At 8 am on Saturday the 29th of October, Saturday, 13 Year 9 girls arrived at Hornsby Train Station to tackle The Duke of Ed Bronze Qualifying Hike. Read Erene and Michelle's account below!
"We started off by discussing our journey to reach Crosslands, our campsite for the night. We then each split up into four different groups, then discussed if we had everything for our hike. Then finally, we discussed the dangers of the hike and ways to be safe. We then started our adventurous journey. We got lost in the suburbs but we had to keep going to get to the bush trail. The suburb walk was basically a walk to our walk. We laughed, cried and died but that did not stop us from giving up. There were so many uphills and we were all getting on each other’s nerves. Each break was a little bit of heaven. Then, we stopped for lunch and were given a quick lesson on maps. Then we kept pushing and trudged up the mountain. The same question kept repeating in our head, ‘Are we there yet?’ After 15 km, we finally reached Crosslands with great joy and relief, we all literally began screaming. We all rushed to the campsite and went to set up our tents and then finally relaxed after such a long day, a 9-hour hike!!!
We enjoyed each other's company and it felt so special and rewarding to sit down with each other after such a long day. We then went to our tents to go get some sleep because we were exhausted from all the walking, climbing and falling. The next morning we all woke up fresh and ready to go to civilization, 'HOME!' We said goodbye to our campsite and began the rest of the journey. We knew it would be hard, but the desperation to go home was unreal. We persevered. At the very end, there was the annoyingly steep mountain, which we had to climb. Together, we prayed the rosary, and with every excruciating step, we got closer and closer to home. It felt unreal to get to the top of the mountain, and see roads. But we weren’t done yet. We still had to walk to Berowra station. But when we did arrive, it felt like heaven and we all almost felt like crying happy tears. One by one, our parents picked us up. Although it was hard, the Duke of Ed Bronze hike was an extremely rewarding experience, and an achievement that tested our limits and overall made us so much stronger individually and also as a team."
Erene D and Michelle K, 9R
