17 Nov 2016
Last Week's Stage 3 Excursion Was A Success!
Last Tuesday Stage 3 students and their teachers departed northward via coach to the Jindabyne Sport and Recreation Centre, something they had been anxious to do all year. Upon arrival, luggage was unloaded and the children settled in to cabins, their home for the following days.
A camp day consisted of a number of exciting activities, led by an instructor, which included archery, canoeing and a challenging ropes course which tested everybody's mental and physical strength. In their spare time, kids had a choice of simply relaxing in their lodges, enjoying a game of volley ball, or making use of the basketball courts; leaving never a dull moment. Of course all this activity made students and teachers quite hungry, and they were treated to a wonderful cafeteria, where the quality of the food was exceptional, offering a wide variety of dishes, prepared onsite and delicious.
On Wednesday morning, a climb to the top of Australia had been planned, and in preparation for the drop in temperature, students made sure to have several layers of clothing packed, and were even provided with a pair of insulated boots, which would keep the remaining snow at bay. Everyone managed to ride the chairlift to the beginning of the alpine track, where the hike began. Unfortunately, bad weather halted the summit of Mt. Kosciusko, and instead an epic snowball battle was held, making for some icy fingers. Although we didn't quite achieve our goal, the experience is one that no one will soon forget.
Thursday afternoon was hot and a half day of activities inspired hunger in everyone. It was then explained to the group that today lunch would be prepared by the children themselves over a fire and on their own, with no adult supervision and only a few words of advice. Students were split into groups and set off to collect firewood. Everyone had to work as a team, to both light their fire, and cook their food, which consisted of a few sausages in bread each, and a bag of flour, which was to be mixed with water and cooked to create a delicious batch of damper, which was enjoyed with a dab of honey. The process was difficult, showing how well students could work together, some children excelling quicker than others, and some struggling to ignite a flame, but by the end of the session everyone's hunger had been sated.
After the grand feast Stage 3 was sat down, whilst one of the camp instructors recited the classic poem ‘The Man from the Snowy River' by Banjo Paterson to the group, as the events of the passage took place not far from where we were. Everyone had learnt a thing or two about resilience and teamwork as students trudged back to their cabins, exhausted and smelling of smoke.
The departure from Jindabyne was not looked forward to, but left everyone with smiles on their faces as we said farewell to our instructors and headed home.
Excursion memories shared by Jacob Shields 6B
