Congratulations to our QAHS students undertaking the International Duke of Edinburgh Award, who have now completed their Silver Award qualifying journey.
Over 3-days and 2-nights, we hiked the magnificent trails of Lamington National Park, totalling 42km in the field. The forests were lush, resplendent, in-flower and wet; and our tenacious students persevered through rain showers & enjoyed walking through the clouds . We traversed varying terrain and forests along the Ship's Stern, Daves Creek and Caves Circuits and experienced the many wonders of nature & biodiversity along the way.
Shout out to our group of 21 adventurers for demonstrating tenacity and teamwork and a positive mindset. And, their curiosity for cultural, environmental & historical knowledge was commendable. We are grateful for the partnership with Numinbah Valley Environmental Education Centre and Principal Kalindi Brennan for her leadership and support enabling the journey.
Please see below reflections from Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award adventurers:
Xinyu Tan - Year 11 Student
Silver Practice Journey:
The Duke of Edinburgh Silver Practice Journey has made a significant impact towards my experience with outdoor camping as well as hiking in the nature. This journey not only has extended my physical abilities to hike 12-14km per day, it has also taught me important lifelong skills such as: how to set up a tent, how to set up and cook food with a Trangia, how to lead a group of students using a topological map with paper instructions and a radio to communicate with our leader as well as tail end and most importantly the encouragement, perseverance and resilience that our group of friends had in making sure every single member made it back safely. Throughout this practice journey, it has allowed me to gain insight of how important leadership is whether it was leading the group from the front or the back, everyone played a role in ensuring us we were on the right track of the route, and nobody was left behind. Not only this, but it also allowed me to connect with the Aboriginal land of belonging and sharing with everyone and not necessarily 'owning' it, with evidence of the Nerang River connecting Pages Pinnacle and Springbrook National Park along with the heart-warming story of the Hunter and Dingo that was told by our leader, Kalindi on the last day of our hike. This rememberable journey has allowed me to reconnect with nature, while also teaching me the valuable lessons that I am equipped to take on in the future, always reflecting, learning, and exploring.
Silver Qualifying Journey:
The Duke of Edinburgh Silver Qualifying Journey has been a noteworthy experience of a lifetime, whether it was the hike, nature, or the rain, it was truly a remarkable adventure. This specific journey not only has extended my physical abilities from walking 14kms a day to 21kms the next, but it has also taught me how wonderful a well-rounded, positive mindset can be when it comes to walking long distances and how 'yapping' can make everything easy. These positive mindsets consist of telling ourselves that “the earlier we make it back, the more resting time" and “when we go back, we can eat chocolates/lollies" etc. Throughout this hike, I've also learnt that talking to friends about random things distracts the people around them, allowing others to focus on the conversation rather than the pain of blisters and aching hamstrings. Therefore, due to these challenges, nature rewarded us with countless breathtaking views from the top of the mountains and along the hike, making this experience worth a million. Throughout this qualifying journey, it has allowed me to gain distinctive insight of how different trees, plants, weeds, and birds play an important contribution to the rainforest, canopy, and dry lands, providing habitat for species and other living organisms. This journey has definitely taught me the importance of persevering through the pain and struggles, while also enjoying the scenery that nature provides for us, allowing me to take in the spectacular views and the essential lessons that I am able to hold on for a lifetime.
Aimee Zhang - Year 11 Student
Silver Practice Journey:
This week I completed my Duke of Edinburgh practice journey. The experience was both enjoyable and challenging. I did various activities with my friends including hiking, cooking and setting up our tent. Doing these activities with friends made them more enjoyable and efficient as we helped each other. I also enjoyed the journey because it gave me an opportunity to connect with nature through hiking, seeing beautiful natural scenery and listening to Kalindi, our Duke of Ed supervisor, talk about the different types of plants and forests that we see during the hikes. However, Duke of Ed was also very challenging for me. Despite training for the journey, I struggled at times with the distance and terrain that we covered. I struggled at night time after hiking because I experienced knee pain and had blisters. Even though my knees were in pain, I still tried my best and ultimately, finished the practice journey. I feel proud of myself for finishing a physically challenging journey and persevering through my injury.
Silver Qualifying Journey:
This week I completed my actual journey for Duke of Edinburgh. Even though there were new challenges in this journey that I had to manage, I still felt that I had improved since the practice. First, I was more prepared for this journey. I wore a more suitable pair of shoes for hiking; they were more comfortable and supported my feet. This prevented me from getting blisters. I also brought knee compression braces to alleviate the strain on my knees. This did not fully prevent my knee pain, but improved it. My group and I also changed our meal plan. In the practice journey, we prepared pesto pasta for one dinner. Unfortunately, the pasta cooled very quickly in the cold and was also harder to clean up. To make our dinner more satisfying and easier to clean, we prepared fried rice instead and only had to heat it up. A major challenge I faced in this journey was hiking and tenting in wet weather. I wore a raincoat when hiking but it wasn't fully waterproof and after hiking, rain soaked through my clothes. I managed this by wearing a thin jacket under my raincoat the next day. My group's tent also leaked due to gaps between the tent and the rain-fly being not very effective. This resulted in my group and my belongings getting slightly wet. To manage this, I put all my belongings that could get wet into a garbage bag the next day. Overall, I feel that I did well in my actual journey and resolved challenges in an effective way. I'm very proud of myself for finishing the adventurous journey part of Duke of Ed.
Alita Lee
Deputy Principal