Another team of adventurous young men ticked off their bronze level expedition for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award at the weekend.

Our group of eleven students and two staff departed from school around 7:30am on Saturday morning. By the time we had positioned a vehicle at each end of the track it was just after 9am before we were heading off up the track past the Philip Cox Memorial Hut, traversing Yellow Ridge to our lunch stop at The Gap. Despite a bit of cloud cover and a sea mist enveloping much of the coast, we enjoyed the panoramic views while we ate. As we descended the hill on the other side we checked out the ABC Cave before dropping down to Jubilee Stream where we set up camp for the night. It was a fine evening and the boys organised themselves into tent pitching, cooking or campfire duties very efficiently.

Sunday dawned cool and cloudy with the threat of rain. Once again I was impressed with the efficiency of the breakfast and pack-up, and the year 10 group led the way up the steep climb that is known as the Devil’s Staircase. The superior fitness of the year 11 group prevailed however, as even after giving the others a 30 minute head start, still outpaced them to the summit. The views from the top of Silver Peak (777 metres) were well worth the exertion to get there, and turned out to be the perfect spot for the lads to phone their Mums to wish them a Happy Mother’s Day. We could see the rain clouds closing in from the South so didn’t linger too long, but dropped down to the shelter of the bush at Green Hill for lunch. From here it was a little over an hour out to the road and we made it just as the first drops of rain started to fall.

The enthusiasm and positive attitude of the boys contributed to making this another very successful expedition, and I look forward to getting out into the hills on future trips with them as they continue through higher levels of the Award.