We are just back from our third summer camp and everybody is already looking forward to the next one… because this weekend couldn’t have been better! We had everything: a huge water slide, a crazy rehearsal, a dirty gymkhana, a hike in the Blue Mountains, a delicious fideuà … and even unexpected “betrayals” from our teammates! And, above all, we had LOTS OF FUN!
On Friday evening, little by little, people arrived at Newhaven Parkhouse, in Bathurst (yep, this time we went to the outback!). After a (very) late BBQ dinner, some castellers went to bed, whereas those who were still not that tired played some team bonding games.
In the morning, after a solid breakfast with bacon and eggs, cereals and toast with Nutella (and strong coffee for the owls!), we had a “crazy rehearsal”. It included pom de dalt races, the musical chairs (human tower version, of course!) and even a pillar of 3 with a folre almost exclusively made of our brave kids! Since it was very hot, after the rehearsal the bravest ones jumped in the swimming pool, while the rest relaxed in the terrace. By then, the kiss killer was already full on and our “cemetery” was growing bigger and bigger with the graves of the castellers who had been killed with a kiss.
At lunch time we had the already traditional (and delicious) fideuà with home-made allioli (Pau, you know how to make allioli!).
After a break to digest such an amazing meal, the organisers explained that we were in 1871, taking part in the gold rush that changed the life of everyone living in Bathurst. We were representing the different nationalities who came to mine the gold that had just been discovered. For the rest of the day, our colla was split in 6 teams (Chinese, Aboriginal, British, Spanish, German and Italian) and fought to control the gold. We started with a “wet and dirty” gymkhana, were each team was competing with another team to win games that included either water or paints. Everybody had a blast playing the “hot potato” and the “trunks”, running an obstacle race with a very long water slide and being very creative in our “belly Pictionary” game. At the end of the gymkhana, we counted the points and everybody was astonished to see that a 7th wagon was also participating in the race… and on top of it, it was winning!
But the secret team was not revealed until the night game (“Tails, Flags and Queens”) was over. To everyone’s surprise, there was a mole in each of the 6 teams, whose aim was to make sure that their team lost in every game of the gymkhana! And trust us, they tried really hard: they dropped balloons full of water, they took their time to record a live video of the obstacle race, they were inexplicably clumsy, they drew pretty abstract pieces of art in their teammates’ bellies, they gave surreal answers to very simple questions and they even stole points from their own team… Thumbs up to the moles!!! As one of the organisers, my most sincere congratulations to you: you made our day much more fun!
On Sunday, after cleaning the house and saying goodbye to those who had to leave earlier, we headed to the Blue Mountains, to the Pulpit Rock lookout. It was a very easy walk, but the views from the lookout were impressive and definitely worth every single step that we had to climb up afterwards! It took us a while to get the right picture at the lookout, so by the time we reached Wentworth Falls picnic area, we were all starving. After the BBQ, the tricky-tracka song was the perfect farewell for an amazing weekend together.
Thank you very much to all castellers (and future castellers!) who came to the summer camp… and to the organisers who made it possible!!
