DofE Silver Practice expedition in the Royal National Park

We began our day off early in the morning, meeting at Central station. We then caught a train to Cronulla, from where we began our adventures. We walked to a ferry wharf, intrigued to see primary students departing a ferry like students here depart the train, with one of them even tying up the knots to park a ferry. After overhearing our students shout “Imagine catching a ferry to school?”, the students and teachers looked extremely surprised and found us quite weird. Excited to begin our journey we boarded the ferry and arrived at Bundeena where we were given a short briefing by the supervising teachers, and were then dismissed by groups as we embarked on our practice journey expedition.

The soccer boys set themselves a challenge to overtake every group. Which they ended up successfully completing. Every single group saw them sprinting across beaches or squeezing past them on the narrow tracks. Other groups took it slow to enjoy the scenic walk, and for snacks and water breaks. About halfway through the day, everyone arrived at Wattamolla to rest and have lunch. An hour had passed by and students began wondering why we weren’t being dismissed yet, and to everyone’s dismay, yet no surprise, Ms Xu announced that the cricket boys had not yet arrived. Everyone laughed until we realised the seriousness of the situation, all smiles were wiped off of our faces when Ms Xu added that we would have to walk back 9 kilometres back to Bundeena to find them. While coming up with endless insults and elaborate ways to have revenge on the cricket boys, everyone began picking up their rucksacks and walking back to Bundeena. About 15 minutes in, the group at the front found them and were greeted with Jack saying, “Hey! What took you guys so long?” Everyone just stood there in disbelief, wondering What? Why? How? Why? After attacking them for a bit everyone packed up and began walking to our final destination, some people still seething with anger.

Ascending and descending hills the group ended up at the beach. We then had a long bus ride to camp, descending down probably the steepest part of the day just to get to the campsite, and set up our tents and cooked dinner. It was unfortunate that we were unable to start a campfire, yet somehow students managed to improvise and find other ways to have fun. Some went to bed early, some spent some time together as a group bonding over secrets, some even played cards with Mr Prasad until Ms Xu came in and told us off for not being in bed yet.

The next morning we woke up to find that it had rained overnight, but thankfully none of the tents had been flooded. After packing up and having breakfast we began the last part of our practice expedition. That day, many groups were determined to finish their hike quickly so that they were able to be dismissed as soon as possible, one group even rushing so that a member would be able to go home in time for a Year 10 formal. Even though many of us rushed through, we still took time to appreciate the steep hill and beauty of the rainforest.

On behalf of the Silver Duke of Edinburgh participants, we would like to thank Ms Jerrems, Ms Xu, Mr Dong and Mr Prasad, 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.

Jade Do
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Leader