On the 5th of October six yr 11 students, Mr Hill and the Bothma family departed Sydney to begin the Gold Duke Of Edinburgh Hike on Fraser Island. After flying up to Hervey Bay, we caught a ferry across to the world’s largest sand island. Over the next 10 days, we saw some of the most beautiful lakes including Lake Mcenzie and Lake Boomanjin, hiked over 110km and slept in 8 different campsites across the island. We passed through rainforests, deserts and bushlands and saw some of the amazing wildlife including a few adorable dingoes, snakes, goannas, leeches, march flies and a range of decaying corpses. We pretty much starved as we underestimated the food intake (except Dimity who had endless supplies of cashew nuts). However, this did not damper our Edinburgh spirits as we battled the elements with an intense passion only intensified by the challenge.
Places to forget:
• Valley of the Giants (aka valley of the leeches and world’s worst dunny)
The escape of our woes was found within the pages of Romulus My Father. We read the book over the course of the hike and will never forget the power it gave us to keep going.
Favourite memories:
• Cooking pancakes for 2 hours because the oil spilt throughout Lauren’s pack, and the stupid trangia.
• Swimming in an orange creek that gave us a top of the range fake tan (for free).
• Driving David and Mr Hill insane with endless musical numbers
Overall, the hike, with all its ups and downs, was a really memorable experience and we thoroughly enjoyed learning about ourselves and each other. GOOD ONE.
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