Year 12 Outdoor Ed: Canoe Expedition

At the end of Term 3 the Year 12 Outdoor Education class along with Ms Fogliani, Mr Stasinski and Mrs Fidge began a three-day, two-night  canoeing expedition along the Blackwood River where we canoed from Hut Pool to Chapman Pool over two days. This was an exciting and new experience that connected us with nature and with each other. We canoed along calm, still waters and had to carefully navigate the rapids we met along the way. We were lead by staff from Outdoor Discoveries, Mike and Mike (which made it easy for us to remember their names).

On the first night we camped at Track D where we found ourselves alone in nature, relying solely on what we brought along in our trusty 60l barrels. This was a test of resilience for some members of the class including Mr S who learned valuable lessons about packing lightly and prioritising essentials as what didn’t fit in the barrels was left on the bus until we reached the next camp on day two. This tested our resilience as we were basically down to bare essentials and brought us to understand what we really needed to survive for the next 24 hours.

At Track D we were fully immersed in nature separated from our phones and taking in the world around us. Together our class had to cooperate, communicate and compromise by sharing utensils, food and skills, asking for help or helping others by setting up tents and to rely on the basic items that we brought along with us.

With every dinner comes our camp dinner ritual. We all share what we cook and have a little taste test of each others food, taking in inspiration on ideas that we can bring on our next expedition. As we sat around the campfire that night we debriefed sharing stories and experiences from the day as well as key learnings from the expedition, all while enjoying toasted marshmallows together.

On the second day we packed up camp and returned to our canoes to travel to Chapman pool. Along the way we canoed down a rapid where we rafted up and were shown how to ferry glide. Ferry gliding is where you travel from one bank of the river to the other against the force of the rapid without being pushed backwards. We then found a spot to have lunch and ate together before we paddled around and continued on to travel to our campsite.

When we arrived at Chapman pool we cleaned the canoes and barrels and loaded them onto Mike and Mike’s trailer and set up camp for the night. As we were cooking dinner it started to rain so we set up the hootchie and continued to cook under it whilst we shared slices of Andreas family sausage – which is a dinner staple on every camp as she cannot seem to leave without packing at least 5 packets of sausage. For which we are always grateful for.

We then debriefed around the fire that we started from dried leaves and small sticks which lasted through the rain and for the hours leading up to when we went to sleep.

On our final day we packed up camp and headed home on the long bus ride back to school.

This expedition challenged us in many ways and bonded us as a class. We will cherish the memories we made on this camp and will continue to use the skills we learnt from this experience for years to come.

We’re very grateful for our teachers that came along for sharing their immense knowledge with us, teaching us our new skills, creating  new memories with us and taking the time out of their lives to spend time with us and our outdoor education experience.

Emily Poga
Year 12, SM4

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