Year 7/8 Outdoor Education 

On Thursday 25 November, the Year 7/8 Outdoor Education class went for a day hike at the Dandenong Ranges. The purpose of this trip is to put the student’s preparation tasks and navigation skills into practice.

They started the hike at Woolrich Lookout, Olinda. They walked roughly 12kms, with the majority of the walk being walking trails as well as some short sections on 4wd tracks. The degree of difficulty is not high, however, there is some elevation. 

Here are two recounts of the participants:

Josh Utley

The hike was AMAZING! The Year 7 and 8 Outdoor Ed class had so much fun (or at least I did) as we walked around the Dandenong Ranges. The walk was about 12.5 km, which might sound like a lot, but it’s not that bad when you have all day to do it. The hike started out very foggy, but as we walked down, it cleared up. We had a lunch break about halfway through, then kept going. 

I never thought I could have so much fun while walking up and down hills, with only small breaks. Before the walk, everyone had got into pairs. During the walk, with help from a map and a compass (and a teacher), each pair got a go at leading the group. There were a few hiccups, but we never got lost. Leeches were very common (I got 6 on my socks at one point), but no one got hurt. Overall, it was extremely fun and I would gladly do it again!

Esther De Silva

The Outdoor Ed hike was based on using compasses. I think that the hike taught us determination when it came to walking up the steeper hills and not giving up. It also taught us to take initiative when it came to leading parts of the hike and helped us to put our compass skills to use.