LEARNING
THE YEAR 10 RESIDENTIAL VISIT
A CHALLENGING RESIDENTIAL Christina Bickford, Year 10
Y
ear 10 Residential is definitely one to remember. As soon as we arrived at the Golden Gold Resort and Spa located in Khao Yai, the challenging journey commenced as some had to start their 8km trek to the campsite soon after their arrival. Others, including myself, spent the day working in our tribes and coming up with an identity for our group. This consisted of coming up with a chant and using bandanas and face paints. We had to perform our chants to everyone including a panel of judges. The winners of this were the “Bruddas”. We had also spent time planning our route cards which would end up helping us massively when it came to navigating the wilderness in which our walk would take place. The night ended with the movie ‘Jumanji’ and popcorn. The next morning was a challenging one. It started off with a 5.30 am start; as it was my walking day. We ate breakfast and packed our lunch, dinner and breakfast for the rest of the day. We were given a GPS phone and were sent on a minibus for our journey to start. The whole way anticipation started to build as we seemed to be heading into nowhere and eventually, the bus came to a halt. As I picked up my massive, heavy bag it was confirmed we had reached the destination. There were grass fields on either side and nothing else to be found. The journey consisted of a mixture of all types of scenery from walking along main roads, fields, houses, forestry to even a golf course. It was hard to ignore the beauty of it all. I felt quite lucky because the weather was just perfect – not too much sun, no rain and a really nice breeze. Though we didn’t have to tackle the weather, we had to face the navigating part of the walk. We came across several intersections and, with the help of our compass and maps, we headed down the right path. After a staggering six hours, we had finally reached the end of the walk. Everyone was exhausted and couldn’t wait to reach the campsite. Just as we were near the campsite Mr Tennant introduced us to our last challenge of the day: crossing the river using a bamboo bridge. 14
• Bangkok Patana School
