Year 11 OES Grampians Camp
The Year 11 Outdoor and Environmental Studies students went on their first camp for the semester with a trip to the Grampians National Park in the Northwestern part of the state, 3 hours from Melbourne.
Students had the goal of linking areas learnt in class to the environments of the Grampians National Park, looking at the Characteristic of the environment, and how humans understand the environment they are in, through; recreational activities, what motivated people to go into the environments, how accessible it going to these different locations, how to manage the land and the view that have been established through Indigenous culture and historical events.
Once arrived, students got the luxury of cabins as previous years it was an average of 3 degrees overnight and for motivation to have a lot more participation throughout the camp, we stayed at Breeze Holiday Park, a local caravan park just out of Halls Gap. In the early afternoon we set out to complete our first activity, run by Absolute Outdoor, a local adventure activity company, their guides were amazing getting the students all harnessed up and ready to complete some Abseiling and Rock-Climbing, moving through the bush we camp across the rocky outcrop where we were to Climb and Abseil, the student were nervous but all gave it a go with several students making it to the top of multiple climbs. Later in the afternoon we then tackled the Abseiling, with several students hesitant they all succeeded making it down of the cliff. Students seemed very happy to make it down and back to camp for a restful evening.
Day two, Students experienced some more recreational experiences that the Grampians National Park has to offer with Absolute Outdoors running a canoe session at Lake Fyans, 15 minutes from Halls Gap, where the students learnt about the equipment of canoeing and the basic canoe skills, they also learnt about why the lake is so valuable to the local environment and community. After refueling back at camp with some lunch, we jumped into the bus and head up the mountain to Wonderland Carpark, the starting point for our 4.2km round trip bushwalk to one of the Grampians iconic lookouts, the Pinnacle. Although most of the walk to the Pinnacle was up hill the students kept on going which we reached the top around 3:30 that afternoon. After a half and hour break students started to make their way back down to the carpark, with many exhausted faces they made it down around 5pm. With a treat of some hot chips when we returned to camp.
Overall, all the students had a fantastic experience and for some, was the first time doing new things whether it was being away from the family itself, canoeing or even abseiling, as you can see with the photos, they enjoyed themselves and all came back with plenty of stories to tell and of course tired from the experience. Bring on the next camp!
