On Tuesday 28 May, 20 of our Year 9 Outdoor Education students embarked on a camping and hiking excursion to Wilson's Promontory for three days and three nights. The weather conditions turned out to be worse than predicted and the first night proved to be a challenge for many students. As a result we altered our camping plans and went on to hike Mount Bishop, Mount Oberon and Seals Cove. Despite the weather our students adopted a great attitude and made the most of the experience. My thanks to staff members Mr Dimitracopoulus, Ms Duff and Ms Franken for their support.
Here are two wonderful student reflections:
Jacob Avery (Year 9 Gold)
We did the camp so that we could have a good experience and learn about hiking and camping. We also did it to learn about Wilson's Promontory for our bushcraft assignment. I learnt about how to use a trangia, how to set up a tent properly and other things about camping. I also learnt a lot about the history of Wilson's Promontory, its wildlife and how it is affected. When we arrived at camp I felt excited about the couple of days ahead. When we were setting up our tents in the storm though, I lost all my excitement because I was focused on getting our tent set up.
We arrived at Wilsons Prom,
To be thrown under a storm,
We set up our tents,
But the poles were bent,
We tried to sleep,
But we had to creep,
To the girls bathroom,
We were out of the doom,
In the morning when we awoke,
We thought that night was a joke,
The teachers booked a cabin,
We had been saved from the famine
We began our hike on Wednesday,
The skies were still a bit grey,
We walked to Mount Bishop,
It was a bit of a hop,
But when we reached the top,
Where we all wanted to stop,
We saw the view,
It was pretty true,
That we were all sore,
And didn’t want anymore
Ailish Sheehan (Year 9 Bronze)
On the camp, I experienced many feelings including happy, cold, sad and 'over it'. On the first night when the weather conditions decided not to help us out, I was cold, wet, tired and wanted to go home. I was most certainly not excited about hiking for the next three days. That night I got about fours hours of sleep and that made me very tired. When the teachers told us that we were getting a lodge, I could not have been happier. I had no problem hiking every day if I got to sleep in a proper bed in a proper lodge for the next two nights.
On the Mount Bishop hike that day I was scared of the thunderstorms. We were under lots of trees and there was lightning but we survived nonetheless. That night I was happy because I got to sleep in a comfortable bed in a warm lodge. The next morning when we started to hike to Sealers Cove I was nervous but knew I would be okay. The start of the hike was a little challenging but I got through it and remembered that every step was a step closer to the end of the hike.
When we arrived at Sealers Cove I was pretty done and did not want to walk back another 10km but it went surprisingly quickly. When we got back I was very happy and could not wait to sit down. On the last morning waking up very early was not fun and I was tired. Hiking up Mount Oberon was hard and I did not want to do it. My legs ached and I was ready to go home. Once we got up to the top I’d like to say it was all worth it but it really wasn’t. Walking back down was easy and quick and I was happy to be on the bus on our way home.
