Outdoor Education News

Outdoor Education Camp

By Eva - Year 10

On 25 March, all the VCE Outdoor Ed students drove to Richards Campground at Mount Cole to begin the Beeripmo walk. Day one was filled with a steep 3 km climb to the first campground. We made it to camp early, which gave us lots of time to set up our tents and explore the surrounding tracks and trails. Although the fires that went through the area two years ago were very devastating, the crispy skinny black trees with vibrant green shoots of new growth looked very cool and unique. For dinner we cooked sausages on our trangeas and the fire pit with a tin of baked beans on the side. We finished the day with a night walk.

On day two we climbed Mount Sugarloaf and it was definitely not as pleasant as it sounds. We had to walk 11 km with quite a steep incline in hot weather, with a bit less energy than the day before. The views were much more exciting and rewarding though because you could really see how high and far you had climbed. Arriving at camp was very exciting because I could finally take my bag off. We set up our tents in an area about 300 metres from the toilets and had the afternoon to ourselves again.

We came up with the brilliant idea of using the rope to build a rope swing. We headed down to the toilets and cabin and found a nice tree between the bushes. After about 20 minutes of trying to throw the rope and log over it, it finally worked. It was great for about 20 minutes and only scratched your legs on the bushes occasionally. Tilly was very determined to get the highest swing when the rope snapped while she was at the top of the swing. That was probably my highlight of the day because it was really funny and Tilly came out with next to no injuries.

We decided we should probably put an end to our rope building and made dinner. Somehow my pumpkin gnocchi, which I had been craving the whole camp, had been mixed with the metho and tasted absolutely horrible. I ended up using my two minute noodles instead and it was very lucky I brought a backup meal. We finished the night playing some new card games with the Year 11 and 12s and went to bed to rest up for our last day.

Day three was all downhill and lots of fun. Some parts were slightly sketchy but that made it more enjoyable and interesting. It went pretty fast and the whole group was pretty determined to get down quickly so we could stop at Beaufort. Getting to the bottom of the walk was a great feeling of accomplishment because I have never done something like that before and I really enjoyed it. It was great to finish the trip in the town of Beaufort. Overall I really enjoyed the camp and definitely learnt a lot from it. I would 100% do that walk again or something similar and am really glad that we got to go.