The Duke of Edinburgh Award Holiday Success

During the first week of the July holidays, Year 10 student Connor Hunt, gathered together four friends to join him on his Duke of Edinburgh’s 'Award Adventurous Journey Expedition' to the Stirling Ranges and Porongorups near Albany. Mr and Mrs Richard and Dolly Hutton, joined them as Richard was the assessor and supervisor of the trip.

The five boys, Connor, Tyson, Shawn, Nathaniel and Jayden planned and executed a very cold and rewarding expedition where they climbed a mountain peak a day for three days. They started with Bluff Knoll – the highest Peak in WA at 1,900m. This was accomplished effortlessly, although the boys realised that temperatures at these altitudes in the middle of winter were on the freezing side. Camping at Mount Trio campsite, the boys cooked for themselves and enjoyed the warmth of the camp fire during the cold winter nights before heading to their tents.

DAY TWO saw them climbing the more dangerous Toolbrunup Peak – a level 5 climb at 1.052m – where steep rocky scree slopes, wet from the night’s rainfall, posed a danger risk to the intrepid climbers. (Toolbrunup Peak is made from sediments deposited during the Ediacaran Period and later metamorphosed to quartzites and shales.) Armed with first aid kit and space blanket – for just in case! – the boys hid under rocks during a rainfall and experienced a light very icy hailstorm high up near the peak. This mountain peak really instilled in them respect for mountainous conditions. The afternoon back at camp was spent recovering around a warm fire.

DAY THREE was much easier as the boys climbed Castle Rock in the Porongorups, clambering up metal rungs and a steel ladder to the Granite Skywalk. Easier on the legs and much warmer than the Stirling range, this posed its own interests with its crazy rock climbing.

Thus Connor’s adventurous journey posed a huge success and all the boys returned home having accomplished their goal. As I joined them on all their hikes, and my legs are currently returning to normal after the jelly they turned into daily, I would encourage more students to challenge themselves in a similar manner by making use of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Programme offered at our school. You get to design your Award around yourself- learning a new skill, doing some service for the community and completing a physical recreation task. Finally you get your friends together and plan your own adventurous journey, pushing yourself beyond your limits.

Mrs Melanie Hunt
DUKE OF EDINBURGH'S AWARD LEADER