Green Corridor Hike, 20th February 2016

Written by: Cheong Yew Meng, Sixer & Scribe

It was a normal day, I woke up feeling that something was special today. It was the scouts hike to the Bukit Timah old railway track. I got all my items ready the night before so it was a breeze preparing for this hike. I came to school quite too early and was frustrated as I could have slept in a bit more, but at the same time feeling relieved at least I did not come late.

“Beep….beep…. Indian file!!!” The two senior sixers shouted to alert all scouts to come and sit at their respective sixes. The senior sixer, Min Wenn read out the names of the people who put their forms in the scout letterbox. As Min Wenn read out the names, the assistant senior sixer, Nicole, took note of the scouts who sat down. After all the names were called, there were some people standing. Some did not put their forms into the letterbox, while the others sent an email to Mdm Kerina.

We did the role count, the worst part about hiking, to know how many cubs were present. Some recruits did not know what to do and messed up. But with tolerance, we went again till we completed it. However, the forms did not tally with the number of cubs present. It took quite a while but it was soon settled.

Mr Tan, the chief commissioner, explained to us the purpose of a hike and gave us a task to spot 5 types of birds, insects, plants and other interesting things. We set out after a toilet break and baloo ensured everybody was feeling well. Some recruits look scared as this maybe their first time on a hike.

While on the hike, we spotted a lot of flora and fauna, creepy crawlies, bird and even a plane. But, the worst part came…….Mud! It was the end result of the previous night’s rain.  Some scouts enjoyed the mud while some hated it. The scouts that hated the mud kept complaining throughout the entire hike. Soon, some scouts complaining turned into happiness. We reached the picnic point! We took out our groundsheets and snacks and started gobbling down food.

Not long after, Baloo called for all the sixers and gave them some instructions to pack up and leave the place cleaner than they found it. The sixers helped the rest of the members in the six to pack up and assemble shortly after. But the weather suddenly turned for the worst and the adult leaders told us to take out our ponchos and left the place. To our surprise, the rain stopped when some sixes departed. The adult leaders had regretted leaving the place too early.

We walked back to school at a reasonable pace and arrived there at about 11.15 a.m. Baloo asked the sixers and assistant sixers to share and tell what were the challenges had we faced getting the six to walk in an orderly manner. Mdm kerina announced the winners of the log book entry the previous week. She also told us about world scout day and told the sixers to gather after the meeting. It was a fruitful and meaningful hike and I hope we can do more similar hikes.