Silver Duke of Ed qualifying exbidition
Lane Cove Rotary War Memorial was where everyone gathered to start the hike off. We had our names marked off and the groups were dismissed in intervals of five minutes. Our route for the first day was a 17km trek along a mix of city streets combined with paths surrounded by shrubs and passing streams. We had lunch next to a stream where lots of people attempted to skip stones, a theme that would continue for the duration of the hike. When everyone had arrived and people had finished eating and getting in the way of cyclists, we started off again. The rest of the hike led us to the Baden Powell Scout Centre which would be our campsite. There was however, a casualty as Jayden was bitten by a spider and had to go to a hospital, fortunately he was alright and managed to continue the hike. The campsite was looking good, there was an amazing spot with plenty of space and soft, green grass to camp but much to the boys’ dismay, due to covid restrictions the group had to be split up. This forced the boys who arrived earliest to be sent to a lower part of the campsite which was rocky and sandy, leaving the girls and boys from a group that arrived later the good spot. Dinner was pretty normal, just your regular camp food except for Luke Miller who brought a steak and cooked it. He was charitable enough to share some with a few people and it tasted amazing. The rest of the night was uneventful and despite a spider in the bathroom scaring a few people nothing much happened.
The next day we gathered and set off for a long 22km, thankfully apart from a few ups and downs at the start and one really big hill at about the 9k mark it was pretty flat. It was just before the big hill that we stopped for lunch, next to another source of water where people once again attempted to skip rocks. After lunch, we tackled the hill which dropped us off next to a road, and the route continued. This road had a bus route which one group took due to losing 90 mins trying to get Ricky’s bag to Ms Jerrems and which other groups may or may not have taken. After moving off the road we followed a fire trail down to a stream which we followed as it widened until we reached the Crosslands campsite. The campsite had swings and a flying fox and was next to Berowra Creek so we were able to swim. The water was dirty and only up the knees at its deepest but it was nice to cool off after a long day. To entertain ourselves, the boys staged wrestling bouts, one on ones and two one twos where the objective was to get the opponent’s head under. The bouts were incredibly entertaining and fun and along with the playset made the camp quite fun and rewarding after the long hike. And, after the lack of a campfire on the practice we were rewarded and gifted a fire on this night as we roasted marshmallows before going to sleep.
The third day was scorching hot and to our relief the route was shortened from 14km with an 1100 meter ascent to 12km with a much smaller ascent. The route started by continuing along the river and through swampy marshes before we reach a massive 160 meter ascent straight up. Thankfully, due to the route changing this was the only major ascent we had to do and it was still cool, saving us from another four or more of these. After reaching the ascent, we moved another 200 meters down the road before dropping our bags and walking with just our water to Berowra Waters. Here we caught a ferry across the river to a cafe where many groups indulged themselves before heading back across and realising we weren’t meant to buy anything. We then walked back up to where our bags were then walked the rest of the route to the station where we finished Silver Duke of Ed qualifying.
On behalf of the Silver Duke of Edinburgh participants, we would like to thank Ms Jerrems, Ms Flynn and Mr Melser, who accompanied us on our journey and made it as fun and rewarding as possible.
A special thanks from all Duke of Edinburgh award participants, to Ms Jerrems, for organising everything for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Program. Without her, Duke of Ed would not be possible, and the success rate and participation would be nothing compared to what it is today. Her move to Cammeraygal High School is unfortunate for Fort Street’s Duke of Edinburgh program. We are extremely appreciative of all of her hard work and dedication to the program, but we wish her all the best.
Luke Sarginson
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award leader
Year 10