Inaki Voelcker-Sala

From the 4th of June till the 6th of June Mawson Trail Year 10 Outdoor Ed A class of 2013 16 Students, all male. Inaki Voelcker-Sala Mr Horsnell.

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1. Introduction, Page 3.

2. Daily account of the camp, Pages.

3. Day 1, Page.

4. Day 2, Page.

5. Day 3, Page.

6. Menu, Page.

7. Equipment list, Page.

8. Personal benefits, Page

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Introduction
This Outdoor education camp was created in order to test the various skills and techniques which we picked up during the weekly practical riding sessions in the weeks before the camp. Some of the practicals were focused on dirt jumping or down hilling, such as the city dirt jump trip, however others were more based on fitness such as the Springfield and Brown hill Creek trips. During these sessions everyone learned what they were capable of and what they needed to improve on, based on what they saw in others. Personally I learned that I needed to work on fitness, and as I did, I saw I had less and less trouble riding. The camp would include parts of the Rattler and Riesling trails; however most of it would be going along the Mawson trail. The first day would include a climb up the Camels Hump Range, and that night would be spent at the Clare caravan park in our tents. The second day would be the longest, almost three times longer than the first day, however the first 20km were downhill and the rest was fairly flat. That night would be spent around Marschalls hut, a Hyson trail shelter. The final day would be very short, a 15km ride to the Riverton High School.

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Camp, Daily Account.

Day 1; Our class left Urrbrae at about half past nine after packing the bikes and luggage. I sat next to Matt Morgan on the bus because we are friends and we were told it would be about three hours in the bus. As we travelled, the landscape became gradually more rural until we arrived in the Clare valley. At the base of the valley we stopped in a town called Tarlee, for a toilet stop and we were on our way soon after. We arrived in Hanson after a trip that was just under three hours at the sight of a very small school which appeared abandoned. When we got out and unpacked our daypacks and bicycles, Mr Horsnell asked us all to take out our maps. He was extremely angry when Jarrad Heinrich and I were the only ones who remembered them. As a result of this, Jarrad and I were chosen as leaders and we quickly left to cross the main road. Once we crossed to Gum Tree Road we followed it for fifty metres then turned onto Iron Mine Road. The start was quite difficult for me, however once I raised my seat I had no issues. We set a pace of about 20km/h and we soon reached the turn onto the Mawson trail. Unfortunately the turn was in the middle of a downhill part and we went past the turn but the teachers knew the way and we started the adventure. The ground on the trail started off really nice, possibly the best surface I ever rode on, the bikes all rolled on it perfectly even on gentle uphill parts. Unfortunately the ground was almost pure clay. When dry its perfect for cycling, however we started straight after some fairly heavy rains and some parts of the trail were still wet. Clay doesnt soak water in so there were ponds everywhere. The ponds themselves were easy to avoid, however the mud around them wasnt. The sticky clay started about a quarter of the way through, grabbing onto the tyres, fattening them and making it harder to ride. As we continued some people slid out, but it wasnt until the second batch of mud that the wheels got clogged up with mud. We all had to scrape the mud off several times. When we hit a particularly bad muddy area, my chain and derailer where covered in mud and the derailer bent. I thought it was broken, however Mr Night bent it back and said it was fixed. I only rode a little way further when the entire derailer snapped off. I put the bike in the back of the Ute and hopped in the back myself and was taken up to the top of the Camels Hump Range where we had lunch. Mr Horsnell and I drove to Clare to find a bike-shop, but there werent any. We decided that I had to use a hire bike. We then went back to find the class and led them to the caravan park. When we arrived we got straight into it, setting up the tents and putting all our things into them. I then had a shower and we all relaxed while we waited for the bus. When it did arrive we all grabbed our food and headed over to the kitchen area, stopping to look at my new hire bike, a competition bike from the brand Cube. Matt and I cooked sausages in bread, hash browns and potato salad. We cooked on the same barbeque as Jarrad and Mitch so we made a deal, we would clean up at night and they would in the morning. When we had finished cleaning, we all settled down near the tents to

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talk until we decided to sleep, unpacking our sleeping bags and mats. Altogether I slept quite well, however at the start someone was watching a movie without earphones which kept everyone awake. The day was altogether overcast, with clouds covering the sky. There was no real rain, however when we arrived in the caravan park, it did spit for a while. The temperature didnt reach 15 degrees, so any inactivity resulted in cold. This weather was fairly ideal for riding as it didnt allow us to get too hot.

Day 2; Today we were woken up at about 7:10 in the morning by Mr Horsnell. We got dressed and packed up our sleeping bags and mats. WE all dressed warmly as it was freezing outside. We were all still cold so we quickly made our way to the kitchen area to start our breakfast. Matt and I decided to cook eggs, bacon and hash browns. It took quite a while as the barbeque kept turning off. Matt and I each had 3 eggs, 3 rashers of bacon and 2 hash browns. The other group also did eggs and bacon and the resulting mess took them a while to clean. Matt and I packed the rest of our things and then the tent. We took all our baggage to the trailer for storage. After that I rode around on my new bike and got used to it. It was an extremely good bike and I was very happy. Soon after this everyone was ready and we crossed the road to the trail. This first stretch was 20km long and we had all raced down it. The surface was gravel and it was a gentle downhill gradient. I stayed with the two leading people the whole way until Auburn. Everyone was in high spirits and confident that they would make it. We stopped under a shelter in Auburn to have snacks and we changed leaders. The second stretch was on the Rattler rail trail. The old rails were visible on some of the road crossings. Mr Horsnell pointed out that they were different from the current rails we have and told us that trading by rail with Victoria was an issue as Victoria had different rails from us at the time. This stretch was largely uphill, only gentle uphill gradients, however, after we had done 10kms everyone was completely exhausted. The current landscape was a series of cattle farms and it didnt smell very good. After that first 10kms everyone was actively looking for the signs saying how many kms there were until we reached Riverton. When we did finally reach Riverton, we stopped at the Riverton High School to have lunch. We were there for quite some time, as no one really wanted to go any further. However, after we found out that it would only be about 10km to the hut, we all left fairly quickly at an extremely slow pace. Unfortunately the leaders didnt read the map correctly and we took a wrong turn up a steep hill. At the top, the teachers informed us that we shouldnt have gone up it. From there the extremely slow pace up the hill continued. When we reached the top of the road, there was a steep downhill until we reached the dirt road up to the hut. That dirt road was hellish. Everyone was in gear 1 1 and the pace was slower than walking pace. Many people gave up and walked up some however I stuck with it and made it all the way up. When we reached the top we all walked into the hut and collapsed for a while. We heard a short speech from Mr Horsnell and Mr Brookes and we

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learned some history about the hut. It was called Marschalls hut and it belonged to a German family of 8 children and their parents. The ruined hut was partially rebuilt to become a refuge for those people doing the Heysen trail. When the Ute arrived Matt and I decided to build the tent as fast as possible as there were some very dark clouds above and it was starting to spit down with rain. After all our things were in the tent we went in the hut where the fire was already burning. Luckily everyone didnt stay exhausted and some people were riding around the hut, making jumps and entertaining everyone. As soon as it was nearly dark, everyone grabbed all their food and went inside to start cooking. Matt and I decided to cook pasta with chorizo. We had pasta sauce and cheese and it was delicious. We also had sweet potatoes, which were wrapped in alfoil and put in the fire. We used the trangea to cook the pasta and afterwards Matt was in charge of cleaning it. When that was done we all stayed in the warm hut for a while until people, tired, decided to go to sleep. When half the group was outside I broke out the marshmallows for friends. I had real issues sleeping at night as there was a group making a lot of noise well into the night. In the morning, I was woken up early by the same group screaming and yelling about something. Day 3; Today