As part of the badge-work requirement for the Australian Scout Medallion/Award scouts are required to plan and conduct a three-day (30 km) journey without leaders accompanying them. For my journey I chose to hike in Girraween National Park. During Covid Lockdown, I undertook the planning of the route, the food and the gear requirements for the hike. One of the most important things to take is a spot tracker. This device is like a GPS but it sends regular updates of location so our route could be tracked by the leaders, even though there were not with us for the hike.
I invited five scouts to accompany me on the trek. We did the hike in the Easter school holidays of 2021. Below is a summary of the hike and the fun we had. I recommend that each scout should do one of these hikes before they turn 15.
I invited five scouts to accompany me on the trek. We did the hike in the Easter school holidays of 2021. Below is a summary of the hike and the fun we had. I recommend that each scout should do one of these hikes before they turn 15.
Day 1: The first day was by far the hardest out of the others because it involved climbing Mt Norman with full packs. But the weather was lovely, with lots of sunshine and cool temperatures.
We set off from the Castle Rock campsite at 8 am, and had morning tea and a rest at 10:30. After morning tea we climbed Mt Norman, which was hard work. The views on the way up the mountain, and from the lunch stop at the top, were amazing. After resting at the top of Mt Norman, we walked slowly and carefully down, being careful on the steep granite slopes with our heavy packs. There were more stunning views.
At the Mt Norman Day Use Area we met the leaders and they gave us extra water because there is no water at the Old Stone Cottage Campsite where we planned to camp for the night. The stone cottage campsite wasn’t the best, but it was fun exploring the small ‘dams’ and ruined cottage. There were lots of birds at the dams, and pig wallows.
We decided to eat dinner early and get into our tents before dark to keep warm. Later that night, two of us were woken up by dogs or dingoes wandering around our campsite. We made sure all the food was in the tents and that the rubbish was on top of a wall of the ruined kitchen so the dogs couldn’t reach it. The dogs eventually wandered on leaving us to sleep.
Day 2: The second day was another sunny cool day. The walk was reasonably flat with lots of stream crossovers. We had to use logs and sticks to help us cross. Due to the ground being very soft, we found footprints of a wild dog with a paw as big as my palm and a kangaroo print so clear you could see the skin pattern on the pad.
Because we got to the pre-arranged campsite early we decided, as the leaders had previously suggested, to continue walking another 2km to the Dingo Swamp track trailhead and camped about 100m away from the road. This turned out to be a really nice campsite. We met the leaders there so they could make sure we had enough water.
Day 3: Because we only had a short day we took our time to pack up and get started. WE stopped off at a lovely deep waterhole to fill our billies and have hot chocolate in the warm sunshine and explore the creek before we headed off along the final part of our hike. The walk along the Creek Track is very easy. It is a track used by bikes so it is flat and well maintained and we saw kangaroos close to the track.
Overall Reflection:
This was a good hike. I think everyone enjoyed it and got on well. We were very well prepared. It was good to have the spot tracker and I am glad I know how to use it. I learned that it is better to do hikes when it is cool. I really enjoyed doing this hike and by far my favourite part of it was seeing all of the scenery and wildlife of Girraween. The only thing I might do differently is maybe pick a longer more challenging route next time.
A big thank you to Bundy for all his help with planning and to Bundy, Chill and Gecko for coming to Girraween with us.
Darcy Siepen
We set off from the Castle Rock campsite at 8 am, and had morning tea and a rest at 10:30. After morning tea we climbed Mt Norman, which was hard work. The views on the way up the mountain, and from the lunch stop at the top, were amazing. After resting at the top of Mt Norman, we walked slowly and carefully down, being careful on the steep granite slopes with our heavy packs. There were more stunning views.
At the Mt Norman Day Use Area we met the leaders and they gave us extra water because there is no water at the Old Stone Cottage Campsite where we planned to camp for the night. The stone cottage campsite wasn’t the best, but it was fun exploring the small ‘dams’ and ruined cottage. There were lots of birds at the dams, and pig wallows.
We decided to eat dinner early and get into our tents before dark to keep warm. Later that night, two of us were woken up by dogs or dingoes wandering around our campsite. We made sure all the food was in the tents and that the rubbish was on top of a wall of the ruined kitchen so the dogs couldn’t reach it. The dogs eventually wandered on leaving us to sleep.
Day 2: The second day was another sunny cool day. The walk was reasonably flat with lots of stream crossovers. We had to use logs and sticks to help us cross. Due to the ground being very soft, we found footprints of a wild dog with a paw as big as my palm and a kangaroo print so clear you could see the skin pattern on the pad.
Because we got to the pre-arranged campsite early we decided, as the leaders had previously suggested, to continue walking another 2km to the Dingo Swamp track trailhead and camped about 100m away from the road. This turned out to be a really nice campsite. We met the leaders there so they could make sure we had enough water.
Day 3: Because we only had a short day we took our time to pack up and get started. WE stopped off at a lovely deep waterhole to fill our billies and have hot chocolate in the warm sunshine and explore the creek before we headed off along the final part of our hike. The walk along the Creek Track is very easy. It is a track used by bikes so it is flat and well maintained and we saw kangaroos close to the track.
Overall Reflection:
This was a good hike. I think everyone enjoyed it and got on well. We were very well prepared. It was good to have the spot tracker and I am glad I know how to use it. I learned that it is better to do hikes when it is cool. I really enjoyed doing this hike and by far my favourite part of it was seeing all of the scenery and wildlife of Girraween. The only thing I might do differently is maybe pick a longer more challenging route next time.
A big thank you to Bundy for all his help with planning and to Bundy, Chill and Gecko for coming to Girraween with us.
Darcy Siepen