Blue Mountains
The Blue Mountains were
the second destination of the field trip I did during the period I was
undertaking the unit "Learning Outdoor Education", additionally, when
I considered to come to Sydney the first time, this was one of the first place
I heard a about. To explain better, the Blue Mountains is a very popular
tourist attraction in Sydney, and receives every years lots of people looking
for amazing views, contact with nature and hiking, for instance.
Due to its huge area, the place
extends through regions called Katoomba, Blackheath and Springwood as it is
shown in the map bellow, which also delimitates its area.
THE
FIRST DAY
As I commented
before, this was one of the first attractions I have heard about before coming
to Australia and, as a consequence, I was really anxious and excited to visit
this place.
Well, this
time I could manage my time and wake up un the right time, which is related to one point I highlighted about
John Dewey's theory about experimental learning cycles in the first post-
when I said that, as I lose the bus to the Royal National Park, I would be
probably much more aware toward those theme in the second field trip.
To continue, after I woke up about 7am- which was something kind of hard
to do- I started doing the final arrangements to make my bag complete, so I
finish to pack some clothes, hygiene products and things like that. When I
finished packing my things, I started walking to Coles- to buy a raincoat- and
after toward central station, in order to catch the train that goes to
Katoomba.
I barely arrived at central station, and I could already see a group of
people who would be part of the hiking team. Between those people there were
some friends that I had already met before, but there were also some new
people, who I was excited to know and became friend. Besides this, the trip
itself was really cool and productive, since two nice things happened. The
first thing- the cool one- was that I spent good part of the 2 hours trip talking
to a friend from Netherlands, and we taught each other some words from our
native languages( that was how I learned how to count from 1 to 10 in Dutch).
The second thing was that my cabin mates and I organized our
"food-plan" and established, what we called “partnership", with
more two Brazilian girls, Marilia and Isabela, in order to buy all the food and
cook it together.
After 2 hours traveling by train, we finally arrived at Katoomba, then
we took a bus for more some minutes and get into the starting area. To start
the hiking, the 30 people original group was divided in 3 smaller groups and we
could start walking.
The photos above show the first landscapes that we saw during the trips. In other words, we had just started walking, but we had already seen some really beautiful things. The image below shows why this places it is called Blue Mountains. According to Nikki, our guide, the oil evaporation from the eucalyptus trees produces this blue shade seen in the mountains, which is definitely so pretty to see.
Another nice
thing to remember about the first day bushwalk is that we had some really fun
moments, in this sense, I really enjoyed all the challenges that Nikki proposed
us. The first challenge you had to squeeze yourself
inside a really tight path- which unfortunately I did not do-,but this is one of the guys who took this
challenge. Even though the guys got very dirty, they also seem very happy after
they complete that.
The second challenge
I think was the most difficult of the day. To explain better, in certain point
of the bushwalk there was what is called "The Giant Stairs", a
massive stairs with approximately one thousand steps. The challenge was to go
up through the stairs jumping from one leg, which Taylor- one of my cabin mates-
and I accepted. To say more about the experience itself, it was really
difficult to complete, once that was a really huge stair, the steps were kind
of big sometimes, and most important, we did it jumping from one leg. However,
even though it was not easy to finish, during the whole path there were always
some amazing views, that in a certain way gives you more courage and energy to
complete the challenge. Another nice thing to highlight is that Taylor and I
were supporting each other all the time, which in my opinion was very useful.
The video shows the end
of the challenge and how exhausted we were. Additionally, at this point I could
realise that the contact with nature and outdoor activities can really make you
do things you did not know you were capable to do. In other words, despite the
fact it was a very exhausting challenge- since we needed to continue jumping to
the top of the stairs- at the same time, we could enjoy different awesome
landscapes and continue going up as an attempt to find even more nice things to
see, which really makes you stronger and more resistant in a certain way.
THE FIRST NIGHT
After the
long day doing bushwalk, we went to the supermarket to buy some food, and them
to our accommodation. To say more, they were actually pretty cool, since we had
to build our own fireplace, and that was the first time I did it- which was
also a nice experience. Besides that, the cabin was better than I was expecting
and everything was really good.
At that point of the night
everyone was starving, and after we had our first dinner at the Blue Mountains,
we went out of our cabins to do an outdoor fireplace. In this time, we did a
big circle around the fire to do some reflexions, talk about the day, play some
games and have fun. In this sense, this was also a moment that I really
enjoyed, because was a pretty good feeling to get warm by the fire in that cold
night, talk to all that nice guys and reflect about the really good day we had
experienced. Additionally, that was when I ate roasted marshmallows for the
first time, which is something that I always was curious about. After that, we
went to sleep and that is how the first day finished.
THE SECOND DAY
After a not very
long, but quite good night of sleep, we woke up for the second day of hiking.
Once again we my cabin mates and I got together with the other two Brazilian
girls to cook our breakfast. In this sense, even though our attempt to do
scrambled eggs and pancakes was not very successful, we did have a good and
delicious breakfast.
To start the bushwalk,
the original group was once again divided in 3 smaller groups, and this time I
ended up having Wayne as the day guide- which was something very nice, since he
is a really nice person.
 |
| Wayne and I |
That day we walked a
considerably big distance, something like 13 kilometres. Consequently, we had
time to see unique and spectacular things. The first lesson, was about a leaf
that people can use inside the nose to give a better sensation and make easier
to breath, as shown in the photo. |
As the bushwalk continued we could
see a lot of different plants, landscapes, waterfalls and so on.
Wayne also proposed us some challenges,
and the first one it is shown in the video. To complete the task you should be
able to go down into the floor using only one leg. As we can see in the video,
this is something not really easy to do, and almost anyone in my group could
make it, even though it was pretty fun.
Another important aspect
to remember about the second day was that we have a lot of chances to practice
a bit more some of the things we learned on the lectures and tutorials. For
instance, we had more practical examples about how to use the compass, since in
many times when we had two different possible ways to walk, Wayne encouraged us
to analyse the map and using the compass find out which one should be the best
way to take.
It is really good to
enjoy the nature and to see beautiful things, but sometime you need to eat, so
after three or four hours walking, we stopped close to very pretty waterfall to
have lunch. Actually, that was such an amazing place, that it is hard to think
about anywhere else better to eat, rest and relax, all at the same time.
At this point, we
reached the most challenging period of the trip for me, facing the extremely
could water. As a Brazilian, I am used with a nice weather and warm water (or
at least not freezing) however, the water was not like that at all. In this
sense, was a really hard job for me to be brave enough to enter into the water,
and to make it, I needed to do several attempts until I be successful. The
video in the sequence shows one of the times a tried to into the cold water,
but as is seem, it was not possible. But, I did not accept that and, after some
more bushwalk, there was more one good spot to swim. There, my whole group and
I entered into the water- which was even colder- time enough to take a photo
and have that amazing feeling of accomplishment. However, after the swimming we
needed to hurry up, put our clothes on and start walking as soon as possible in
order to warm up our bodies again.
Once we were not freezing from
the swimming anymore, I could start to paying attention at the new landscapes
we could see during the walk and after more a couple of hours
walking we had finally arrived on the top of the place again, and more
outstanding views could be admired.
At this time of the day
everybody was staving once again, and when the day journey was completed, we
returned to the cabins. Before go to bed, we did the fireplace one more time
with more reflections, games and talks, which was definitely really fun. That
is how the second day ended.
THIRD, AND LAST
DAY
In the third day
morning I already woke up with that though: "I wish I have more time to
stay here at Blue Mountains". Unfortunately, there was nothing to do about
that, except to enjoy as much as I could the last day, which was exactly what I
tried to do. This day we had an easier bushwalking, in terms of physical
stress, but was the most enjoyable in terms of nice views.
As expected, we were exhausted
from the long wakings of the previous days, however the landscapes, the
waterfalls and the company of such nice people makes you to continue doing the
bushwalk, even though you completely tired. The photo bellow shows the place
where we had lunch, besides this, there was this swimming spot with had really
freezing water, where some people did swim, but I did have enough could water
in the day before.
After more sometime walking, we
finished the programed journey for the weekend and I could draw some
conclusions about certain points. The first one is related about how great that
weekend was, in other words, I was pleased I have enjoyed the company of super
cool people, made new friends and had the opportunity to know better Ian, Wayne
and Nikki. As a second point, I could do things that did not expect I was able
to do and go further the limitations I thought I have, for instance,
going up through the Giant Stairs jumping from one leg and face the super
freezing water of those beautiful waterfalls. To say more, I realised how
relaxing a weekend like that could be, in the sense that you really forget
about everything by living that moment, having a good time, getting in touch
with nature and learning new things. Therefore, I will surely recommend the
friends I made here in Australia and my friends from Brazil to do it, since it
was a very unique experience for me.
The video bellow shows some reflection about what this field trip represented for me!
The video bellow shows some reflection about what this field trip represented for me!
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