Outward Bound Taiwan

When Ms. Jenny announced the news that we were able to go to Outward Bound, I immediately got very excited. At first, the camping trip was planned for after we would leave Taiwan, but the camp was booked full, so the only open time was the end of January when I could go too! Yay! Unfortunately for Poppy, only 11 year olds and up could attend.

I packed up all my belongings into a big backpack for a week long trip. When the day finally came, I was late to get to the MRT to meet our bus for camp. The MRT train arrived just as we got to the station, so we had to sprint down the escalator. My backpack was so heavy that it pulled my weight backwards, and I fell and got stuck lying on my back like a turtle in its shell! Poppy and Dad stared at me and laughed but asked if I was ok.

Camp involved hiking, high ropes course, fishing, making fires, cooking all our own meals, and facing our fears for 5 days straight. Plus a gourmet meal due to our camp counselor getting tired of eating the same dishes cooked by 12 year olds for the past 13 years!

My favorite part by far was the high ropes. During the high ropes part of the camping trip, we started off with low exercises and throughout the week we worked our way up to some of the highest in Asia!

Now I will walk you through a couple of my favorite courses that we did for high ropes.

First, we started with the nine meter log where 2 of us would climb up and walk across it with nothing to hold onto and meet at the middle. The tricky part was when we had to cross each other, we had to go around one another without falling. After we finished, I had thought that it was hard, but not that challenging.

We did another course called 2 ship, where you had to cross over your partner, except this time you got a rope to hold onto, and you were on a wire instead of giant wood log, and you were 13 meters high in the air (42 feet)! This one I thought was really fun, but my partner, Gabe, thought it was kind of scary especially given the fact that the wire was wiggly which made it hard to balance.

My instructor, Erik, said that if I wanted to do it twice, I had to go blind folded the second time. So I did! The tricky part was climbing up the pole because I didn't know where to get off onto the wire, but some of my classmates helped me out with that part by telling me when my feet were near the wire. Once I got on, I had to wait for my new partner, Anushka, so while I waited for her I was bouncing on the wire like a trampoline. Once she got on, I started to walk to the halfway mark, but while I was doing that, Anushka fell! Don't worry, she was caught by the rope and lowered down. That was crucial because we both had a rope to hang onto while walking, but you had to exchange ropes while meeting in the middle otherwise your partner would have to finish the other half ropeless. Because Anushka had fallen early on and dropped the rope, I had to go on without it. I ended up trying to use a rope connected a wire above the one I was standing on...which was connected to a circle thingy...which was connected to my belayer...which was connected to my... just kidding. Anyway, I ended up finishing the course successfully even with an unexpected turn in events.

We did other courses like vertical pinball machine, which consisted of tires and wigly ropes and you had to climb up all of it with the help of a partner. Your partner played a key role in this activity because you would need to help each other out by stepping on each others shoulders and pulling each other up. Me and my friend Tomo did it and finished it relatively fast. After we finished it and got belayed down, we noticed that our hands were completely black from the tires because Eric hadn't washed them in forever and we joked about giving people high fives.

One of my favorite courses that we did was the flying fox. My instructor, Erik, gave me the challenger helmet and told me to put it on. I asked him what we were doing, but he wouldn't tell any of us. The only information he gave was that I should attach a rope to my harness and sprint in one direction while everyone else should hold the rope and sprint in the opposite direction. One, two, three, I started sprinting not knowing what was going to happen, and all of a sudden...I STARTED FLYING! My feet left the ground, and I got pushed up above all the other ropes courses. I drew this diagram to show how it worked.

The experience only lasts about 30 seconds, but it is definitely one of the most enjoyable and thrilling courses I did at camp.

The last one that I will talk about was probably one of the best and scariest things I did. Basically, you have to start by climbing up a 62 foot phone line-like log (largest in all of Asia) using only little pegs and rock climbing hand-holds. Once you get to the top, you can feel the log swaying a bit because of the wind which made it a bit more scary when you are 62 feet in the air. Then you have to stand on the top having nothing to hold onto just balancing your feet on the little pegs in the log. Lastly, you jump as far as you can, trying to grab onto a trapeze bar which is both far and high. Unfortunately, none of the 5 of us who tried caught it. If we had, the reward was to get to sign the pole.

Overall I learned how to face my fears when being upreally high. When you feel really scared, you shouldn't look down, and instead think about how cool it is to be up there rather than worrying about the drop below. After practicing, I feel comfortable even when being on 63 foot polls. I also learned to trust and communicate with my belay team. This is important because if you don't trust them, you would feel really scared because they are holding you up. To communicate well, you need to tell them what you need (like the rope tighter) and what you plan to do (like when you are ready to lean back and come down). I would highly recommend Outward Bound to others. It was a great way to be with my friends from Acton before we move away. -- Grayson (with a little comma help from mom)