In the Term 3 holidays, two of our Year 11 students Freya and Sasha attended a camp as part of their Gold Level of the Duke of Edinburgh International Award. This 5-day camp was for their Adventurous Journey section of the Award. The girls wrote the following account of their experience:
“Over the holidays (23/09/23 – 27/09/23), we received the opportunity to embark on a five-day outdoor education camp / adventurous journey for our Duke of Ed Award – Gold Level. Throughout the camp we hiked a section of the Bibbulmun Track, which involved hikes of between 11.9km and 19.7km each day from Mundaring Discovery Centre to Brooklyn Highway, setting up tarps and sleeping bags at different campsites/huts each night along the track. We were required to carry the weight of our packs which held all our belongings, including clothes, food, sleeping equipment and any rubbish we created. We spent our days playing camp games, cooking damper and lighting campfires whilst getting to know our group members.
“Overall, the experience was amazing. It was tiring and exhausting, but the new-found personal values we left with made the whole experience worthwhile. We started the week with over 10 participants, but after the third day there were only 5, due to the various camps. It was a great way to meet new people from other schools across WA and to bring us closer together. It was a new experience which had its ups and downs, though the good outweighed the bad. The most significant memory/team-building experience was trying to build a fire with the boys and failing miserably on the first night. We struggled to find the right amount of sticks and logs and to catch the kindling alight. However, by the next night, it was obvious we had improved, successfully lighting a fire in half the time.
We are extremely grateful for this opportunity, and to our teachers who organised this – Ms Yates and Mrs Syme – for the work they put into arranging the funding for us to attend this camp. We would definitely recommend this experience to the younger students who are unsure whether they would enjoy going on such a camp – or doing the Gold Level of the Duke of Ed Award – it is an extremely enjoyable experience for which we are grateful.” – Sasha G & Freya O
