Done and (dusted? More like blistered)

GGTC is over. Whole body foaming.

Started off on day 0 (sunday) with a lot of last minute stuff, contact lists, rations etc in preparation for the big day where all our ScoutySkillz will be put to an extreme test of endurance. Damn drama.

Day 1. Reported at some field in the middle of nowhere (landed property, near serangoon MRT). Final last minute organising, then the first horseshoe which signaled the beginning of the end. Actually after the end there is a new beginning, which is today as I post this and I sit on my chair to move around because my legs GGed.

Inspection. Inspected on the second try (due to rain? I hope) but later on had to redo simply (at least that was what I thought) for the sake of redoing and to add on to the general foam. Brought about 4 plastic bags with me for dirty (hurhur dirt) clothes, but at the end of inspection ended up with about 10. Given our checkpoints and an egg, which will be elaborated in further detail later on. Set off, at first super slow, slow like sotong. Reached checkpoint 2 super late, like around 12-1pm plus. On the way to checkpoint 2 it started to rain damn heavily, then everywhere got rain. Sought shelter in some HDB after correctly guessing (ie, anyhow hantam) the checkpoint. Made poor Wilson go out into the rain to draw the checkpoint map, since I'm just awesome that way.

Had lunch there I think, I can't really remember because the past 4 days have been a complete blur of haz recollections, nothing too specific other than some memorable things that happened. Such as the aforementioned (omg nice sounding word) egg which each patrol had to carry safely to the nightpoint. Suffice to say, 0/6 eggs made it back intact. Our egg exploded in Sean's shirt pocket, which was pretty awkward, especially since he had to use my waterbottle to wash the shit off his shirt and my bottle ended up smelling of egg. So we hiked super slow, then reached checkpoint 4 at around 8pm. At that point Wilson started foaming due to cold (I can't remember what the condition is called and I'm too lazy to find out) so he was picked up. Then we were given a choice. Either we walk from Khatib MRT and bash and chiong all the way to the nightpoint, or we take the MRT to Sembawang (which shaves off about 5km) and clear 50. Quite a simple choice actually. Reached the end point, horseshoe, pumping, sleep in nice dormitory. Did sentry with random people, ended up 2 hours of sleep. Yay for planning ahead.

The next day we tried to hike faster, but after checkpoint 2 were really demoralised by the mega long 10km route to checkpoint 3. At that point it was mid-day and it was super hot so its extra degen and we had to keep taking rests at bus stops along the way. Eventually we reached the checkpoint and had lunch which was super nice cuz we had nata which was super nice after that mega long 10km route. Then after that was more foaming as we tried to continue, but the rain started to cause us to foam. Soaking wet clothes + super strong wind = bloody cold. Shivered, SHAKING in a void deck for about an hour and a half to wait for the rain to stop. I've never actually experienced something that cold. It wasn't just shivering, I could barely talk because every part was SHAKING. And it was virtually uncontrollable. It's like taking a shower then without drying yourself standing in front of a fan at high speed. AFter the rain stopped we eventually piaed all the way back to nightpoint cuz can sleep mah. So all happy happy.

Then we had nightcall. Actually this nightcall was damn slack. Only need to take all our bags then lump in some pile then run here run there pump a bit kenna shouted at then can liao. Breakfast, checkpoints, (inspirational? nah) talk by mr yuen about not dropping out of the hike then we started walking. walkwalkwalkwalk until damn far. Second checkpoint was Faber point, right at the tip of mount faber and the walk up there was super foam. Right after that checkpoint was Fort canning which is another some damn high hill. Foam.

Here's a short summary of the three days of hike.

Checkpoint plotting
walk
foam
foam
foam
walk
walk
foam
walk
foam
lunch
walk
walk
walk
foam
foam
foam
walk
foam
walk
foam
dinner
walk
walk
foam
foam
nightpoint
sleep.

Eventually we reached the end then we had dinner at J8 which was super nice. Musn't have been pleasant for the other people around. Some stinkbomb walk into J8 then kope all the chairs then leave all the stains and shit behind.

Then at night me, nigel and weiteng were doing sentry cause we wanted to be awake when the nightcall was called. Actually before that we were joking that nightcall is like phoning someone at night, cuz night call hurhur. So obviously we were all super tired after 90+km of foam so we slept in 2 minute shifts. When nightcall was called we all started foaming, then we went to RJ basketball court to do inspection for about 3 hours, which is super foam.

Then was breakfast, then was watching (holyshitsoimba) STLs do inspection and show the noobs how it's properly done. Then was PT, which was just a way to clear our (at that point) 1.5k count. Then sec 2s built a lot of bashas and we cleared some then we had another inspection then we cleared more then we had some random shit then we had final horseshoe then final 200 pumping then end of camp.

At the end of the camp I received some award for the best trainee, prize was the whistle comprised of parts by kenneth and francis. Frankly I don't know why I got it cuz I felt that other people actually deserved it more than me, but bleh, I got it all the same. More pressure to live up to expectations for next year? Hope I can tahan.

After GTC I felt this mega sense of accomplishment (not to mention people who wanted to come over and say "wah damn pro ah best trainee sia") that I completed the camp. All will be clear if you read the post before this. At the end my (battle?) wounds included - seven blisters, super mega slightly infected graze on my knee which kenneth thought was just some surface wound, twisted ankle, aching shoulders and super mega sunburn. All these will go away but deep down I think I've learned a lot more about my limits and what I can do. At times I seriously considered giving up (especially when I got that super mega slightly infected graze) but I'm glad I didn't do so.

Felt that this year my batch were actually quite good in terms of individual skill/standard, but I guess there's a lot more to improve on in terms of helping others, taking initiative etc. Like what francis said, the sec2s inspection damn good then the sec1s one like sai. Maybe we could have helped them a little more? I don't really know.

Started this post on Thursday when I came back, and now it's 11.18 on Saturday. Flying off on Monday to ----, coming back on Friday hopefully in time for group celebs.