Finally, the weekend that we had all been looking for arrived: Castellers de Sydney have spent a full weekend together, having lots of fun in Port Stephens. It was the first time that we did summer camp all together… and it was a full success!
We had booked the whole youth hostel for ourselves, which gave us the freedom to do whatever we wanted without bothering anyone. We all arrived on Friday night and, while eating pizza, the organisers explained the timetable for the weekend, as well as the two games that would last all days (the peck and the kiss killer). Apparently, it was going to be a pretty intense weekend, but we were all very enthusiastic about it… so all good. After we finished eating, we had to find the little elf, who was hiding in the bush and then he taught us a lot of team bonding games, which all ended in huge laughs (just check the pictures).
We woke up with the nice smell of bacon and eggs: the breakfast team did an excellent job and we all ate as much as we wanted to get lots of energy for the first activity of the day. The Junta had prepared a “crazy rehearsal”, just for fun, including things that we wouldn’t usually do, like making a “folre”, “falcons”, and a pom de dalt and enxaneta races. Because it was getting really hot (yes, the weather forecast was wrong… and we were so happy that it happened AGAIN), we went to the swimming pool to cool ourselves off… and we continued doing human towers in the water. Of course.
Then, another big moment arrived: an amazing fideuà (thanks Txoko for the paella!) was ready to be eaten. It was delicious (and so was the allioli), hats off to the cooks! After a short break (and with the cemetery getting more and more gravestones with the names of the people being kissed-killed), we started the evening activity, which consisted of a gymkhana de tota la vida (apple-water-suggus-flour, races, passing the apple to other people, etc). But in this case, the prizes were handmade mini castellers (super cute, thanks Adriana!), which we used to build the most original towers at the end of the gymkhana.
In the evening, just before dinner, we had an assembly organised by the Junta, to show us some videos of human towers (some with nice tips, others were just hilarious), as well as to present possible padrins for our colla. After a very yummy dinner (chicken with tomato and onions, and French fries and salad… and ice-cream), we started the night game: a Minute to Win it team competition. But the night was going to be much longer for some of the members of the colla… and memorable. Right, cap de colla?
On Sunday we woke up again with a feast for breakfast… and the canalla with some nice drawings on their face and arms. What happened while they were sleeping? Nobody knows… After packing up, we left the hostel to do the Tomaree Head Summit walk, which had amazing views of Port Stephens and its coastline. Definitely worth the effort!
We then moved to another beach, where we relaxed and we had a nice goodbye BBQ all together. We finished the summer camp by dancing the txutxuà song and, of course, the tricky-tracka song (which probably everyone agrees that it is now our official anthem). While some people still stayed around and visited the famous sand dunes, others decided to head back to Sydney, for a well-deserved rest.
Thank you very much to the organisers of the summer camp (Jasmina, Pau, Adriana, Ignasi and Montgarri) and to all the other 29 castellers who made such a fantastic weekend possible. Thanks colla, you are the best!
PS1: The video of Juanjo’s shrimp would be an excellent contribution to the post (and to the webpage), but probably I wouldn’t be allowed to climb anymore, so we’ll just say that what happened in Port Stephens, stays in Port Stephens. You’ll have to join us next time if you want to understand exactly what was going on.
PS2: And it goes tricky! … 😉