Noosa Day 1

You know it’s Abbotsleigh camp time in the tropics when the singlets come out, the coaches wear fluorescent boardies, and the smell of sunblock is in the air.. Welcome to Noosa! An excited crew of swimmers flew up from Sydney (impressing the Jetstar hosties and Rose with their smiles and good manners), to be greeted at Maroochydore Airport by Raf, Liz, Nicole and Clynton, as well as beautiful blue skies and sunshine. What a week this will be, if Day 1 is any indication of the weather conditions. Even better, the accommodation – Noosa Breakaway Holidays, just off the main drag at Noosa Heads – is perfect for Camp Abb and is proving a huge hit with all the kids, with each villa enjoying their own palm-shaded swimming pool. Because apparently, you can never have too much fun in the water. With all the talking, bonding and making of new friends, there is certainly plenty to do that doesn’t involve technology, so once again the Phone Box in the managers’ room is full to the brim!  A big plus this time is the close proximity of the camp base to the training pool – Noosa Aquatic Centre at Sunshine Beach, not even ten minutes away. The centre itself is beautiful, with an outdoor 50 metre pool (as well as a 25 metre outdoor pool and grassy surrounds) so the team is looking

forward to lots of long course practice under the guidance of Abb coaches Leanne, Brandon and Raf. Session 1 on Sunday afternoon proved an ideal start on that goal: the main set was – surprise! – a 5 kilometre time trial. Proving that the Camp Coffs motto of “No Complaino” is on again at Camp Noosa, there were only a few laughs and a little bit of splashing (none towards the coaches) before swimmers dived in for the endurance set.  Matt was first to the wall, clocking an impressive 1 hour 1 min, followed by our open water standout, Callum, and there were many PBs all the way down the line. Everyone cheered on the baby of the group, 10 year old Sammy, as she powered her way to the finish. Incredible effort! Two exhausted and food-seeking busloads arrived back at the villas to dive into a amazing meal of lasagne and salad  – thanks to Mrs Kym Short for the ten delicious lasagnes she every generously cooked and sent up to feed the hungry swimmers. Much appreciated by everyone on night one!