As it was, we went for the nearest corner of the pitch, for no obvious reason. Tom, Linda and Georgia would be in one tent, and I would be in a one-man tent next door. We saved space around us for friends, so we could all be in the same place. However, as soon as they arrived, they were wondering why we'd decided to put up our tents the furthest place away from the braai (barbeque), which is the heart of the party. Anyway, our tents were up and we weren't moving, so in the corner we were.
The camp out was great fun. After going for a swim in the school pool, and playing frisbee with Georgia and her friends, I decided to play cricket with loads of random kids in the middle of the field. The way it was all set up was tents all around the edges of the field, with wide open spaces in the middle for people to run about and sit down. We played cricket on the flick strip for a good three hours, and I enjoyed beating children half my age at it. As the oldest (it's a primary school so being 18 I was naturally the biggest) I was looked upon to organise, so had to choose who the next batsmen and bowlers were, and organise the field. Setting up as wicket-keeper and waving fielders around, I felt like Adam Gilchrist. Every now and again, after taking yet another one-hand on-bounce catch, I'd put myself on for a bowl, and take another few wickets with my Mick Yardy-esque darts. My crowning moment has to be when fielding at short midwicket (apt), where I took a brilliant Paul Collingwood cum Jonty Rhodes dive low to my right. I jumped up in celebration and threw the ball to the sky as if I'd taken the catch to win the Ashes. I then looked to see I'd dismissed a six year old.
Sadly in my three hour game, I only batted for one ball. Wanting to dominate the attack (an eight year old), I was bowled a leg-stump half volley. I pushed it through the on side, and took the run. My partner (about four years old, looked younger) looked non-plussed as I ran towards him shouting "YES!", and stood his ground. Realising he wasn't going anywhere, I raced back to the strikers end, and despite my full length dive (still have the carpet burns from the flick strip) I was short of my ground when the bails were whipped off. I didn't get another bat. Disappointing.
After all of that excitement (and being thoroughly tired out) I went back to the tents, where the boring adults had been sitting and chatting (while us kids had been running around) for dinner. Sally and Richard had spent all evening making a traditional South African braai delicacy (it's pronounced poi-kee, but I have no idea how it's spelt), which was a sort of meat stew. And was lovely. After eating, and staying up for a chat around the circle, we retired to our tents at around midnight, absolutely knackered.
After being woken up at 7 (to find Tom and Linda had already packed their tent away), we went back home, in order to recuperate for Hout Bay's premier event of the year - the Sandcastle Competition. Both the Camp Out and the Sandcastle Competition are charity fundraising events for the two schools, and are really well represented. Tom was the MC - doing what he did best by talking loudly on the mic for four hours. Everybody in Hout Bay comes down to the beach (as well as plenty from elsewhere) to build sandcastles, and raise money for the pre-primary school.
While Tom had gone down for the start (what with being MC and all), after the previous exertions, I'd gone back to bed for a nap. So after we'd turned up, everything was in full flow, and it was packed. There were literally thousands packing Hout Bay beach; armed with buckets, spades and rakes, and making all manner of exciting sand sculptures. As we'd turned up late, the two hour competition had already started, so I wandered up and down looking at the various creations.
However, after I'd checked out a few, Georgia decided she wanted to build one (despite this being about an hour and a half into the competition). After quickly filling out the forms and finding a plot of sand, I got thinking what could be an easy and quick thing to make. We went for a snake, with me digging the shape of it, and Georgia and her friends using water to help make the body of the snake. After we'd made a nice wiggly snake, shells were found to give the snake eyes, and eyelashes (it was a lady snake). With a few minutes to spare, we finished our snake, and admired it.
The judges came and looked at our snake, and asked us a few questions about it. They looked, discussed, and wrote a few notes on their clipboards. They smiled encouragingly, and walked off. We were confident of a prize. While the judges went around and looked at all of the other entries, we were treated to a magician, who did all of the favourite kids magic tricks. And then Tom got on stage, and revealed the winners. There were a number of different categories, and thanks to my involvement, we were in the "teenagers" group. We thought we were in with a chance. The Hout Bay Sandcastle Competition is a massive thing, and loads of sponsors chuck in prizes, with 20-odd prizes just for coming third in a given category. So as the 3rd, 2nd and 1st places for the Teen category were read out, we were understandably gutted that we weren't mentioned. It was a fix!
The whole event was run superbly, and ran really smoothly. In fact, both events within a few hours were fantastic - with a real community spirit as well as being really enjoyable. And they both raised loads of money for the schools. I had great fun on Friday night and Saturday morning - but after all of that I needed quite a rest!
Until next time, Will
You did good lad. Not easy to survive kids and boring adults in the space of 14 hours! MC Tom (aka The Godfather)
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