Solo

Solo camp…solo camp..solo camp…

Those words repeatedly rang in our heads like a broken record. Some were anticipating it while others weren’t. I was one of those who wanted to go for solo camp really badly.

Solo camp is an activity in Outward Bound School which involves one person, one camp, one whole day (24hours). No communicating with other campers, break that rule and you can ensure that your tent will be taken down by the instructor and you have to pitch it again.

15 of us in our watch (group/team) set out to the hill near Teluk Batik early that morning and after some talking and briefing, each of us was assigned a spot and was left there alone.

I for one, had everything planned out for the day. First, pitch tent. Second, make lunch. Third, sleep. Fourth, when hungry make dinner. Then rest and sleep some more. Simple, ain’t it?

Solo camp was a welcome sight for me, having been through 13 tiring days, solo camp was an activity for both the participants and the instructors to rest. Reason is, the instructors just have to assigned us a spot, leave us there, tell us what time the next day to go down to the foot of the hill. Easy right? Nothing else to be done for that whole day. I loved solo camp.

So there I was, minding my own business, pitching my own tent. I was almost done with it but before I could peg the last few corners down, it started to rain. OMG my stuff got wet and also my fire starter. Joy.

But never mind, I manage to get everything done before it really poured and settled in. then after that it stopped raining. Man I was so pissed. But heck, since it stopped raining, I can sleep in peace and sleep in peace I did not get! Those cicadas are so freaking noisy!!! I was practically talking to myself ‘can you guys like please shut up for ten minutes?’ of course, that never worked.

We never stuck to the rule of not communicating with each other. It rained that night and after it stopped, my friends from higher up the hill came down and we sort of gathered at a cliff, talking or more like whispering because we didn’t want to get caught by the instructors this late at night.

It was fun.

Then, a few years later when I returned to OBS as a CA, I asked my instructor about that night and he said he totally knew that we were talking up the hill but didn’t chop down our tents.