Day 1
Finally, the long wait has come to an end I started for the Railway station with great excitement and enthusiasm, Yes I was going to my summer camp in Panchgani with “Positive 7”. I Harsh Magnani student of St. Xavier’s Loyola Hall, Ahmedabad, Gujarat am going to tell you about my trip to Panchgini – Maharashtra.
We reached Ahmedabad railway station on time and I along with my friend reported to Meghna Ma’am. Later we wished our parents goodbye and in a line headed to the platform and boarded our train. It was a surprise when I saw Ronak sir serving Dominos Pizza for dinner. Though I was not hungry but could not stop myself from Dominos. Later had a short chat with friends and then we were asked to sleep, so we put off the lights and went sleep.
Day 2
On opening my eyes, I saw the beautiful nature and greenery from the window. Later I was told that we are about to reach Pune station. On reaching Pune we were given a band that had a helpline number 7878005500 for us to call in case of any emergency. We queued outside the railway station and were divided into groups and made to sit on the bus. We were 18 boys and 26 girls. After clearing a route of 4 hours, we reached our resort Blue Country in Panchgani. We were given the freedom to choose our roommates. Ours was a duplex room and along with me Manav, Karnav, Malav, and Aalap checked into the room. We all freshened up and later had our lunch. Evening we were introduced to Mr. Bathena who was going to be our instructor for the adventure activities. To start with he taught us the basics of camping which include instruments used for camping, trekking, mountaineering, and later how to pitch a tent, etc., and then took us to the 4th table land in Panchgini for a light trek and for exploring caves. As we all were tired and wanted to sleep so Dinner was served to us early and after a small briefing about the next day, we all went to sleep.
Day 3
Knowing at the door of each and every room, Niranjan sir woke everybody in the morning and instructed us to be ready and to report to the lawn. We all got ready and reported on time for the warm-up session and later we had our breakfast and boarded our respective Busses, yes we were going for activities. We were taken to the 1st table land where we did various activities like rifle shooting, horse riding, rappelling playing volleyball, and dodge ball. Later in the afternoon, we went to Mapro Garden and we did some shopping. After lunch, we were given some free time to rest but we all were in some other mood. Rather relaxing we were playing and worrying our friends by knocking on their doors and running away and for that, we got a good shout from Sir.
Evening we were taken for a light trek to the tabletop and we were taught and instructed about free-hand climbing which is also known as bouldering and later we all did it. It was a good learning ie. If you have the will you can overcome all hurdles in life. Post dinner we had a brief for the next day and we were asked to sleep early as we were to go for an early morning jungle walk.
Day 4
At 05:00 am we got the wake-up call immediately we all got ready and were out on the lawn by 06:00 for the jungle trek. Boarded the bus and drove 15km to reach our destination. It was a dense forest where there were different species of animals like Sambar deer, Mouse deer, Indian giant squirrels, and wild dogs. We had a great time learning about different plants and trees. Later we went to the tabletop for adventure activities as the boys were left for rappelling. We all did our rappelling and later headed to Mahabaleshwar for sightseeing and back to our resort for lunch. The evening was really good learning for all of us. We visited a shelter hope for abandoned and injured animals where there were dogs and donkeys we spend a good time with the animals by feeding them and playing with them. Later we visited a farm and learned about farming and the new techniques used. We could understand a farmer, his life, effort, and hard work to get the food in our kitchen which we enjoy. It was the last night in the resort so a Magic show and DJ night were arranged for us. So we all enjoyed the magic show on the lawn and later headed to the hall for DJ night. We all had a good time dancing to the beats of the DJ. Later we were given free time to be with friends and play.
Day 5
Waking up in the morning was again the same routine but we were allowed to sleep one hour extra. Immediately we all got ready and checked out after breakfast. The actual plan was to go for a nature trek marching down to Krishna River but Sir canceled it because of extreme heat so we went for a boat ride. On our way back we stopped at the Mapro factory for a factory visit and we were shown the process of making, packing, and dispatching the goods from Mapro and were explained each and everything. After the visit, we had a strawberry eating competition and whoever eats the strawberries in the least time would win the prize among the 5 competitors. That was an interesting event and we all enjoyed strawberries and the winners were given a prize. After that we left for Pune and reached the station, the train was on time we all boarded the train and again for our surprise, we had hot Dominos pizza for Dinner.
Day 6
Reached Ahmedabad in the morning and we all were excited meeting our parents at the same time we were little sad as our trip was coming to an end.
It was a great trip and a good learning a mixture of adventure and social. I have learned to be confident and learned that you can do anything if you have the will to do it.
Thank you to all the team members of Positive7 – Niranjan Sir, Ronak Sir, Nirja Ma’am, Meghna Ma’am and Sunil Sir. It was a good learning and experience to be with you.