corner - although it seemed very far away at the time. Luckily the delicious evening potjie made the day’s trials fade away and everyone fell asleep early that evening. Day 2 and 3 were a breeze and even though there were some rapids to navigate, it was much easier than the headwind of the first day. Only one of our rowers managed to fall out during a rapid, leaving his partner to float backwards down the river - but all in good safe fun. The nappy run on day 2 also provided much entertainment. The showers back at the Bundi River Camp was a happy site after three days on the river and yet it was sad to leave the seren- ity of the river behind. This is what our happy campers have to say: “Camp was amazing. Orange River was one of my favourite camps I’ve been on and I created so many memories with eve- ryone who attended. It was amazing to be able to take in the beautiful scenery, soak up the warm Namibian sun and have fun going down the rapids and rowing every day. My favourite part was most definitely the nappy run where we had to put a life jacket over our legs and float down the rapid like that.” - Courtney vanWyk “I really enjoyed our matric camp. It was so nice to spend valuable time with our grade before we fully invest ourselves in our final year of school. I think we came home with only posi - tives about the camp: jumping off rocks into the water, doing a nappy run down the rapids, sleeping under the stars, having lunch on the river bank and so many more. The memories we made on camp will stick with us for many years to come, it was a lovely start to our last year of school.” - Liezl Myburgh Grade Heads: Elmarie Randewijk and Frederick Bredell