Dinner is Served

31 January 2012Jordan R

On Saturday, January 28th, the brave men and women of the Outdoor Pursuits Program set out on a journey across the Saanich Inlet to Cherry Point for a four course gourmet meal. It was going to be tough: seven kilometers of choppy waters, cold winds, and soggy rain.

We started our trip at 1:45, just after watching our senior boys earn an amazing victory in a nail-biting basketball game. We pulled on our best gear, hoping to stay warm, picked up our kayaks and chugged along to the water. Once we all launched, we grouped up and set out on our trip.

We got to see many beautiful sights including a few seals that pursued us. At the time they just looked like some oily black bowling balls floating along the surface of the ocean, but I caught a glimpse of one start to swim on his back: those things are a lot bigger than you would expect, particularly when you’re in a one person kayak. For the majority of our paddle we had beautiful scenery: if it wasn’t a sprawling forest or Salt Spring Island, it was the beautiful houses of Arbutus Ridge.

7 kilometer’s is a lot longer than it seems when you’re the engine, and after 3 hours of paddling I’m pretty sure everyone was pretty tired and wet. Once he reached Cherry Point we pulled up all our kayaks and scrambled about for our dry clothes. It isn’t too much fun getting changed in the back of a dark, damp trailer with 10 other boys; it made my dorm back at Privett seem like the Empress Hotel.

Dinner was probably the best food you can find outside of Crooks Hall. Our main course was cheese fondue. We toasted some bread to use as dippers, and fried up some hot and juicy sausages. We laughed and had a great time.

At the end of dinner we packed up the boats and set off for campus. It wasn’t a very long drive and it was nice to be indoors again, but I did have fun and I wouldn’t be opposed to doing it all again.

Jordan R, Grade 9 ODP

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