Year 9 Duke of Edinburgh Practice Trip
The Duke of Ed practice journey is a trip that will surely be etched into our memories forever. It was an eye-opening experience for all the Year 9s who participated, beginning from the early morning karaoke on the bus ride there, to the tiresome cleaning of the tents and trangeas the next evening when we arrived back at school.
During our expedition, we embarked on two hikes, both equally rewarding. The first was in a lovely rainforest habitat that ended with a viewing of the beautiful La La falls. The latter was on Mount Donna Buang, where to our surprise as we hiked, snow began to fall. When we reached the top, endless evergreen lightly dusted with beautiful white powder was all we could see. This was one of the highlights of our journey, as we hardly ever see snow and it was a first-time experience for many.
Throughout this whole trip the bonds we formed as a class continued to strengthen and strengthen. It started during our stop at Red Wood Forest where laughter echoed through the trees, the whole class playing hide and seek amongst them. Teachers even got involved – Mr. Wood-Davies being a pretty great hider! This continued to the campsite where the students played a nostalgic game of gang-up tiggy in the playground. On the other hand, we did still face some struggles in camp life. Some of these included broken poles when putting up the tents, burnt but also raw pancakes for breakfast, and rain-soaking some shoes during the night. However, despite this, we persevered and approached every opportunity with a growth mindset.
We also had many new experiences, one of these being cooking on a trangia. Not only did we cook on the open flame, but we also planned out all our meals too. Our group even got to enjoy a lively 3-hour grocery trip to Woolworths in search of all our ingredients. We bickered over everything from the best couscous, to how many strawberry packets we really needed (emergency strawberries are never necessary), to whether sourdough bread was the right financial choice.
Ultimately it was the experience of a lifetime with friendships that will only become stronger, skills that have prepared us for our qualifying journey in Torquay later in the year, and memories that will last us many years to come.
Fizzy and Anushka