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~ Sam's Island Excursion ~ We'd been getting ready for our Sam's Island Excursion by viewing television footage from several different sources, looking at newspaper articles and photographs and reading the book Mrs Mitchell's Year 3/4 class wrote after Sam's death in 2005. Mr Howe came in and spoke to us about his memories of Sam from twenty years ago. Terry actually started the first tours of the island, 'Coral Coast Tours' at that time. Just like everyone else who knew him, Terry has fond memories of a strong character who had the uncanny knack of managing to get everyone he knew to help him out in some way.
The wind had been merrily blowing a gale for days so we didn't risk going over in the dinghies and settled instead for being ferried across in the Camp School's banana boat with Mr Prizmic. This required some patient waiting by two groups but we managed to do that-no problem! Those old games like 'I Spy' and 'Charades' come in handy at such times.
Brodie's Dad brought over the adults, while Terry paddled across in his kayak.
We put the Volleyball net up straight away and had a game while we were waiting for everyone to arrive, which was just as well, with the rate the tide was coming in.
After a quick tour of the island to orient ourselves, we had our morning tea. There were some great places for us to explore, especially around the castle itself, but everyone wanted to see where Sam was buried and were delighted to find that Tiger had his own grave, with inscription.
Then Mr Prismic gave us some instructions for the Treasure Hunt (check out the volleyball court in the background). Now the Treasure Hunt was a lot harder than we thought. First of all we had to use twelve pictures to help us locate jigsaw puzzle pieces. When we were able to put all twelve pieces together, we got the final clue leading us to the treasure. Well that's what should have happened! Some of us ended up at the other end of the island after running right past an 'X' marking the spot!
Next we had the sand building competition. The tide was really roaring in now so anyone foolish enough to build right on the water's edge soon lost their masterpiece. After some 'to and fro-ing', Mrs Brades announced the winners as Brodie, Holden and Harri. Congratulations boys!
Mr Prizmic marked a section of beach with rope for our safe swimming area and in we went. Nobody was happier than young Ned.
We were happy to get out of the sun for a while and everyone managed to find a shady place to sit and eat quietly.
Then we did some sketching to let our tummies settle before another swim.
All too soon it was time to pack up and go home. We'd like to thank Mr Prizmic for getting us out there and for the great Treasure Hunt. We'd also like to thank the parents who accompanied and assisted us, especially the Stirlings who provided the boat and safe passage for others. And finally, we'd like to thank Mr McGilvray who picked us up in the Seafarer's bus (well, we were seafarers, weren't we?) so we didn't have that long, uphill walk back to school. We had just enough time for one chapter from our favourite book when we got back to class. What a day! Click on the porthole for more pictures, stories & sketches!
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