Friday 19 October 2003, 11:00pm
By Angelica Cameron

A Barmah Forest Saunter

Last Friday Angelica Cameron returned from the sixth of seven camping trips that make up the Melbourne Rudolf Steiner School's unique and exciting year nine outdoor education program. During the year the students visited a range of beautiful places in and just out of Victoria, encountering them each in their own special way, suited to the environment and nature of the place.

"On each trip the area we visit has been chosen, above all, as a beautiful natural place. This is part of a continuing theme of appreciation for and empathy with nature. An important part of achieving this aim is the intentionally uncomplicated nature of the trips; the less gear you carry the less impact you make, and the more receptive you are to the passive lessons the bush has to offer" writes Arthur Curl the outdoor education coordinator at the Melbourne Rudolf Steiner School where Angelica is a year nine student.

Walking with our swags and dilly bags, front left Arthur Curl leads us on.

Tarran, Angie, Emma, Angelica and Tristen (left to right) have a swim

The sun set as we cook dinner in billies on the fire.

Angelica savours her "thickly spread nutella on mountain bread".

Podding: Merric and Tristen pod across Cutting Creek, while Beau launches his pod.

The Murry River in all its beauty, dividing the Australia states of New South Wales and Victoria.

The edge of a swamp.

So far the trips I have been on include the introductory three day walk along the beach from Cape Liptrap to Sandy Point at Waratah Bay. Then there was a three day hike, through the Otway Ranges National Park. A twelve day camp on a self sustainable farm in New South Wales called Nungatta, followed. Here we learnt about the farm and did floral surveys with botanist and ecologist David Cameron. The next camp was for three days, to Melvilles Caves in central Victoria, where we learnt basic navigation, and explored the tunnels and caves in the huge granite outcrops. Then we went to the Sunset Country where we had a base camp for four days and walked through the desert across Raak Plain.

I have just returned from a four day trip to Barmah Forest up along the Murray River. This trip was designed to "challenge our dependence on technology in an environment speciffically chosen to support our journey".

We took with us only a few woolen blankets rolled up with our one change of clothes in a piece of black plastic. These things were to become our home. On our backs were the dilly bags that we had made. They were just big enough to carry our food for the next four days. Thus we set out on our Barmah Forest Saunter.

As we got off the bus, in the warm mid morning of Monday the 14th of October, it became evident that we would need somehow to cross over a lake. The exciting method of doing this was called "podding". We got into pairs and put ALL our things onto two pieces of black builders plastic, then we gathered up the corners and tied a rope around them to secure the pod. I didn't exactly trust this set up to work, but it was all in the name of adventure, so we launched our pods into the water and they floated! We swam/ waded across the lake, leading our pods through the reeds at the other side.

We unpacked our pods, rolled up our swags and set off for a short walk to find some shade and grass for lunch. I was already falling in love with the place, and the camp was tuning out to be a great one! I had a swim after lunch and then we continued on along the banks of the Murray River.

At night we cooked our dinner on redgum fires, beside which we made our beds on the forest floor. We slept close together so as to share our warmth. The hot days and clear skies brought with them cold nights and shivers. In the mornings we woke up early, it must have been around 5:30 or 6, but we didnt have our watches so it was hard to tell, but the sunrise woke us up. I enjoyed a breakfast of nutella thickly spread on mountain bread :).

On the second day we walked on, through a short thunderstorm, with our pieces of plastic wrapped around us, our dilly bags and our swags. For lunch we met up with the other half of the class who were walking separately. We did a little more podding to get across a creek and continued upstream...

We enjoyed the scenes of beautiful, huge river redgums, and the ever flowing Murray River, carving its way through the land.

On Thusday, we left our things at the camp that we had made, and ventured up a creek that connected the Murray with the myrriad of lakes and swamps that characterise Barmah Forest. We wound our way up the creek crossing it at every available point, running across fallen trees and risking our dry socks leaping through puddles We waded into one of the smaller swamps and watched in awe as a sea eagle dived down and caught a fish for its lunch. On our way back to camp we saw a cute little long necked turtle.

We spent the afternoon podding downstream back towards the bus, and Friday morning doing the same.

I think that the lesson in this camp was a really important one. People could see for themselves that they could not only survive, but thrive without the numerous accessories and comforts that they surround themselves with. They realised that they could find peace and harmony in a world so far from their comfort zone.

Sigurd Olsen wrote in 1976 "Simpicity in all things is the secret of the wilderness and one of its most valuable lessons. It is what we leave behind that is important. I think the matter of simplicity goes further than just food, equipment and unnecessary gadgets; it goes into the matter of thoughts and objectives as well. When in the wilds we must not carry our problems with us or the joy is lost".

I know I learnt and thought a lot on this camp, and I hope all those who go there in the future can enjoy it as much as I did. The story of this camp would not be complete however without adding my heartfelt thanks to Arthur Curl, Damian Stone, and Dominique Pomeroy, who took us on this journey of new and wonderful experiences, and have put up with the dramas and dealt with the difficulties of a group of active emotional teenagers. I also thank Matthew Ogilvie who has come on other camps.

I look forward to the next camp in a month, to the Grampians, where we will hike for five days!