Discover the Outdoors

DTO Camp – Warburton, semester 2 

DTO camp was the best camp I have been on at this school. 

We started off our morning on Wednesday by checking all of our gear and loading it onto the bus. After an hour bus ride through the sticks we arrived at possibly the best bakery I’ve laid eyes on. 

That vanilla slice was top notch and will be very hard to beat in the future. Don’t even get me started on the pie. After that pit stop we ventured another 5 minutes down the road and drove into the camp site. Although we practiced putting our tents up and taking them down heaps of times, some of us still managed to take half an hour to get the tents ready. After we finished that, everyone loaded back onto the extra warm bus and we took off on our first hike of the trip, the walk up Mount Donna Buang. 

It was a steep incline up that trail but we managed to get to the top in under an hour, and we got some great views from the observation deck at the top of the summit. The walk down was a lot easier and when we got to the bottom we had to jostle our way through the locals filling up their bottles at the natural spring tap. Mr Billings wasn’t impressed by the remains of skid marks, shredded up tires and rubber from irresponsible tourists who had been 'fanging doughies' in the car park leaving all the rubber to run into the ecosystems of the forest. 

After this we went home and the teachers treated us to cooked snags and a delightful salad to have for dinner. We had to eat them under cover though because the clouds decided to open up and pour down for half an hour. We were fortunate that the storm did not get us as much as some other areas in Victoria that night. After dinner, we played some uno, did our journals, awarded the ‘Camper of the Day’ which went to Arlo for his elite camp skills and preparedness, then headed off to bed. 

The next morning when we woke up we decided to make some pancakes on the Trangia, despite all the warnings from Ms Malander about how terrible they would be and that pancakes taste better on Saturday’s we did not listen. The pancakes ended up tasting like metho, but at least they looked like pancakes (if you ask Jeremy, he would have a different story). After brekkie, Ms Malander told us all to put the gators on and get ready for another walk around Warburton. We set off in a single file down the main road of Warburton and eventually reached the O’Shannassy Aqueduct trail, which was used to transport water.

After catching some great views and hearing Mr Billings talk about trees for longer than expected we finally reached the spot where we got to eat lunch. Our lunch consisted of fried rice that we cooked in the morning. The fried rice was less than desirable and I struggled to get it down but food is food, and it gave me energy to walk back to camp.

 After the walk we went to the water park and had some fun there, then headed off on a half hour drive to the Upper Yarra Dam. Mr Billings imparted more of his Outdoor Environmental Studies wisdom on us whilst we marvelled at how vast the water supply was, then we headed back to cook dinner in our cooking circle. The chicken alfredo we made was a definite standout. The packet said it served 6 but for 3 teenage boys it only served one of us. After dinner we quickly drove up to the top of Mount Donna Buang again, and watched the sun go down. When we got home, we did our journals and awarded the ‘Camper of the Day’ to Tom W with Alvin L in a close second place. After that Tom W, Malander, Billo and I all had a great chat before we went to bed. 

When we woke up on the last morning, we had to do the dreaded pack up. Sleeping mats, sleeping bags, pillows, clothes, tents and Trangia’s all had to be shoved back into the backpacks to be packed into the trailer. When everyone packed their things onto the bus, we took off to our last walk up La La Falls. It was only a short walk and took us under half and hour to walk up to the falls. When we got there we took some photos and assessed the quality of the water. Despite the dirt and bugs in the water, it was still very fresh and refreshing. 

After a short walk back down the hill, we all loaded back onto the stifling hot bus to venture one last time, to the sacred Warburton Bakery. I think most of us got a vanilla slice from the bakery as it was highly rated from the first day. We went to eat by the Yarra River and have one last chat with our classmates, as well as some circle time telling one another what we valued about them, then we got on the bus and came home. 

When we got home, we unpacked all our things and set them out for the next group to come and grab. We did our final journal entries and the ‘Camper of the Day’ went to fan favourite Alvin L. Overall it was an amazing camp and I really enjoyed it. Thanks to Ms Malander and Mr Billings for taking us on this awesome camp and I highly recommend it to any younger year levels who are thinking of doing it in years to come. Best camp ever. 

Written by Jack C, Year 9