Camp is often where some of the most treasured school memories are made. For our Year 5 students, three days at Yanchep National Park brought new experiences, growing independence, plenty of laughter and memories to last a lifetime.

To capture the adventure, we asked the girls to reflect on their camp experience. Their diary entries, shared below in their own words, tell the story far better than we ever could.

Avery

I went on camp with all of the Year 5s and the teachers. It was from Wednesday to Friday! I was really excited, but a bit nervous too.

I arrived at school early on Wednesday with everything packed and ready to go. We put all our bags into the bottom of the bus and said goodbye to our parents. After that, we took a big group photo and got on the bus. I sat next to Chloe, and she sang 300 Bottles of Beer on the Wall for almost the whole way!

I didn’t really have anything to do, so I just stared out the window until we got there.

Vera

We played games and then, after lunch, it was finally time to go to our cabins! I was in Cabin 7 with Odetta, Allegra and Esther. Odetta and I both wanted the top bunk, but we worked it out. I would sleep on the top the first night, and Odetta would have it the second night.

We had some free time before dinner to get settled in. We unpacked and spent time with the girls in the other cabins. For dinner, we went to Yanchep Inn. We had shepherd’s pie and it was so good that I had three serves! For dessert we had Eton mess with different toppings. It was really good. It was soft and spongey. Sort of like soap. (I hope it wasn’t soap.)

After dinner, we split into our groups. We were supposed to go stargazing, but it was too cloudy. Instead, we visited the koalas. Then we remembered they were nocturnal! The koalas were awake, and their eyes were like jewels.

Phoebe

The first night it was hard for me to get to sleep because everyone was talking and I was worrying so much, but I eventually fell asleep.

The next morning, I saw a gigantic spider. It was disgusting!

After breakfast, we headed to our cultural session. To get there, we got to walk through the koala area. They were super cute, even though they were mostly just furry blobs.

The person running the cultural session was really funny, so he kept us entertained. I learned a lot about banksias and grass trees that I didn’t know before.

When it was over, I was sad, but we got to walk through the koalas again, which was great.

Chloe

On the second night we had burgers and chips for dinner. I only ate the meat patty and chips because I don’t like the rest of the bits.

For dessert we had apple crumble, with a brownie or jelly as an extra. I chose the brownie.

Then we had the talent show!

I hula-hooped with three hoops at the same time. I also did tricks with two hoops and one hoop.

Avery and Odetta won Perth College’s Got Talent with a banana skit.

Amelia

On the third day we learned about Australia and water pollution.

Then we did the Treetops ropes course and zipline, which was so much fun.

There were five courses we could do: one green, two blue, one red and one black. You had to complete one of the blue courses before you could do the red course. We weren’t allowed on the black course because you had to be 13 or older.

I completed one blue course and did the red course twice. Treetops was very fun.

Georgie

Once everyone had finished lunch, we headed over to the grass for one last photo. Some of us gave speeches and thanked the camp instructors.

After we put our bags on the bus, we found our seats and headed back to Perth College. It was a shorter ride than the trip there, or at least it felt shorter!

When we got back to Perth College, most of our parents were there waiting for us. We collected our bags, said goodbye to our teachers and headed home for a good night’s sleep.