Following my 5am wake up call, I trudged across the school
to meet the camp bus for the beginning of my Year 7 Camp Toonallook camping
experience. Carey has an outdoor educational
program that involves the students camping once a year starting in Year 5. For my first Carey
camp, I decided to join the Year 7’s in their journey to Camp Toonallook,
Carey’s camp property 3 ½ hours east of Melbourne on the Gippsland Lakes (7
times the size of Sydney Harbour) that run into the Bass Strait. As I
walked across the Carey campus to meet the bus, the gates had already been
unlocked and swung open, allowing me to pass through the center of school, I
wove my way through
the corridors towards the middle school and was met with a set of locked gates. I spotted what
appeared to be an unlocked door to the middle school building and figured I
could just slip through
the school and was happy to find that the door easily pulled open. Half way through the rows
of lockers, a blaring alarm began to scream at me as I set off the entire
school’s alarm system by opening that one unlocked door! I made a quick
escape out the other side, jumped on the bus and pretended that all was well on
this fine early morning…
Rather than taking the bus all the way to the campsite, we
had to give the kids the experience of taking the long 3 ½ hour train
ride. This was so uncomfortable and miserable as the kids screamed and
ran down the aisles, too excited to sit still! I was thrilled when we
finally made it to Camp Toonallook! The kids were
assigned into four big, cabin-like tents with bunk beds inside. They were split into two big
groups based on their sleeping arrangements, Tent 1 and Tent 3 made up Group 1
and Tent 2 and Tent 4 created Group 2. I was assigned to Group 2 for the
week with the Outdoor Ed staff leader, Liz, and a Year 11/12 economics teacher,
David. Now this was not the kind of “camping” I was expecting, because I
was in a comfortable bunk bed with a bathroom that had hot water, and the most
delicious food being served by the camp
chef, Catherine. I did not realize that this “pampering” would only last
for two nice lovely days before I was
going to be heading off into the bush to set up my tent and pop a squat amongst
the trees….
The first day was spent with my group bike riding, playing games, and
being given a new name by two of the boys in my group (Mitch and Liam):
Victoria Azeranka. These two were so convinced that I was actually
Azeranka in disguise and the name ended up sticking and spreading to some of
the other campers. The first night we went on a night wander in the pitch
black with only our flashlights to guide the way. As we sat under the tree
silently, we were lucky to see two owls swoop down and land on an old stump
looking like it was straight from a story book, a possum scamper across the
roof of a building, two kangaroos hop by, a mom and a joey (baby kangaroo), and
best of all three sugar gliders sore across from the building right over our
heads and land on the tree. Sugar gliders are similar to flying
squirrels; they look like little chipmunks and jump from tree to tree using
their webbed arms creating a wing to glide. I do not think I will need to
visit a zoo or Wildlife Park ever again after experiencing this in just a 30- minute
night walk about!
2/21/12 – Camp Toonallook, Gippsland Lakes
Unfortunately the lake water was polluted a few weeks ago
with blue green algae washed in from a big storm, so we could not make use of
the gorgeous water as it was very toxic. Rather than swimming or canoeing
on the lake, we bused 30 minutes to a river to teach the kids how to
canoe. Unfortunately it was pouring rain and an absolute miserable
experience as we slowly, and I mean really slow, made our way down the river as the
kids zigzagged side to side and around in circles trying to figure out how to
work the paddling system. I sat there waiting, getting soaking wet and
shivering my bum off! This was quite a dismal canoeing experience.
I was so thrilled to get back to the camp ground and put on every item of
clothing I brought to try and warm up as the kids received a camping lesson on
how to pack their backpacking sacks for their big expedition tomorrow.
After all the sacks were packed up, we made pizzas to bring with us camping and
cook up on a fire pit one night. Tonight the kids wrote a letter to
themselves to open in Year 12 in the time capsule they have started to make
this year. Quite a good idea!
2/22/12 – EXPO, 90 Mile Beach (Pelican Campsite)
We headed out from Camp Toonallook today for the
"Expo" part of the camp. "Expo" is short for expedition and
consists of 3 days and 2 nights of camping out in tents at different campsites.
It is a chance for the kids to push their limits, gain a bit of independence, and
realize some of their strengths and weaknesses. For me it meant no hot
water or plumbing system…
Each Year 7 student is assigned to a homeroom, and each
one of these eight homerooms comes out to Camp Toonallook
for their camping experience. There were 26 Year 7’s in Mrs. Chamberlain’s
homeroom, and as I mentioned earlier, the class was split up into two groups at
the camp. My group was with the Outdoor Ed teacher Liz and David, the 60 year old
economics/accounting teacher for Year 11 and 12 who was very nice and great for
conversation. The kids in our group were great and loved having me, the
GAP Placement, in their group! I happen to be a pretty fun teacher, so I
was not surprised when all of them started telling me their crushes and asking
me for help, it was quite cute. The other group had Tim the Outdoor Ed dude and
Karen Chamberlain who is their homeroom teacher. The two groups follow
opposite routes and cross each other on the 7km hike to the opposite campsite.
Unfortunately the lakes and rivers were filled with blue green algae, so
an alternative plan had to be put in place. Usually the groups canoe
across to the camp and then back on the last day, which takes half a day or so,
but instead we were boated over and back. I think I lucked out on this because
the kids are absolutely terrible at canoeing, and I would have been bored out
of my mind waiting for them to get across the dang river, but it was a big
bummer not being able to jump in the water. The algae had both a positive
and negative side, but I think the negative side was highlighted when I
realized that I could not wash my body off what so ever for two days with the
lack of a lake to jump into. Although we were unable to go in the
lake, it was a very beautiful view! I saw so
many kangaroos casually hop by at any given moment, which was so awesome to
see!
Once at the camp, we set up our tents around the camp area, and
headed down to the other side of the island where the Bass Strait
awaited. We were camping on a very narrow strip of land with the lake on
one side and the ocean on the other, a pretty spectacular spot to be. As
we hiked up the sand dunes over to the ocean side, I was stunned with the
beauty that met me on the ocean side. I slid down the dune onto 90-mile
beach, which is 90 miles of absolutely gorgeous beach and dunes that run into
the magnificent ocean.
Unfortunately the ocean over here has such a strong rip making it too dangerous
for the kids to swim in it, so instead they dug a hole, lined it with a
tarp, dumped in some water, and created a makeshift pool!
Before dinner I chatted with the boys helping scheme a
plan for one of the boys to ask a girl out, then headed over to the girls and
chatted with them about all their crushes. The kids all called me their
"secret diary."
I was happy to finally zip my tent up for the night for a bit of peace
and quiet from the kids, and was surprised to get a really great night’s
sleep.
2/23/12 – EXPO, 90 Mile Beach
Last night I woke up in the middle of the night with a full bladder and
as I padded out of my tent across the bush, I looked up and found the sky
filled with so many stars that I could barely see the midnight blue in the
gaps. I do not think I have ever seen so many stars twinkling in my life. It
was really special to see.
I woke up early to watch the sunrise over the ocean, and as I stumbled
sleepily over the sand dune onto the beach, I was shocked by a bright pink sky
as the sun made its ascent. The
sky was simply incredible!
Today I wished we could go in the water. Caked in black
mud, nothing sounded better than a good scrub in the lake but unfortunately the
algae kept us out!!! I love camping but not when we can't cool off in the
water!
We did a big hike today from our campsite to a new one 7kms down 90
mile beach. It was an absolutely gorgeous walk, but the kids struggled with
huge packs on their back that were bigger and heavier than their 12 year old
bodies. I got in trouble a few times for setting too fast of a pace...oops!
The campsite for tonight was a total dump. It was hard leaving such a
nice campsite surrounded by the beautiful lake a few steps one way and the
gorgeous ocean a short walk up and over the amazing sand dunes. This place was
gross with dark black dirt that left us all filthy and the toilets were nasty.
It was better to pop a squat outside than to walk into that tower of terror! I
definitely perfected my squat and shake this week, talk about penis envy! I
remember about learning this in psychology and that little girls go through it
when we are young, but I think it just hit me on this camping expedition when I
didn't have the ease of a quick tinkle but instead got half the wildlife caught
in my underpants!
Anyways, the positive of today, besides the gorgeous hike,
was a delicious dinner! We made pizzas before we came camping and cooked them
up on the fire tonight, and boy were they delicious! I gave up all
sweets/desserts for Lent which just happened to be yesterday and
to my great luck, the snacks for the day were all lollies (candy) and cookies
which I could not have! So I made up for it with my lovely pizza!
The funniest part of my day would have to be when I got asked out by a
12 year-old boy. He happened to develop a massive crush on me within the few
days of him knowing me and decided to make his next move and ask me to be his
girlfriend. I had to do everything in my power not to laugh in his face but
instead told him I was so flattered but that my 23 year old boyfriend would
probably not like it if I came home with a new man...or I should say boy. It
was quite adorable though.
2/24/12 – EXPO/Return to Civilization
We woke up at 5am this morning to pack up and head out before sunrise.
Packing up a backpack and a tent in pitch blackness proved to be quite hard,
especially with such a weak flashlight. We were boated across the lake back to
the Carey's base camp where a beautifully hot shower awaited me and my sooted
ankles! I know we were supposed to take a 3 minute shower max but that just
didn't cut it seeing as after 3 minutes I had gone from black to grey and still
needed to scrub about three more layers of dirt off. I must mention that on the
boat ride back the funniest thing happened! I boated back with four kids from
my group who were dying to do some donuts in the water. The boat driver happily
obliged, but warned us to hold on tight before he whipped us around. As we all
clung to the railing we flew in a circle, and unfortunately one hand on the
railing didn't cut it for one of the boys. As he flew off the seat his hand
held on for dear life stretching his body out in the air past his full height
and his facial expression was pure comedy. Thank gosh he managed to hold on and
pull himself back up, but it was impossible not to laugh myself into tears
watching this disaster happen.
The bacon, egg and toast brekkie was very much appreciated following the
prior breakfast of cereal with powdered milk (yuck!).
As much fun as I had, it was great to be on
the bus heading home! I had a great time on the camping trip and getting to
know all the kids. I think the
kids were thrilled I was there to stretch the rules a bit and add some extra
fun to their camping experience.
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