The offite activities have started today with Dan and David going ino Launceston, Robbie and Debbie taking a flight and Duncan and Patrick off to the beach amongst others.
Syd has also seen Liam E, Amy, Michael and Liam C around the Venture site with their new mates from the Expedition unit.
Weatherwise its like an English summer – 17 degrees at lunchtime per Wild FM but the windchill making it feel 12 degrees!!
With the Venturers due back on site late afternoon Syd took the opportunity to go for a walk at Cradle Mountain.
Most of the UK members were back by around 7pm and all had enjoyed their expeditions. The majority of the 1,000 strong camp were in bed well before the 1am curfew.
Another long but good day for Syd visiting Expedition Units and at the same time seeing the stunning scenery of Tasmania. First off to Freycinet where Amy’s Adventure Tour Unit were based but due to a lack of mobile phone reception we were unable to catch up with them so instead went for a walk along to the Wineglass Bay lookout.
From there a short drive North to Bichinot where we met up with Liam C and Thomas from the Diving Expedition who were both having a great time. Adam’s Diving Unit were still out and Phillip’s Tall Ship Unit were also going to be staying at the site that night because of the forecast of very heavy seas overnight.
Then a long drive back past Launceston to Westbury arriving around 8.30pm to meet the Bush Raiders units where Robbie, David plus Debbie, Duncan & Patrick were all based along with 10 whole Units so over 200 people. Their Expedition Leader Michael had set up a very nice campsite on his own rodeo ranch complete with a stage and bands providing evening entertainment. All there seemed happy and were looking forward to theuir final day’s activity plus Michael had also promised to take David out around the property that night to see what local wildlife they could spot.
Syd’s Expedition Tour ended by returning to Quercus Park and the Venture site ready for the return of the main camp on Monday night.
Syd had a quick look around Salamanca market in Hobart this morning and ran into 2 Expedition Units while there – the Sailing and the Southern Adventure Tour – and found that all Leaders and Venturers that he spoke to were enjoying their Expeditions.
From there the team drove South to Dover and met Neil the expedition manager at their camp site. Half of Dan’s Extreme Adventure Unit were kayaking into the campsite from Dover but Dan was playing beach games at Dover having been in the half that kayaked out. Syd did see both Dan and Liam E shortly afterwards at Hastings Thermal pools – both really enjoying themselves and making plenty of friends within their Units plus Liam has been entertaining the whole campsite in the evenings with his guitar.
Syd travelled further South in search of Guy’s South Cape Experience Unit but after reaching Cockle Creek where we had been told they would be we found that the other Unit were there that night and Guy’s were some way away at a different site for the night.
Again all Venturers having a great time and Expeditions running well.
Syd and the rest of the camp were woken up by Princess on Wild FM a little after 5 am and from around 5.45 onwards he could be heard chasing up stragglers as the Expeditions all left between 6 and 9am.
Syd then drove out to Stanley where Jason and the Tarkine Tour were starting off and after delicious fish and chips took a very windy chairlift to the top of the Nut – great views of the surrounding area and Chris and Moose also spotted a couple of wallabies in the wild.
In the evening Syd joined the VOC and some of the other Contingent teams for dinner in Launceston before heading off South tomorrow to start to visit UK members on their Expeditions.
The UK Contingent have all safely arrived in Tasmania with the Yorkshire Contingent flying in from Sydney at 11.30 and the Bexleyheath Contingent arriving from Melbourne at 13.00 After a short transfer of around 20 minutes we arrived at Quercus Park, met up with one another and also the Explorers, Duncan, Patrick and Debbie met up with their Expedition Units for the first time as they all camp together as a Unit throughout the Venture.
The Northallerton Explorers had all thoroughly enjoyed their week in Sydney and Syd spotted several of them around the site with their new found Australian friends while Chris, Moose and Duncan met up with friends made at previous Ventures.
After dinner the camp was formally opened by the camp chief and Venture organisers together with local dignatories before entertainment kicked off culminating in an appearance by The Jezebels, a well known Australian band.
G’Day. The UK Contingent have arrived Down Under!! The Explorers from North Yorkshire are spending the week in Sydney until they fly to Tasmania on 3 January for the Venture.
The major excitement on Syd’s flight to Melbourne was an unspecified ‘incident’ elsewhere on the A380 which led to another passenger being relocated to the vacant seat next to Debbie for landing and the 2 hour stop over in Singapore giving Moose and Chris the opportunity to sample a Singapore Sling each at 8am local time!!
Syd and Co arrived in Melbourne, collected the hire car and once Moose had mastered an automatic had a smooth drive to our base for the next week – the Space Hotel, bang opposite the Old Melbourne Gaol. Moose hasn’t had to tackle the unique Melbourne ‘hook-turn’ yet when turning right but has been threatening to go and practise some ‘handbrake hook-turns’ later!!
Around a third of the UK contingent took the ferry over to Rottnest Island and then explored the island either on bike or by tour bus.
The hottest day in Perth for a year – 42C
Most of the others went sailing with sea scouts from Perth met at Escape – great hall on the beach with stunning views of the city.
The Rottnest group then joined up with the others in the evening for a barbecue.
The penultimate full day at Fairbridge and the majority of the Unit didn’t have any major offsite activities booked today.
Many of the Unit took the Escape from Escape shuttle bus into nearby Mandurah.
Syd spotted Joe & Kieron changing some more dollars at the shopping centre. Meanwhile James was down by the foreshore with some of his tall ships unit.
Syd also heard that Helen had been allowed offsite as her foot continues to improve and as she went off with Charlotte, Jasmine and Jess would guess that some retail theorapy was prescribed.
After almost a week onsite most of us feel as though there is a residual layer of sunblock, dust and sand left even after taking a shower.
However, Moose found the perfect remedy for this at the golf shop in Mandurah ;0)
In the evening the UK Leaders went offsite to the Clansmen restaurant for a Contingent meal of steak and chips – it is a Venture tradition that the leaders from each State Contingent do this on one evening of the 2nd phase of the Venture.
Meanwhile there was a State v State competition organised with various events such as a triathlon, earth football, frozen t-shirt and dodge ball which was so fiercely competitive that a halt was called before the finale tug of war.
We entered a Commonwealth team of us and New Zealand plus the 2 Canadian Venturers – our team did really well and we await the final results at the closing ceremony with great expectation but a little fear that New South Wales may ‘fix’ the results.
A fantastic barbecue in Oatley last night, enjoyed by the whole UK contingent in Sydney at present of over 30 and hosted by 1st Oatley Bay Scouts.
Great steaks, sausages, salads and pavlovas and then to top it off they arranged for the Explorers to go kayaking in Oatley Bay as well.
An early start this morning and a train trip up into the Blue Mountains for a walk recommended by Lloyd’s uncle – some stunning scenery and views of the Wentworth waterfalls but when he said it was ‘quite strenuous’ he wasn’t kidding!!
Now in Katoomba and in about 10 minutes we’re all off for a pizza before the return journey down to Sydney.
Understand that it’s freezing in Bexleyheath – sure you’ll be cheered to hear the forecast for later in the week here : 36C in Sydney and 41C in Perth!!