Sunday, April 24, 2016

Duke of Edinburgh Practice Journey

A group of Gold and Silver Award Duke of Edinburgh students and supervisors headed to Airlie Beach for their practice Exploration Adventurous Journey. After arriving at Airlie on Thursday night the students set up camp and organised their first meal.  On the Friday the students walked through parts of Conway national Park to Mt Rooper Lookout and Swamp Bay. Following a late lunch they went to the Airlie Beach town centre. As part of their Exploration they are studying the impact of Tourism on the economy of a place and the environmental impact. On Saturday  the group tooks and adventurous ocean rafting trip where they snorkled, walked and swam at the heritage listed Whitehaven Beach.  They saw and heard about the impact of tourism  and global warming on the reef as well as seeing the environmental awareness  that the tour operator passed on to all tourists.
On Saturday night the team cooked dinner for ex BTC teacher Ms McAllister and enjoyed catching up with her as she had taken them on past D of E trips.  After packing up camp on Sunday morning  the group went to Cedar Creek Falls and enjoyed the fresh water experience and picturesque waterfall.