Silver Duke of Edinburgh Expedition to Barrington Tops and the Myall Lakes

Silver Duke of Edinburgh Expedition to Barrington Tops and the Myall Lakes

On  Monday, 29th April, while most of the grade slept blissfully on their last day of school holidays, 56 students from year 10 awoke bright and early to arrive at school at 6am, ready to board the bus that would take us to Barrington Tops for our Silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition. Fitting all our luggage into the bus was arguably just as difficult as packing our rucksacks, but after simply shoving the leftover suitcases into the aisle and hoping no-one would trip over, we were off! The 3-hour bus trip passed relatively quickly, with everyone either catching up on sleep or playing too many I-spy games to count, and we soon arrived at our destination.

Our expedition included 2 days of canoeing and 4 days of hiking. We soon discovered there was plenty of variation between the hikes – some days we climbed up steep, rocky hills; some days we walked along a flat road for 20km, passing the time by singing and retelling in great detail the plots of several iconic movies. Canoeing was perhaps more eventful – we capsized, held our canoes together to make a giant sailboat using a tarp, got stuck in the rapids, and had our canoes taken over by tree spiders – altogether making an extremely fun experience that tested our fitness, teamwork and patience. For our qualifying expedition, we camped next to the beautiful Myall Lakes. Waking up in the morning to the colourful sunrise, to see over 15 swans gliding across the crystal clear water was definitely a highlight! Forgetting our water gear at base camp didn’t stop us from just diving in wearing our regular clothes, and hiking for a day in damp clothing was worth it for the time spent together doing a giant drongo dance in the middle of the lake (even if not a single one of us remembered to bring a towel).

Snakes were spotted, food was snatched by the occasional bandicoot, and everyone was relieved we only had to sleep in a rain-filled tent for one night! However, all this only added to the experience, and though we were all glad to be warm and dry and heading home on the last day, most of us already missed the time spent with our groups and guides. We look forward to completing our awards, and for some of us, moving onto Gold!

Caitlin Showyin and Jordan Mai
Year 10