by Clare Rayner

Investigating Parks Victoria and Bunyip State Park – Mountain Biking and Horse Riding

We made it!!!! The year 12 Outdoor environment studies group have reached the end of their OES camps this week. The students have had a variety of activities and environments in their study over the year. This camp proved very challenging once again; which is to be honest the Outdoor Ed philosophy as we are supposed to be pushed towards the edges of our comfort zone and realise that things worth doing are not supposed to be easy, they are supposed to be character building.

We heard a variety of screams and squeals of joy as the students rode their mountain bikes – a great decision to move to Lysterfield, we had twists, turns, rocks and trees to ride around. I saw soo many happy faces. The squeals turned to anguish as the weather changed alongside the slight entrapment of the bus. But all was good as we set up camp. The students had to cope with wind and rain (extremely uncomfortable conditions) as they were cooking and the rain continued throughout the evening. On the second morning the students became good caring citizens of the environment – some are already talking about starting their own war on waste as we collected 3 bags of rubbish from the creeks and sections of the state park. All this fun was finished off with a 2 hour horse ride. Again students faces showed worry and concern, but as they rode through the forest on horse power this turned to happy bonding with their new four legged friends.

This camp above all was to encourage the students to think about the state of our natural environments, how people and the public can build strategies in order to maintain and protect it. I hope the students will continue to think about the sustainability and care of their future actions, even after our sacs and exam.