Travel Day - The Adventure Begins -Molly Chard 

- We met at the Armidale train station at 8 o'clock, to make the train at 8:40 and took games and activities to keep us occupied. 

- We travelled to Stratfield, changed trains at Olympic Park, then took a bus to Penrith then a train to Katoomba and walked to the Katoomba Christian Convention Centre. 

Day 1 Rock Climbing and Abseiling  - Elsie Wake

On our first full day in Katoomba, we were split up into two groups and spent the day rock climbing and abseiling. We started off the day learning how to put on our harnesses and how to abseil. We got to abseil down 3 - 4 cliffs, all of different heights, and it was great practice before our rock climbing, where we had to belay each other and got to climb a cliff in three different sections. By the end of the day we could abseil and belay on our own. It was really fun and a great start to our trip.

Day 2 Canyoning  - Mylee Yu

On the second day, we woke up early at 7:30, and we were getting ready to go canyoning. We had a quick breakfast before packing our snacks and lunch that the teachers provided for us. The bus arrived at 8:30 to drive us to the Blue Mountains Adventure Office to get our wetsuits, harnesses, helmets and dry bags fitted. After we got our wetsuits and gear, we went to the Grand Canyon parking lot making sure we had everything we needed in our canyon bags and headed off on a little hike down to where we did our first abseiling.

There was about a 10 metre drop and a 7 metre overhang which you couldn’t see from above the hole. I was the second to go and I didn’t know what to expect since you couldn't see the ground. You had to jump off the rock and basically freefall but with a rope attached to you. But after the drop you were just hanging in the cave with water down below and you could see the waterfall. That was the only abseiling we had to do for the day, and the whole actual canyoning only took us 3 hours to complete. There were some sections of the canyon where you had to swim because you couldn't touch the bottom but someone told us the water was only going to be knee deep. There were crawfish in the river and we found claystone that we used to smudge all over our faces. Overall I think it was a great experience although the hike back up was not fun.

Study Day - Molly Chard 

Our rest day was a day where we got to have a sleep-in (8:00am) but we also learned some very valuable lessons about study skills and how to take those into consideration when preparing for assessments and exams. Mrs Fittler taught us about the importance of spaced study and not to leave everything until the last minute (crammed study), and then Ms Burney taught us how to study maths well and in the correct way in order to get the best mark possible for ourselves. 

Options Day  - Maggie Wicksteed

On this day, we had three options. A bush walk, canyoning or rock Climbing. For the rock climbers, we had a quick drive to the start of our track then a two minute walk to our first abseil with the best view in Katoomba, or so we were told, we didn’t get to see with the thick fog around us.

For our first abseil, you couldn’t see how far you had to go until you’d walked down a few meters and cleared the edge, which made it a bit more interesting.  Then we walked to our first traverse line - which is just a rope clipped into the boulder in case we fall- where we went around the edge of the cliff then through a crack in the boulders. At this point you had a foot on either side with only a long drop under you. Which sounds kinda scary when I put it like that, but it was honestly probably the safest I felt all day. Not to put you off.

Once we were through, we were lowered down on a rope that was a bit of a tight fit, and then we landed on yet another ledge. From here, we abseiled down to our fourth and final abseil. This last abseil was a bit longer, a 40 meter drop, which we then rock climbed up. I’d definitely have to say this was my favourite part. The climb was pretty quick, but even with the mist making the rocks more slippery and covering the view, it was fun climbing up and looking down to see the 40-metre cliff you’d just scaled. 

We had lunch sitting on the edge of the cliff—nothing was dropped, though a bag came pretty close to taking a one-way trip down the mountain. Then we traversed around the cliff edge and up to where we unclipped and finished.

We learned tons and some of us even overcame our fears. Overall it was a great day and something I know most of us wouldn’t have done otherwise, but I can’t wait to do again. 

Options Day - Canyoning - Mylee Yu

On the 4th day of ESJ, we had an early wake up at 6:15 to head off on our canyoning adventure. That day, we got to go canyoning in the Serendipity Canyon. The day before we went there, we were told that the water would be a lot warmer. It was, in fact, not warmer but colder. 

When we got there, we were split into two groups. In the canyon, we had to do four abseils to get right down to the bottom of the canyon; the second group got to do two extra abseils, in the beginning, to make sure there was a time in between the groups for one of the extra abseils I was the first one to go down so when I told to step down onto the side of the rocks I did. Still, there was an over that I was not prepared for, so I flipped upside down, hit my head on the side of the rock ,and everyone else just saw my feet in the air. 

After we continued through the canyon, it took us about 4 hours to do the full canyon, which included an hour-and-a-half-long walk out and was very steep in some places before we started our climb out, we jumped off a rock. But overall, I think everyone had great fun, even though sometimes we were a bit worried about Mr. Taylor, especially when Mr Taylor was doing an abseil into a hole, stopped halfway down and started taking off his safety ropes even though we were all at the bottom screaming at him to put them back on.

Travel Day - Home -Molly Chard 

On our final day we woke up at 5:15 to get bus company to take us to the train station, then took a train to Stratfield changed trains and finally got off at 5:30pm in Armidale