Outdoor Education

Grampians Hike

The first week of Term 4, the Outdoor Ed class along with Mr Laska and Ms Desmet camped and hiked in the Grampians, near Halls Gap.

Before we left, the two buses and the trailer had to be packed with all the gear we needed for the four day trip. We had to leave the school before 8:00 am if we wanted to make it to our activities on time. After a long drive, we finally made it to the Grampians but still had to drive to get to our first activity, rock climbing and abseiling. At 1:30, we arrived at our destination for the rock climbing and met our instructors, Mark and Ramon. After some brief instructions, we all got harnessed up and were given helmets before we walked up rugged terrain to reach our site, the Great Wall of China in Bundaleer. We spent a while there learning how to belay and climb before we were actually allowed to climb but then they let us go and climb as much as we wanted. We all worked in groups of three as climbers and belayers to ensure maximum safety but it also meant that the perfect amount of people could go up to the top of the mountain and abseil the 45m down. After a few hours of everyone rock climbing and abseiling, we left the site and drove to our first campsite, Borough Huts.

We spent our first night at Borough Huts navigating the tents, how to cook with the portable stove and making a campfire. We all had to bring our own food and cook with our own stoves. This was a fun aspect of the camp. After talking by the fire for a while, we all went to bed to get ready for the next day’s hike. 

We all woke up the next morning, had breakfast and prepared for the hike. Mr Laska gave us all a hiking bag each and then a bin liner. We all packed for a two day hike. In pairs, we carried the tent and the stove and individually carried clothes and food. We then hopped on the big bus and drove into Halls Gap where we started our hike. We traveled uphill for about an hour before we reached the Wonderland car park where we had lunch. After a 30 minute stop, we continued uphill towards the Pinnacle, a beautiful viewpoint. Before we got to the Pinnacle, we had to pass through an area called Silent Street which was very tight and compact. This was a very cool part of the hike as we had to take our sleeping mats off of our bags to fit between the crevices. Right after Silent Street we reached the Pinnacle where stopped for a long time to eat more snacks and look out from the top which was an impressive view. We then continued, primarily downhill to our second campsite, Bugiga. After another hour or so of walking we finally reached Bugiga where we set up camp and repeated the previous nights activities. 

On the third day, we woke up early so that we could leave early to make our way back to Borough Huts before sundown. During the hike, we made our way up steep terrain to get to the peak of Mount Rosea where we had lunch. We stayed there for a little while as we looked from one of the best viewpoints in the Grampians before we headed downhill for a long time to get to Borough Huts. We spent nearly 4 hours walking downhill, and 8 hours in total before we got back to Borough Huts. Once we got there, we again set up a campfire, cooked and then finally relaxed around the fire.

We all then went to bed to get up really early for the long drive back to school, where we packed up the equipment and then went home. 

Campbell 

Benilde House Leader