shhs magazine - South Hampstead High School

SHHS Interiors:Layout 1 19/06/2011 11:34 Page 45...even moretripsView from the top of the mountain in PaklenciaCroatia World ChallengeIn the summer of 2010, sixteen South Hampsteadgirls set off for Croatia. After spending a year raisingthe one thousand pounds necessary to go on thetrip, we were all very excited.When we arrived in Croatia we went to thefirst camp by the sea. It was beautiful.The next day, we went sea kayaking. We paddledfor two hours, but when we stopped for lunch,we realised that we had only travelled for about100 metres!For the next couple of days we went to ournext camp, and then hiked up to the mountain hutin Paklencia National Park. It was one of the mostdifficult things any of us had ever done. After that,we hiked up to the peak of the mountain, and backdown to the bottom. At the bottom, we went tothe kayaking camp. We spent the night there, and itwas incredible. From there we kayaked down theriver. We encountered many rapids and two waterfalls.One of the waterfalls was two metres high!Half of us kayaked down the waterfall, and theother half jumped.We then stayed the night at the waterfallcamp. For the remainder of the evening we jumpedoff the waterfall and Miss Stockdale demonstratedher diving abilities by flipping off it.On the last day, we kayaked to the lastcamp, and spent the night there after a brilliantmeal of pizza.The World Challenge expedition was anincredible experience, and one that none of theteam will forget. It taught us about teamwork, andbrought us closer together. We would definitely recommendit to anyone.Olivia H, Year 10Skern LodgeOn a bright and crisp morning in October, Year 7set off to Skern Lodge in North Devon. We hadbeen anticipating it for a long while and as we wereon the coach the anticipation became more andmore prominent. Finally, after several hours ofexcitement punctuated by toilet stops, we hadarrived. We were greeted by the instructors whotold us about the place and our groups and schedulefor the next few days.Soon afterwards we were whisked to ouractivities: my first activity was rafting in the ice coldlake. We got suited up, dragged the raft out andhopped in. After paddling until we were in the middleof the lake we were instructed to stop. Wewere expected to jump in: some were braveenough to jump themselves but some had to bepushed! After our escapade we warmed up andwent to dinner and the food was quite good. Wethen wrapped up as warm as we could and set offfor the night walk on the beach and in the sur-2009-2011 School Magazine 45