Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award
Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award
Silver Expedition- Kayaking the River Murray
It was a pleasant Monday 2 May when ten students from Years 9 and 10 along with three staff members departed for a three-day expedition kayaking on the back waters of the River Murray. This expedition set another milestone for SAC as it took the total number of students who, since the introduction of the Duke’s Award to the College in 1999, have kayaked on the Murray for their Silver expedition to over 800.
After packing the trailer with camping equipment, food, supplies and kayaks, we departed SAC at 8:45am and after about a three hour drive we arrived at our starting point, Cobdogla on the River Murray.
Once there we set about unloading the trailer and organising ourselves for a short kayak trip to re-familiarise ourselves with the techniques and safety procedures of kayaking. The students quickly established themselves as competent kayakers so we headed to our first camp site at Kingston-on-Murray to set up our tents, prepare and cook dinner.
The following morning at 6:30am proved to be somewhat cold and a little overcast, it even looked as if it could rain, which thankfully did not eventuate. The students arose from their tents and immediately set about cooking their breakfast, preparing their lunch and organising themselves for a long day kayaking on the River followed by a remote camp on the banks of the Murray on Loch Lunar. This entailed the necessity for all the students to pack into their kayaks enough water, food and other supplies into their kayaks together with their tents, sleeping bags and clothes. They had to be totally self sufficient for two days.
The students participating in the expedition were: Alexis Auret, Mariah Bennett, Emma Borgmeyer, Keira Gerrard, Abbie Gibney, Adi Hardy, Lola Herrmann, Tali Hodgkiss- Roberts, Molly O’Halloran and Yasmin Toy. The staff participating were: Michael Heath, Sue Wright and Alan Brown.
Mr Alan Brown
Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Coordinator
