Expo 1
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The long journey of our 3-day expo started at 9:40 am at Point Ricardo. Everyone was very excited for the journey ahead, but we all knew it was going to be a challenge. All the girls from group 1A and 1B were in the hiking group, for a total of 12 girls. Fortunately for us, our longest and probably most difficult walk was on the first day. We hiked 16 km through the beach for about 7 hours. It was quite a long distance, but what made it difficult was the packs on our backs. We estimated each one to weigh roughly 10-13 kg at the start, since we had three days’ worth of food in them. During our walk, one of the girls found a soccer ball along the beach, and coincidentally, they were talking about the movie ‘Castaway’, so we ended up naming the ball Wilson. Even though it was a little crazy, kicking the deflated ball around distracted some of us from the walking, and added a bit more positive thinking to the hike. The first day, we camped at Banksia Bluff. It was a nice campsite, but the bush-tail possums were a little scary, since they were so used to humans being there. We had to put all our food in our tents, but even then, they tried to grab it from the outside.
On day two, everyone was quite tired from the previous day of hiking, but everyone persevered. We woke up at around 6:30 – like we usually do, however we did start walking a little later than we hoped, starting our hike a little before 10. Although we had a shorter distance to walk, everyone was really tired, and seemed to have lost hope. A few girls were falling behind, whilst others persisted that they needed the group to walk at a fast pace, so we ended up stopping and starting way too often. That was when we decided to have a little meeting and talk about what we needed to do to keep everyone happy. Our first few tactics worked, but only for a short while. It was only until we neared the end of the hike when we managed to get a system that worked well for everyone, which was to walk for 20 minutes straight, then take a 5-7 minute break, before we kept going. Despite how physically and emotionally draining the day was, everyone stayed positive and supported one another. Having a swim in the pond at the campsite also allowed us to socialize a bit more, and gave us a bit of time to relax. When we finished, everyone was ready to go make dinner, and do all the reflection that we needed to do, and even planned out our final so we knew when we wanted everything to happen.
On our final day, everyone was keeping positive, productive and supportive. We woke up at around 5 a.m. and got to packing up the campsite straight away. People put away their sleeping bags, tents, and had breakfast, as well as helping others to do the same if they had already finished. Everything was done well, and we were able to start walking at 8:10. We chose to go through the dirt track on the final day, so we managed to get to Yeerung Bridge quicker than we anticipated, so everyone was relieved when we got back to campus earlier.
Overall, this journey helped me open up to more of the girls, and I managed to bond with a few more people. I also learnt how important it can be to have a supportive group around you when you are doing difficult tasks and I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, and persevered through what I thought was my physical limit.
The team that I was with was very supportive of each other. Although to begin with it was a little difficult, we all stopped and collected ideas. The main ideas that worked the best were to make sure the people that were struggling the most were moved to the front of the group, so the others could adapt to their speed, and make sure they felt supported and weren’t left alone at the back of the group. We all kept up the positivity, and made sure we had fun, and we made sure we had everything we needed when we were packing and that we didn’t leave anything (or anyone) behind.
We could have worked on the amount of time that we took in packing up, and planning ahead so we knew which times we should have left to arrive at our destination at the desired time.
I had a lot of fun with the girls, and am glad that I participated in it, as I have made a lot of memories during the expedition 😇.
On day two, everyone was quite tired from the previous day of hiking, but everyone persevered. We woke up at around 6:30 – like we usually do, however we did start walking a little later than we hoped, starting our hike a little before 10. Although we had a shorter distance to walk, everyone was really tired, and seemed to have lost hope. A few girls were falling behind, whilst others persisted that they needed the group to walk at a fast pace, so we ended up stopping and starting way too often. That was when we decided to have a little meeting and talk about what we needed to do to keep everyone happy. Our first few tactics worked, but only for a short while. It was only until we neared the end of the hike when we managed to get a system that worked well for everyone, which was to walk for 20 minutes straight, then take a 5-7 minute break, before we kept going. Despite how physically and emotionally draining the day was, everyone stayed positive and supported one another. Having a swim in the pond at the campsite also allowed us to socialize a bit more, and gave us a bit of time to relax. When we finished, everyone was ready to go make dinner, and do all the reflection that we needed to do, and even planned out our final so we knew when we wanted everything to happen.
On our final day, everyone was keeping positive, productive and supportive. We woke up at around 5 a.m. and got to packing up the campsite straight away. People put away their sleeping bags, tents, and had breakfast, as well as helping others to do the same if they had already finished. Everything was done well, and we were able to start walking at 8:10. We chose to go through the dirt track on the final day, so we managed to get to Yeerung Bridge quicker than we anticipated, so everyone was relieved when we got back to campus earlier.
Overall, this journey helped me open up to more of the girls, and I managed to bond with a few more people. I also learnt how important it can be to have a supportive group around you when you are doing difficult tasks and I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, and persevered through what I thought was my physical limit.
The team that I was with was very supportive of each other. Although to begin with it was a little difficult, we all stopped and collected ideas. The main ideas that worked the best were to make sure the people that were struggling the most were moved to the front of the group, so the others could adapt to their speed, and make sure they felt supported and weren’t left alone at the back of the group. We all kept up the positivity, and made sure we had fun, and we made sure we had everything we needed when we were packing and that we didn’t leave anything (or anyone) behind.
We could have worked on the amount of time that we took in packing up, and planning ahead so we knew which times we should have left to arrive at our destination at the desired time.
I had a lot of fun with the girls, and am glad that I participated in it, as I have made a lot of memories during the expedition 😇.