Initiative Course
Held on the 17th and 18th of June 2000. Apart from the major disorganisation of the leaders and the basic level of the activities the weekend wasnt all that bad. Sebastian and I attend and Robyn Plant was the course leader. There were 7 bases to complete as well as some spare time activities (S.T.A.s). At each of the bases we had to complete a task, which require thinking (similar to scout hike). My group was the only group that didnt lost or put of course by unskilled leaders. The group was quite poor, skill and personality wise, and I ended up doing 5 times the work but they where the ones who lost out. Attached is the paperwork that I as a individual and as a group had to fill out as well as my course certificate.
Expedition 1
We could tell it was going to be a bad day when Leigh was late to arrive at Wyong station. The next stop before the hike was Bulahdelah police station. The to the arrival point 3 kilometres out of Bulahdelah at the Mobil station ready to go. We then started walking at approximately 11 oclock. Early wake up and we set off early. We the arrived at camp at about 10:30 AM and we were amazed how early we finished and we just rested after getting camp set up. Again we woke up early and set off early to avoid walking in the midday heat. We arrived at the ferry about 8 and caught the 8:30 ferry after just missing the 8:00. We Started walking after crossing the ferry and stoped for a toilet break abou t half an hour later. We reached Shelly Beach at approximately Lunchtime. We went to bed early. Woke up at 4 AM as we wanted to avoid the heat and we also wanted to get home early. Left early. Toilet break at Seals rock Road and Old Gibber Road Intersection. Met camper at about 6:30 who gave us an idea of where to go so that we didnt have to walk on thew soft sand. We first encountered 2 dingoes who we were certain wanted food. Leigh through a thing of food to them and they left us alone. We then met a Red Belly Black Snake about 500 metres down the beach. After continuous and boring walking we ask the first man we had seen on the beach. And he was nice and helpful. We got off the beach much to our delight. We put our shoes back on and walked to the finish where there was NO water. We asked the ranger and he took our water bottles and filled them up. By the he had got back that nice man on the beach had been to the nearest town and bought 6 litres of Coke for us and came back to where we were at the finish and he didnt even take any money for it. Ranger came back with water. We got a lift home and that was that. Boy we were glad when it was all over.
Outdoor 1
Topic 9 Abseiling
Examiner: Ron Blomfield
(25m Ticket)
I attended the course on the 5th of February held at Brokenback. The course leader was Terry Cousins. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was a great course. Sebastian & Matthew Z. also attended with Mark Z. driving us up and Bruce S. driving us home. All 3 of us completed the weekend without any problems, with the slight exception of Sebastians shin which received a minor cut from a sharp overhang whilst doing a self rescue. Lucky for him the rope was tied around his leg which cut of the circulation and nearly stoped the bleeding.
(50m Ticket)
I attended the course on the 15th & 16th of April held at Brokenback. The course leader was James Moore. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was well run. I was the only attendant from 1st Tumbi. With Bruce S. driving me up and back. I completed the weekend without any problems. There werent any injuries and every body had fun. The 70-metre abseil was really exciting.
Refresher
I attended a District course on the 21/22/23 of July 00. The course leader was Ron Blomfield. I was the only Venturer from Tumbi, With both Jon and Ian attending as instructors. It was a great course and it was held at Reeves Rd, Narara and Parmdale RD, Ourimbah.
Weekend 1:
I attended weekend 1 on the 6th and 7th of May 2001. The course leader was Terry Cousins. I travelled up with Jono A., leaving my place at 4:10am. We arrived at Blackheath scout hall at 6:05. We then sat around for a while whilst the others got ready. The rovers then went out climbing and we went out abseiling at Mount York. We did a rope change over then a few abseils. It began to rain so we stopped and went back to the hall. We had lunch and then headed out to Dog Face. After taking a while to find it, we went down to the face. When then begin to abseil down the 200m drop. I was the last person to jump. It started if with about 15m of wall then about 150m of overhang free fall then about 35m of scrambling down rubble. Hence the name of the lookout, landslide. When I reached the bottom I waited for Luke. We then headed to the bottom of the scenic railway, only to miss the last one by 5 minutes. It began sprinkling and was getting heavier quickly. We began the walk up the stairs to the top. By the time we got to the top we were drenched. We took 15 minutes to do it and it was signed at 30 minutes. So we were absolutely buggered. We hopped in Richy's car and headed back to the Scout hall. The next day was postponed due to the wet weather so I went out with the rovers. We took Richy's car out to hanging rock after breakfast to where the Rovers were going to set up the giant swing which is just a 30m pendulum. Unfortunately it was to wet so it didn't go ahead. We then went to see the Edge movie at the Edge cinema. But it was $12.50 for a half-hour movie so we went into Katoomba to the camping stores. After having a look around and some l unch we headed out to Kings Tableland to look for some climbs. We found some but they were pretty normal. We then headed home. I arrived home at 6:50.
Weekend 2:
Assignment: On Ropes
Expedition 2
Examiner: Ron Blomfield
Wisemans Ferry/ Mangrove area from the 6th to the 10th of January 2001.
Notes/ Personal Recollection
Prior to departure
Build up to the hike was far from what you would expect. The expedition route was prepared by Sebastian and then shown to Ron. Ron told Sab to make it a little longer in kilometres per day. Which he did and then Ron approved. Zone Venturer Council then approved it on the last night of term, at the water slides. Sebastian then asked me I wished to do it as well. This is because two people can do the expedition 2 at once. I said of course and we split the work fifty, fifty. I completed the paperwork, escape routes and permission information and anything else relevant and he completed the route and organisation details such as times and transport.
First night
Come the 6th we were all prepared and ready to go Sab, Ben and myself met Jon at the hall at approximately 17:00. We weighed our packs at the hall and my pack weighed in at 24.2 Kilos, which included a full tent. Jon took us up via Steve's and Ron's places. We arrived at camp at about 18:50. We swiftly set up camp and checked out the campsite, which was very well set out and looked great. We got to bed at about 21:00.
Day 1
We woke up at 6:30 and got ready as quick as possible so we could hike a lot before it got too hot. We left at 7:30. We followed 11 kilometre trail for about 2 kilometres until we came to the creek that leads up from 196033. We checked the map and decided to follow the ridge instead of the creek. This proved a costly error for two reasons. We first had to climb quite a steep spur to get onto the ridge. This proving very tough. When we got to the top we had a short break and had a look at our proposed route. We then continued bush bashing along the ridge until we came to what looked like point 6 where we stop for morning tea at about 11:00. We then continued along the ridge to point 8. We were pretty sure where we were so we stoped for lunch at a little after 12. After lunch we continued along the ridge and it started branching of left where we didn't want to go so we crossed the ridge. Only to stumble upon what looked like some form of track. We followed it and we found a man made pile of rocks. This was very welcome due to the nature of the last few hours of bush density where you could only see 50 metres ahead. We followed this track for a while. That was the second mistake we made. As the track led us of course. At about 14:00 we lost the track and tried to find out where we were. Could find our situation on the map. We decided to head to the nearest peak to get a better view of where we might be. At about 15:45 we reached the peak and still couldn't decide where we where. We had a slight idea so we went with that. The idea being we where on the wrong ridge. We then crossed the valley, our third mistake. The decent into the valley was very, very steep and dense. When we reached the bottom we came across the thickest bush and ferns and vines you have ever seen. We continued through them at a very slow pace then up the other side. At about 16:50 we stoped and Ben told us he was feeling a bit sick. After questioning him to find out what was wrong we put it down to heat exhaustion. We had a longer break than we liked but Ben had a bit of a drink and started feeling better. We then continued up the other side of the valley. We reached the top at about 17:30. At the top we re-evaluated our positioning and we where still lost. We also came to the conclusion that there may have been disruption of the compass by metal in the rock. We continued in a Northerly direction along the ridge using the sun as a guide until dark. We set up camp on the side of the ridge at approximately 19:45. We got to bet at about 21:00.
Day 2
Woke up at 7:30 and left 9:00 after carefully studying the map the previous night decided where we were. Although it turned out to be incorrect it put us in the right direction. We followed the ridge then broke off heading north. At about 10:25 we found the road / 4wd track. We sat down had morning tea and worked out where we were. We ended up being at 195075, which was about 1.5 kilometres short of our proposed campsite for the previous night, which was disappointing. However we where pleased that we where on road. The only other problem that was facing us was lack of water. We followed the 4wd track towards the Buddhist camp which was the only guaranteed water source, as long as we were nice to them, we were pretty sure we could get water from them. After about 1 hour we came to and the intersection of the Great Northern rd and the 4wd track. After following the Great Northern road for about 3 and a half hours we came to the Buddhist camp. They were really nice, we watched our manners and we were allowed to fill up our water bottles, which by now were dry. We then walked down to the Ten mile Hollow where we rested and had lunch at about 14:05. After lunch we followed the Great Northern road for about 1 kilometre to find Clare's Bridge. After about what we thought was a kilometre we gave up and turned around. When we got back to Ten Mile Hollow camping area we came got ready to keep going when a cyclist pulled up. We chatted to him and seemed pretty nice but wasn't much help. We then set of along Simpson's track due to the time lost the previous day. We followed Simpson's track until about 17:30 when it started raining heavily and we where forced to set up our tents as quickly as humanly possible and take shelter. We had to camp there the night but it wasn't to bad considering, as we were next to a creek which had drinkable water and on a flat bit of land that looked like a grazing area, but we where a good 2 kilometres from the nearest farm. We hit the sack at about 8:30.
Day 3
The next morning we woke up at about 7:30 and we left at 9:00 after filling up with water. We Followed Simpson's track until 260095. We decided we went a bit too far we headed bach a bit and followed the creek up towards croft. We then decided o go straight to the top of the ridge and walk along the ridge to Croft. This proved a good work out. The angle at which we were climbing (climbing being a more accurate term) was about 70-75 degrees. We had to use all four limbs to be safe. Quite frankly it was pretty stupid. At about 12:10 we reached the top at about 200 metres above sea level. At 12:50 we stoped for lunch after deciding we were to tired and sore to reach the peak croft. At about 13:30 we continued at a bearing of 200 degrees which would take us over the ridge and give us the best possible angle to go down into Sugee Bag creek. If the map is accurate I would hat to see the other ways down into Sugee Bag. The way we down was like entering a canyon (only without rope). We started our decent at 3:40 after making calls to arrange pick up. It took us about 2 hours to go down the canyon like entrance to Sugee Bag. At one stage there was a fallen over tree and we used it like a slippery dip and it was extremely fun, as was the rest of the decent. However on the way down the canyon Sebastian rolled his ankle and we limping quite a bit. At 6:10 we reached Sugee Bag with much delight. We stone hopped along Sugee Bag for over 2 hours. It was getting dark and party moral was getting low. We dumped our packs for a break at about 8:30 what looked like the best camping spot we could find, but it was horrible as far as camping spots go. When we stoped Ben and Sab went ahead, and with all the luck in the world the found a track about 100 metres ahead. Which by itself was a O.K. camping area. But we decided to find out where the track lead to. Lucky for us the track lead to the Sugee Bag, Metropolitan North Scout Campsite. A huge flat field with Toilet, creek and fire places. We set up camp in the dark and got to bed about 22:30.
Day 4
Woke up at 6:45. After much discussion both the previous night and in the morning we decided to follow the road for he majority of the way we followed the road to Windra Park. We arrived there at about 8:50 we followed the gravel road for about a kilometre until we were under the power lines. This is where we made our fourth major mistake. Instead of following the rad for 1 kilometre around and up the spur we decided to use the powerlines as a overhead guide and climb up the side if the spur. This proving costly as it took us an hour to go about 200metres and we were totally wasted at the end. We reached the top at 10:15 at pole no 114. As well as time wasting the climb up also proved bad as Ben, Steve and I were bit by huge red ants, which stung like hell. Ben was the worse with about half a dozen bites then Steve and I had 3 or 4 each. We then followed the road along the ridge for what felt like eternity but was only 2 and a half hours. We stoped at what was the end of the road for us and we had lunch at 12:45. After lunch we turned of onto what we discovered to be a track with arrows made of rocks on the ground. It didn't last long and we then followed a bearing of 290 degrees which was bound to join us to the mill creek circuit. At 3:00 we did join it but only after another almost canyon like creek following down into Mill creek. We followed the track and with the last bit of energy we had in us we managed to follow the 11 kilometre Mill Creek circuit. After loosing it twice we followed it all the way home in about an hour and twenty minutes which was at a speed of about 4 kilometres an hour which is quite good considering the track and our health. We reached the finish at 4:35, which was 25 minutes ahead of my personal goal, which was excellent. Sebastian's father was at the camping spot waiting for us. We stoped at burger king on the way home. I personally arrived home at about 6:30.
Thoughts
"No matter how prepared you are there are going to be tough situations which will be sprung on you when you least want or expect it. In order to make these experiences valuable for learning you have to keep a cool head at all times and think a strait as possible. This will ensure that you benefit as much as possible from the bad situation." That quote from the SAS survival handbook helped me under the difficult situation of being lost and having low team moral.
Thing I Learned
I would also like to thank Steve and Ben for taking part when they didn't have to. Thanks also goes out to Jon and Ray for transport to and fro and to our parents for helping us to get organised. And last but not least to Ron for being our examiner.