So this post would mainly be about what I did in OBS.. I feel very lucky to be able to attend this camp and complete it...( I will try to remember as much as I could....)
DAY ONE!
We arrived at Punggol Jetty and stayed there for about 2 hours before leaving... Actually I at first thought I cannot attend the camp because of some admin stuffs... But in the end still cleared... Wheew... So up the boat we go and went to OBS Main Camp at Pulau Ubin. Put down our bags and started to play ice-breaker games... Our instructor was Naf. She is a great instructor and our group only has 1 instructor unlike some others who had 2 or 3... I was in the same group as Martin, Carmen and Jin Ting.. How coincicident can it get... Then the other group members are, Jason, Kun Leng, Jing Quan, Ravi, Huzee, Zi Yu, Wan Xin, Michelle, Rachel, Sofea, Chloe and Suzie. So after lunch we had belaying... Then as I put on the harness... I realised my one had to be very tight... Then my belaying group consisted of Jason, Kun Leng and Ravi. They keep pulling very tight, then I could feel the thing crushing against the area... So we skip till the night time... We pitched our tents inside the forest about 5+ - 6+. My tent mates were Martin, Zi Yu and Ravi. We cooked dinner under the light around the Main Camp. We had rice, soup, beans, sausages and ikan billis for dinner. Then my tent mates and I slept in a spoilt tent, the mosquito net couldn't be zipped, then as it was quite hot... We kept on opening and closing the tent zip... I remember I got so hot that I placed my foot outside the tent only to wake up finding it itchy and full of bites. Haiz....
DAY TWO!
So I woke up early to mosquito bites on my feet and a cold morning. And it was 95% darkness. Martin helped to shine the torchlights on the tents so it could facilitate Zi Yu, Ravi and I to unpitch and pack the tents. So after that, we called Naf out of her tent and we went out of the forest and back to the store. After washing up, we went to have our breakfast first then we had this session called morning circle, its when the group members sit down together in a circle and reflect and pen down their thoughts inside the OBS Journal. After that, we went to the Indiana ship to do this activity, walking on planks on the top of the ship!! OMG... Its not easy, the first thing to overcome was the ladder which was tiring to move up... I was on the first ladder and I was close to reacher the platform, but I couldn't hold on anymore, then I asked to go down, but Naf kept encouraging me to continue, but my hands couldn't even hang on anymore though my mind kept trying to push forward, in the end I went down. I was quite disappointed with myself for failing this activity. My group members cheered me up and Naf talked to me about it and I felt better. Martin went up higher than me, but didn't want to climb out the platform, he came down later. After lunch, we were supposed to kayak to our next campsite. As we transported our bags, Jason's bag was missing. We went to search high and low for it... Before finding it with another group who denied holding on to our bag... Pfft... Then we had a quick lesson with Naf on kayaking. As it was my first time... My partner was Wan Xing... As soon as we sat on the boat and headed out the shallow waters to do the capsize drill... I capsized myself even before we headed that far... LOLs... Then we had a 2nd try then we passed... Poor Wan Xing had to suffer with me... Then came the actual thing... Me and Wan Xing managed to did fine for the whole thing and we landed safely at Camp 2... We moved all the kayaks and peddles into place then we went to take our heavy backpacks... And we moved to the holding area... Some of us went to pitch the tent at the flat plains... Woohs... No roots or stones... Pure flat land with grasses... After pitching tents, we had dinner... This time we had noodles and Martin and I kept dropping out noodles on to the floor. After that we went to take a shower... Then I realise I forgot to bring extra interiors... I was thinking... OMG... Same interiors for 3 days... But gotta live with that... Then after that, went to sleep...
DAY THREE!
Today was great, we were the fastest watch today and the first watch to reach the assembly area!! (Grats Nehru!) Then we had PT... It was basically Ice and Water just that you can't unfreeze the person... Around 3 rounds of this round the secured perimeter of the helicopter pad was enough to sweat alot... We then did this very special way of push-up... I cause Martin, Kelvin and Ryan not able to get up... (Sorry Guys!!) Then we went to the sheltered area. We had to do this skipping rope activity as one group... During practice... We only managed to did once but during the actual thing, we managed to do 4 and get 3rd!! WOOHS!! (Grats again to Nehru!!) I got bluffed by Martin to be OIC for the day... Then we packed up everything... Elected 4 Navigation ICs and left as the last watch for the Land Expedition... I was carrying a heavy backpack and a heavy tent... Then my legs started to felt pain, then I knew abrasion was coming... Some details I don't want to focus on... Then we trek for a very long time and made it to 2 of the 4 place attractions that we supposedly chose to go for... In any case, we reached Camp 3 a little bit late but still had strong sunlight... We splitted again into Cooking group and Pitching group... When everything was done... It was just in time for dinner... We had rice but there was sand in it... But I still ate it anyways... Me and Martin took some of Kelvin's noodle to eat as he had one big pot of it and he didn't mind us enjoying his labour... We did washing up and got ready for the Sea Expedition briefing... After the briefing, there was sentry(I don't know how to spell)duty for all 4 watches... Then it was kinda tiring and it was dark but still bright due to the moonlight... We went back to tent to sleep after calling the other Watch group to wake up...
DAY FOUR!
Woke up very very very early due to last minute changes... We were set to leave by 6+... So we were woked up around 4+... I was very tired... I shall fast forward a little... Day break, then we had this Sea rescue lesson should any of the kayaks capsizes during the Sea expedition. My abrasion was very painful due to the seawater which was helping to kill the germs... But we then later started the expedition... At first, it was very messy as they were trying to set up the formation... In the end, we just kayaked... Around an hour into the expedition(which is around 9+), we had our first capsize... Haha... It was Kelvin's kayak... He capsized while trying to catch Ryan's orange... Then after awhile, we all gathered together... Then Naf made a announcement about this girl named Huiling who has a back injury and was looking for volunteer to switch kayaks with her... Wan Xing, being her 'husband' and best friend of her, raised her hand, I then followed suit... Wan Xing was my front peddler and I was the back peddler... So to swop... I had to become the back peddler of Huiling while she became my front and Wan Xing was the back peddler and Xue Ling, Huiling's partner, became the front peddler... After that... We continued to peddle... So I kept trying to chat with Huiling and made sure she was okay with the back... Then I heard Ryan being called Ferrari... Haha... Then I decided to go and chase up with him... It wasn't easy to keep up with his pace in the first few hours... It was only during the later hours... That I was able to overtake him at times and stick with him... During the last few KMs... It was super tough for a beginner like me... The wind was against us, the waves and currents against us... Not an easy job... Then when we left we a few metres... I decided to chiong... Then I got ahead of everyone... Then Naf reminded me that I gotta wait for everyone then can continue to move on... Then I was like... Arghh... After that... The ramp for the kayaks to land couldn't have too many kayaks at one time... So we had to hold on to the Intructor's boat and help on to one another to make sure that we do not get swept away by the waves... Finale, we reached land... And I couldn't feel my legs... As the expedition lasted for 8 HOURS!!! OMG... My first kayaking experience was 8 hours... Every part of my body was aching... But it was still a fun experience... To reward us... Our instructors allowed us to do the jetty jump... Though it wasn't very high... It was still another fun experience... I jumped into the sea... Sinked for awhile... Before helping myself get up to surface as the life jacket took sometime to help me get back to surface... We then went to wash the kayaks and peddles before heading back to store to bath then we head to the canteen to have our dinner... Got 2 chicken wings on my plate thanks to the Uncle... Haha... But didn't have much appetite after finishing the chicken wings... That night, we again had to seperate ourselves into 2 groups, but this time... Its slightly different, Packing and Pitching... So Huzee, Jin Ting, Carmen and I went to pitch the tents while the rest went to packed the store... We took about 45 - 50mins to finish pitching all 4 tents... Went to the medical centre to put some cream on my abrasion and my sunburn... Then we headed back to the tents to sleep...
FINAL DAY!!
Today was the day we didn't manage to meet up on time... In the end... We had no PT but instead breakfast straightaway... After breakfast... We went to wash things that needed to be washed and did some stock check before the intructor came to check... After everything... We lost a compass, pegs bag, tent bag, broom and mop... Supposedly, we had to pay around 30 - 40+ dollars... In the end Suzie found the tent bag and the pegs bag... In the end... We paid 80cents each... Haha... We had our Priza Presentation in our own watches before heading for the briefing at the MPH... Then it was home sweet home...
I would say that OBS is really tough but being able to complete it is one of my own personal achievement... And last but not least... I wanna thank my Watchmates in Nehru and the instructors, especially Naf... And I LOVE OBS[ =) ]!!! And I'm starting to miss it...[ =( ]!!!
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