Learning for Life

Blackwood Camp

On Monday 1st March, the Yarrabah Camping program started up again with 11 of our lower secondary students heading off to Blackwood Outdoor Education Camp.  All students in the secondary school will have the opportunity to participate in a school camp experience throughout the year.

After getting ourselves set up in our dorms we headed down to the oval to try our skills at archery!  We discovered quite a few Robin Hood’s as the arrows went flying into our targets!  A bush walk late in the afternoon worked up an appetite for our campers and everyone had to collect wood for our fire as well as long marshmallow roasting sticks.  A BBQ, with salad and chips was on the menu for dinner followed by a campfire with marshmallows topped off a great day.

On Tuesday we headed out to Sovereign Hill to check out life from yester year!  We started with a horse and carriage ride around the streets which was a hit.  We watch gold being smelted into a bar, musket and explosive demonstrations, candy making, an underground mining tour and the highlight, panning for gold – which we found real specks.  Unfortunately it was not enough gold to buy us Maccas on the way home, but enough to look at and keep back at school.  Wood and BBQ fired homemade pizzas was for dinner with ice cream for dessert.  Our students never went hungry.

On Tuesday night we had a special activity, a night bush walk through the forest – using only our torches and glow sticks to lead the way. Around 9pm we left camp, the students were all super excited and did extremely well, the staff were super impressed.  The stars were out in full force also which the kids found amazing.

There were some tired eyes early in the morning as we began the clean up and pack up. No rest though, as we headed for the high ropes and flying fox course.  Just WOW – our students did an amazing job, some overcoming fears, others flying through the air like a superhero.  A definite highlight for many of our students.

A huge thanks to our staff Marisa, Jess, Cam and Roisin for making the camp possible.

Brendan