Sunday 10 September- Day 1
Twenty five Year 6 boys woke up very early with their eyes sagging from tiredness, as they left their houses to go to Terminal 3 at Kingsford-Smith Airport.
When we arrived and we got to the baggage drop, all of the parents waved goodbye as we were about to go through security. When we got to security, Birch was selected to go through another security measure to make sure he wasn’t carrying or previously making any bombs. Luckily the police didn’t have to get involved and Birch passed the test.
When we got to the gate there was a forty minute wait to board the plane; destination Alice Springs. We soon discovered that the plane had TVs on the flight and everyone was starting to choose their movies and settled down and watched the takeoff.
Three hours and thirty minutes later we arrived at Alice Springs and some people saw red soil for the first time. We retrieved our bags and met our driver Leonard (Len) and our chef, Mia (Len’s daughter).
We then drove thirty minutes to Simpson’s Gap, had our lunch and then sang our wonderful song, “We are Australian”. When we finished, we had a look at the magical rock formations.
We departed to go to Alice Springs “School of The Air”. Here we learned that they have students from over five hundred kilometres away, in W.A., QLD and even S.A. and even from the other side of the world. Each of the students learning over the airwaves.
We arrived at our bunkhouse for the night, put all of our bags in our room, had a game of basketball against some high school students and later had dinner and dessert under the stars.
Before we went to bed we reviewed our day and how fun it was. We then went to bed ready for the big days ahead.
Joey Boyd, Caolan Witherow, Archie England, James Riddington, Beau Andre de la Porte, Harry Myers
Monday 11 September - Day 2
We woke up to the sound of Mr Mac’s howling dingoes, hopped out of bed and turned on the light as we started to get dressed for the long day ahead of us. The cool, fresh morning air hit us as we opened the large double doors and walked straight to our tables, dilly bag in hand ready for a big delicious breakfast to start the day.
We loaded the bus with our bags and rode off into the morning sun to our first activity, the Alice Springs Desert Wildlife Park. Our tour started off by learning about spinifex grass and the many uses that it has, such as a glue that they melt down to stick things, also providing a home for animals.
As we continued walking through the wildlife park, we saw a variety of different birds such as a spinifex pigeon, which was stepping on the gas in the cage, and the original bush turkey, a big prehistoric looking bird with a pelican looking beak, which the aboriginal people used to hunt for food.
We learned a lot about the tools that aboriginal men and women used to hunt animals and gather resources for their tribe.
Next we moved to the bird show where we learned alot about different birds such as, the magpie, the barn owl and a black-breasted buzzard, which could crack open emu eggs with a rock.
After the bird show we went inside the nocturnal house where we explored many different reptiles, bats and small rodent-like creatures such as bilbies.
We then exited the wildlife park and drove for a good five hours to Kings Creek Station where we set up our tents. The process was long and hard as some kids had real trouble pegging the tents into the red, hard sand. We then rushed to dinner where we had a delicious meal of nachos and spaghetti bolognese with a side of garlic bread which we gobbled up super fast. After dinner we all sat down and looked at the Milky Way galaxy and went on a walk along the road to look at the stars and the Southern Cross.
Then we jumped into our tents where we fell asleep almost instantly, after a long chat with our friends, as we were so exhausted, and dreamed of the long day we had just experienced.
Toby Armstrong, Alex Ludwigson, Stirling McAssey
Tuesday 12 September - Day 3
After a wholesome breakfast we headed off to a small indigenous community called Lilla. We started off by being allowed to enter the land through a traditional smoking ceremony.
Then we went on a beautiful walk to a very sacred waterhole led by an indigenous man named Louis. Along the way we stopped at some caves where Louis told us some very interesting Dreamtime stories. The different minerals in the rocks showed different colours which you could pour water over to make natural face paint which could be used as sunscreen.
Then after a long walk back, we each enjoyed a Super Duper. We then went inside for a lesson on dot painting. The paint was handed over to us where we were given a small canvas and it was our turn to paint. Some boys channelled their inner Picasso and produced some amazing pieces.
After dot painting, we got the incredible chance to throw some aboriginal tools. Most boys had difficulty attaching the woomera (another tool that allows you to throw the spear faster and more accurately) on to the end of the spear but once that problem was solved boys gave it their all, throwing the spears at the box (which luckily for it) came out unscathed. Then Louis showed us how it’s done and threw the spear right into the heart of the box. We also got to throw a non-return boomerang where we learned that the trick was flicking your wrist.
While we were throwing the aboriginal tools, the kangaroo tail was getting cooked. When the kangaroo tail was ready, everyone rushed to the table where the tail was. The meat from the body tasted like a chicken steak and the tail tasted like lamb. Everyone was waving their hands to get the flies away from their tasteful kangaroo.
We said goodbye, then we headed off to our next stop which was the “Karke”indigeous experience. They showed some of their natural food sources, such as how they make biscuits out of acacia seeds and how to find witchetty grubs in the tree roots. Then they also showed us some tools they had crafted including spears, clubs and boomerangs. They also showed us how they made jewellery from seeds. They pierced the seeds with a hot metal stick. They would also brand tools with different patterns.
We were all hot and bothered and as soon as we got back to our campsite we ran to the pool and jumped in! We didn’t feel the pool at first and when we jumped in it was an ice bath. Everyone quickly scrambled out huffing and puffing but you weren’t allowed to say it was cold - instead we said it was freezing! We stayed for around thirty minutes and everyone was sprinting to get in the hot, warm showers.
Then after a delicious dinner, we all had a relaxing campfire together. We were telling spooky stories and looking up to the plentiful stars to try and look for the Southern Cross. In the end Tuesday was a cracker of a day.
Rafael Chubb, Harry Cominakis
Wednesday 13 September - Day 4
On Wednesday morning we all lazily unzipped our tent. Half awake we uncarefully searched for our dilly bags. Breakfast was good. We each had a pancake and some cereal. Leonard, our bus driver, informed us that now we had to pack up our tents.
The first step was to get out the metal pole hanging the entire tent up. After that you needed to grab a special peg remover, or you could just use a peg to remove other pegs. Finally you folded the tent and slotted it in the bag to carry onto the bus.
Then we were off to the famous Kings Canyon Rim Walk.
The Rim walk was exhausting! Everyone filled up their water bottles at every drinking station. We saw amazing views over the edge of the canyon. About half way we stopped and had our muesli bar and juice poppers. Mr Hudson told us that we were about to enter the Garden of Eden. After looking around, the teachers sat us down and told us that there was a species of witchetty grub hiding in the bushes near the water. All of us were really excited because Mr McDonald told us that we could try one. But when Mr Hudson brought them out we all realised that they were just lolly snakes. After we had finished the walk we were all exhausted and could not wait to get an icey, cold Super Duper.
After the Rim Walk, we went back to the bus. It was sultry inside the bus. Luckily, Leonard opened the air-conditioner. All of us felt relaxed and comfortable. Most of us fell asleep. Mr Hudson played a movie called, “Top Gun”. It was interesting. When we woke up, we'd already arrived at Uluru.
We all took a metal pole, pegs and hammer. We were in groups of two and one group of three. We picked up the tent and stuck the metal pole into the tent then put the pegs in.
After we unpacked the tents we all hopped on the bus and drove towards Uluṟu for the sunset viewing. We slowly hobbled over towards a table where we grabbed a paper plate, got some snacks and took some fabulous photos. What an amazing sight!
Hugo Miller, Jack Guan, Tom Devereux
Thursday 14 September - Day 5
After sleeping on the ground on what felt like concrete, Mr Mac howled and we were all awoken with a fright. We packed our day packs ready for the busy day ahead and ate a scrumptious meal for breakfast.
We trotted to the bus for a short ride to Kata Tjuṯa ready for a long rocky walk.
We were off. Flies buzzing around us and sweat dripping down our withered faces. A few kilometres down the track we realised the shear size of the rock formations and how spectacular they were. After thousands of tiring steps we finally reached the beautiful, amazing views as we looked over the whole of Kata Tjuṯa.
We sang our song one last time, listening to it echoing off the surrounding walls, followed by five minutes of silence to take in the surroundings. Amazing!
We sipped our last drops of water refreshing our dry throats as we finally finished the brutal walk escaping the scorching heat of midday.
As we ran on the bus to escape the flies we made our way to Uluṟu, the heart of Australia. We walked around some of the most important, sacred parts of Uluru learning more and more information as we went. We saw the men’s area, the women’s area, the teaching area, the waterhole where the aborigines swim and hunt. Also we saw the original aboriginal kitchen.
We ended the day playing some cricket in the red, dusty sand. The sun set was slowly fading away as we appealed for the wicket, staring down the umpire, waiting for him to give us the “out“ symbol.
In the end everyone had a fantastic day in the Red Centre enjoying the sites and playing cricket in the last of the sunlight.
Harry Cominakis, Kai Turner Smith, Charlie Walker
Friday 15 September- Day 6
We packed up after a long week of walking and dealing with flies, getting ready to go back home to Sydney, but we had one more very important event, riding camels. We rode our camels four hundred metres and we were all talking about their fun facts.
There was also a barn yard at the same place and I saw a baby goat and he walked up to me and licked my hand. There was a chicken yard right next to the goats. We started chasing the chickens but they didn’t like us so they ran away.
We finally were done at the barnyard, so we hopped on the bus back to the campsite to pack up our tents and make our lunch. After we did that it was a quick twenty minutes to the airport. We looked at Uluṟu one last time, said goodbye to Harrison Thomas’ straw hat, and we were off. We had a few delays getting our baggage checked. What a chore!
Mr Mac and Mr Hudson gave us a ten dollar budget to spend on the plane. Most boys combined their budget to get jelly planes and hot chocolate but other people got noodles and a snack using a meal deal on the plane for under ten dollars.
When the lights suddenly turned on, Joey Boyd said that we were ten thousand feet above ground. The crew was shocked that he knew, so they invited him to check the pilot's cockpit but then at the end more people got to look as well. When we landed, our parents were waiting for us and we hugged them, said thank you to the teachers, and headed home for a nice sleep on a comfy bed.
What an adventure!
Harrison Bradshaw, Raef Hock
