Monday

The drive to Mavora took an estimated total of seven hours, with stops along the way in Clinton, Mandeville, etc. We were kindly granted a tour of the Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre Museum in Mandeville by a friend of Mr Herrera. There we also had our lunch in a grassy field where white seeds could be seen flying above us. From there we continued our journey to Mavora Lakes, getting there a few hours later. We set up by the lake, being allowed to relax until we needed to make dinner later that night. For dinner we had a rice chicken satay and for the vegetarians fritters and rice.

Tuesday

On Tuesday around midday, one of our dearly beloved friends had to depart, knocking the number of students from 18 to 17. With one less student and teacher, we continued the treacherous journey to Carey's Hut. It was a steaming hot day and the track was littered with ankle deep puddles and ankle absorbing mud that looked shallow and stable but, It's a Trap! As we continued on the journey, our huge tramping packs bruised our hips and collar bones. We finally reached the hut. It was small and wooden with three bunks, a fireplace, and a picnic table. We set up our tents and had to boil water from the Alpine streams. In the evening we had a splendid fire in which more water was boiled. And some marshmallows to accompany, although we couldn’t roast them as we didn’t have any good sticks. Most people got harassed by a bee, Arrochar named it “Davy Boy.”

Wednesday

Waking up to billions of bugs. The journey back. Starting out quicker, ending longer. The puddles felt as though they had increased in number and size. Leaving earlier meant it progressively heated up throughout the day. The front of the line had energy stored up, let's just say no one else did. The back would very quickly lose the front, but it was pleasantly quiet. For lunch we stopped at the line of trees. We had some cram (cabin bread) and cheese and it was a nice chill time. We met back up at our original camp site and enjoyed a small portion of the home baking. We were then packed back into the vans to move to the new campsite, we moved a few minutes away. The new campsite didn’t have a view of the lake and there were fly carcasses all over the long drop floor (toilet), but it was a nice campsite. I will add the water that was purified by the fire tasted like ash and Raro was added to mask the taste.

Thursday

For Thursday we went on a day hike without the problem of an overly heavy tramping pack weighing us down. We left at about eight in the morning, having had a hearty meal of porridge for breakfast. The first challenge of the hike was the swinging bridge (one person max). It was high above a rushing stream which reminded a small group of people of the river that barrels went down (from The Hobbit). Though we all got across the rather shaky bridge (that made me question how it was allowed to exist) a few of us walked away with injuries. Through the tramp we jumped over streams (many getting rather wet feet from it!), large puddles of mud and our fallen comrades, the trees. We stopped for lunch at a hut about one hours walk from the start where we found a cute little black dog which reminded few of a greyhound with its particular body shape. For lunch we shared the leftover Crams, cheese slices, hummus and caramelised onion spread. We continued on our tramp, having to trudge through a grassland whose floor was made of ¾ sludge. That wasn't dry! It began to rain rather heavily half way through our walk though we were under the shelter of trees for most of it. Finally we made it back to the start, more injuries being acquired at the swing bridge. For dinner we had the simple meal of Nachos which was good considering how tired we all were. The bugs continued feasting on us for their five day all you can drink buffet.

Friday

We had an early wakeup of 6am and were leaving by seven. For lunch we stopped in Gore, being given $10. We tried to leave the tents out at the park to dry but it began to rain again, preventing this. With our $10 people got a variety of food such as cheese rolls, milkshakes, hot chips and chocolate. Around 11:30 we headed back to school. In Miss Mackay’s van Disney songs were being blasted for around an hour (a majority of people singing to all of them) before we moved to Mamma Mia on Arrochar Voice’s request before we moved back to Disney for the final half an hour. We returned home tired and stinky at around 1:20.

Lord Of The Rings Theories (By Arrochar Voice)

Before going on camp, a few of us did our careful research and discovered that some of the famous Lord of the Rings trilogy, approaching it’s 20th Anniversary this year (2021), was filmed at this beautiful lake campsite. Although we never did quite confirm the exact location of the iconic Breaking of the Fellowship scene, Mavora stunned us with it’s captivating beauty. It enveloped us in such glorious scenery that one could just imagine that they were in the heart of Middle-earth.