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Year 10 Central Trip

On The 20th and 21st of March, 180 year 10s embark of the journey of a lifetime, to Central Australia. At 4:30 in the morning The first lot of year 10s arrived at school, eager for the trip to begin but dreading the early mornings that were to come. Our first stop was Renmark, where our first task was to pitch our tents (or at least try to). We gathered for dinner eagerly awaiting to eat as we were all starving. After dinner we were notified about the incredible awards of the day  - bunny ears for when someone does something silly, princess tiara for someone acting like a princess and the sheriff badge for someone who had demonstrated kindness, courage or leadership.

The next stop on the trip was Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges where we went on our first hike of the trip up Mt Olsen to St Mary’s Peak. It was a difficult climb for many of us who had never had hiked this far before, but as soon as we reached the top it was worth all the hard work as the views were spectacular.

 Next we travelled to Cadney Park where we stayed the night under the stars. This night included stargazing with glowsticks with an amazing & insightful view of the clear, starry sky.

The next day we headed down to Alice Springs. Enroute, we stopped by at Camels Australia and had the incredible opportunity to ride a camel!

We arrived in Alice Springs at last later on that day, where we visited the Alice Springs Desert Park. Here we watched an amazing “Birds of Prey” show where we were informed on the various types of Australian birds - and got to see some up close! After that, we visited the local CBD for lunch and to much to our surprise it was almost empty. We also visited Anzac memorial hill, which gave us a great view of Alice Springs.

The next day we visited the Royal Flying Doctors service where we handed the money we raised over the course of our trip. Later, we headed to the Alice Springs Reptile Park, where we got to learn about various reptiles such as snakes and lizards (which we got to hold) and even a crocodile!

We sadly left Alice Springs and headed for Kings Cross station. On arrival we were told to be cautious about the many dingoes that live around the station which made many of us we worried; some ignored the warning.

In the morning many people woke up to bags no where to be seen and all the valued supplies of lollies gone - they were taken by the dingoes! The next day we headed down to the Kings Canyon to walk around and discover the beautiful Garden of Eden, where we took plenty of selfies and ate lots of chips. Also at Kings Cross Station, many of us had the incredible opportunity to fly on a helicopter over the area. The view was absolutely breath-taking and we had such a great time taking photos, staring out the window and chatting through our headphones. That night we discovered that Mr Jhoomun and Max can rap when they participated in an epic rap battle!

Our next stop was Yulara. Here we visited the Cultural Centre to explore a wonderful exhibit on Aboriginal culture, before heading over to the sunset strip to see the Uluru in the beautiful sunset. This is where bus one pulled out their dancing shoes and danced to Uptown Funk in which the entire trip they had been practicing on the bus all in the hope to get on Ellen.

The next day we walked around Uluru as we couldn’t climb due to bad conditions but it still was an amazing experience to enjoy old rock paintings and capture some stunning photos. We also took a short walk around Kata Tjuta as many of us enjoyed as it was remarkably shapes and very interesting formations. The next day we spent the majority of the day driving through Australia’s stunning outback, viewing sand, sand and some rocks. We later arrived at Coober Pedy where we witnessed an opal cutting & polishing demonstration and bought some beautiful jewelry. We also had a tour around the area and went into one of their underground churches. We spent that night sleeping underground at Umoona Opal Mine in cute little cabins.

The next day we left for a 22 hour drive back to Melbourne, with red sand in all of our stuff and many of us sad to leave but others looking forward to get back home and see our families. The bus - where we had spent a massive proportion of the trip - was a place of fun, games and insanity including quizzes, karaoke, who am I and more.

It was an amazing trip, we all had so much fun and made many new friendships! On the behalf of the students who went on Central, thank you so much to all the teachers who endured the years 10’s company for 13 days - Ms Andrieux, Ms Arena, Mr Blackmore, Ms Buntine, Ms Greenwood, Mr Jhoomun, Ms Oh, Ms Maloney, Ms Schmidt, Max, Liam and Patty. It was a truly unforgettable experience that we will never forget!

Brooke Levy and Drew Rebecch

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