Hike, 12th August 2017

Written by: Bryan Low, Assistant Sixer & Scribe

Today, we came to school for scouts at 6 a.m. The reason why we had come so early is because today, we were going to have a hike. As I sat down at the front of my Six (since we had no Sixer yet), I could feel the excitement of the other scouts building in the air. I too was very excited. After most of the scouts had come, we stood up for the Senior Sixer, Trisha, to take the attendance. We were instructed that when our name was called, we were to say “here” and then sit down. When we had finished taking attendance, we waited for the few people who came late. Next, we took a head count. It started with a scout saying one, then two, then three, and so on.

After we were done with the head count, we were told to take out our bottles, drink a sip of water, then either go to the toilet, refill your water bottle, of both. Then, we were ready to board the buses.

Six by Six, we slowly started boarding the buses, the Sixes with girls went to the small bus, and the Sixes with boys went to the big bus. In the boys bus, I sat with my friend and buckled my seatbelt, then, I was ready to go. We took a thirty minute or so ride, and then we were ready to start our hike.

We started our pretty smoothly. During the hike, I saw many trees and other plants along the path that we hiked along. The terrain was either very rocky, sandy, or muddy. There were also many leaves that lay on our path too. Sometimes, we were able to see holes in the mud filled with water, I warned my Six about it, and advised them not to step in it. Coming down from the trees too, were lots of vines, thick ones, thin ones, long ones, short ones… Sometimes, we would also see corners or the sides of bricks sticking out from the mud. Halfway through the hike, we spotted a shallow stream running along horizontally. I also warned my Six not to step in it or else their socks and shoes would definitely get wet. Luckily for us, there were a couple of rocks sticking out from the ground above the water, so we were able to cross the stream without getting our shoes wet. Finally, we were able to reach the ranger station for our first rest. At the ranger station, we were able to see some monkeys darting from tree to tree. After a rest, we set of again to continue our journey.

After walking up a really steep slope, we were finally at the treetop walk. We were told to go Six by Six onto the metal suspension bridge. When it was our turn to go on the bridge, we took a photo, then started onto the metal bridge. We were only able to enjoy the scenery for a while before getting interrupted by the Sixes in front. Apparently, there was a monkey spotted walking along the bar on the right. After it passed a scout named Jonathan, it started jumping from bar to bar, later on, I heard that it had actually hopped onto Jonathan’s bag. When the monkey reached me, I quickly went pass it so as to avoid agitating it.

After we had come of the bridge, waiting for us was flights and flights of stairs to be climbed. We continued to hike on after crossing the suspension bridge and eventually went back to the ranger station to have another rest. Then, we continued on our great hike. Eventually, after walking for quite a distance, we were finally at our rest and snack point…Venus Road. After having our snack, we cleaned up the area, then went onto the buses, and headed back to school.

In school, we had a short conversation about the hike, and then we went on our journey back home, with the memories of our fun hike etched in our mind.