![]() The tents are surrounded by lush gardens, farm dams, and exquisite bird species where birders, hikers, and MTB enthusiasts can explore to their hearts’ content! If I were to re-do my Solo Night, I think it would be a whole different experience, but I guess sometimes a night in the woods is really just a night in the woods.AfriCamps at Magoebaskloof is located between Tzaneen and Haenertsburg in Limpopo, where 10 fully equipped boutique glamping tents overlook the mesmerising Magoebaskloof landscape. Did I learn anything about myself? Did I get closer to nature? Closer to God? I think I should have, but in reality, I don’t think I did. While I was walking, I was scanning my head for what | learned from the experience. The walk to my cabin felt like a lifetime. I remember crying tears of relief because I would soon be able to talk with my friends and use an actual toilet. I grabbed my stuff and began walking back to camp. Eventually, the whistles blew for us all to go back in. Sure, I enjoyed spending time alone while it was still light out, but did I really learn anything? I wasn’t sure. ![]() I walked around my campsite and sat in the dew, reflecting on my night. I spent as long as possible re-organizing my stuff and folding my tarp. I made it through the night! Not without a few bug incidents and definitely not without crying, but I made it. I knew that I would have to wait a few hours before I could go back to my cabin, but I didn’t care. When I woke up, the sun was just barely rising. I was too scared to turn on my flashlight, so I pulled my sleeping bag over my head and tried to fall back to sleep. Somehow, one of those huge mosquito things found its way into my tent. Luckily, the worst things I had to actually deal with were bugs. At one point, I thought I heard the howls of coyotes in the distance. I was overwhelmed by thoughts of raccoons, deer, mice, coyotes, or bears coming anywhere near me. ![]() I’m not one to be scared of the dark, but something changes when you’re alone in the woods with no phone, no watch, and no one to talk to. It was definitely going to be a long night. Apparently, what I had mistaken for early morning was actually just an hour or so after I had gone to sleep in the first place. ![]() Except, when I woke up for the second time, the sky was completely black. It was just barely light out, so I decided to go back to sleep until they blew the whistles for us to come in around 7:00am. Once I heard camp’s music stop, I got in my tent and went to sleep with no trouble at all. I went on a little walk, read some of the bible, wrote a letter, drew pictures, and laid in a field. I really enjoyed the daylight hours of my Solo Night. My game plan for the night was to keep myself busy until | heard camp’s music stop in the distance, and then I would go to sleep before it got completely dark to keep myself from getting scared. At that point I knew that it was going to be a long night. I walked out of my tent only to see that the tree l built my tent under was swarming with bees. As soon as I got comfortable inside of it, however, I heard a low buzzing. After what was probably thirty minutes of trying to build a tent, I finally had it perfect. I was put in a flat clearing underneath a tree with lots of low branches, which was perfect for building my tent. When it was time to get placed, our CREW leaders took us one at a time to a designated spot in the woods. After a pep talk and an overview of the safety precautions, I was excited and ready to go. We were given our only supplies for the night: a plastic tarp, a rope, a sleeping bag, a flashlight, pens and paper, a bible, a packed dinner, toilet paper, and a whistle. The afternoon before we were supposed to go out, we all gathered with our CREW leaders and learned the rules: don’t talk to anyone else, don’t stray too far from your campsite, and absolutely do not wear a watch. The hours spent alone completely submerged in nature were supposed to be for us to reflect on our lives, reflect on our experiences at camp, and to reflect on our relationships with God. During Solo Night, each last year camper gets placed in the woods around 4:00 pm, and they don’t return to camp until 7:00am the next morning. However, the most significant part of CREW was doing Solo Night. In CREW all of the last year campers do things such as team building, being a counselor for a day, hiking eleven miles to and from Stone Mountain, and more. The acronym “CREW” stands for Courage, Responsibility, Enthusiasm, and Worth. Part of being in your last year as a camper is doing CREW. The summer before sophomore year of high school was the last year that I could be a camper. I’ve been going to Camp Cheerio every summer since I was eight years old, and I’ve loved every second of being there. At a normal summer camp, a few dozen fifteen-year-old girls wouldn’t be told to spend a night alone in the woods.
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