Outdoor and Enviromental Education Report

In late October, Lucas Taylor and I were lucky enough to take our Year 9 and 10 elective group on an overnight hike to Cape Bridgewater.  We started at ‘The Blowholes’, walking along the spectacular clifftops of Cape Duquesne.

The walk from the blowholes to Bridgewater is a section of Great South West Walk that is approximately 11km long and took about 3 hours to complete one way.  Along the way we visited the limestone Petrified Forest before reaching the seal colony viewing platform.  The trail features spectacular views of Victoria's highest coastal cliffs and provides a view of the seal colony, which is the only mainland breeding site for Australian and New Zealand fur seals.   This section is actually the rim of an ancient volcano.

Upon reaching Bridgewater café, we stopped off for an ice-cream before setting off for the last leg of our hike for the day.  We walked along the beach at Cape Bridgewater for a few kilometres before heading into the dunes to our campsite at Trewalla.  We set up camp and settled in for the night with some interesting culinary delights on the menu.

We set off for Cape Nelson light house early the next morning in anticipation of our 14km trek.  It was a pretty solid hike along Murrell’s beach for the first five kilometres and then up onto the spectacular cliffs of Bridgewater Bay.  After passing through a shady stand of soap mallee, the track led back into the open, with low shrubs and an exposed cliff-line. Like Cape Duquesne before, these cliffs were quite spectacular, though shaped from sandstone rather than limestone, sitting on a base of black basalt.  We arrived at Cape Nelson around 1.30pm.  Many thanks to Sarah Byron for doing the drop-offs and pick-ups. Thanks also to Lucas Taylor for his ‘Dad’ jokes and support along the hike.

Ms Merrin Shannon

Outdoor Ed Teacher