Philip Edwardes, a former Outward Bound staff member, reflects on the uniqueness of Outward Bound and it's people when dealing with an all familiar but challenging experience.

On the weekend I took a group of four kids and one ex student (effectively the same as a ‘gappie) from our school to the Cooleman area to do their Duke of Edinburgh bronze level expedition. This is the first time any sort of Outdoor Education has been attempted at our school in a long time so it was a big thing for parents and students. We camped at Coolamine Mountain campsite (about 6km back along the road from Blue Water Holes) on Sunday night and then set off on our walk along Mosquito Creek Fire Trail looking much like a truncated Outward Bound group with our ex Outward Bound Australia  packs, long sleeves and long pants. The day went really well with many "How long till we get there’s? " and equally as many "Let’s look at the map’s." There was much excitement at the many brumbies in the area as two of our kids are ‘horsey’ types.

As the predicted afternoon storms closed in I tried to crack the whip but with three year nine girls we dawdled along the track towards Blue Water Holes. Finally the inevitable happened, ten minutes from the camp the heavens opened and rain fell, followed by hail and rain, followed by hail, rain and wind, followed by hail, rain, wind and lightning. I had all the students and the ‘gappie’ huddled on the ground in their barely adequate rainwear as lightning cracked amongst the surrounding hills and the ground was soon covered in hail and water. The hail was coming down so hard the kids were yelping as the stones stung their backs. I held a laminated map over them to prevent them getting hit directly in the head. Over the next 15 minutes the hail eased off occasionally but would then intensify, preventing us from moving. Finally the hail stopped and the lightning seemed to have moved on enough for me to be confident to get up and put up a tent. The ‘gappie’ and I got the tent up and emptied of all the water that had pooled on the waterproof floor while we struggled with the fly. This floor was ice cold as by this stage the tent was sitting on a bed of hail. By now the students were pretty much frozen, with clothes soaked and rain still falling steadily, there was no way I could get them into dry clothes (most of which were cotton anyway) so I just told them to strip down to their underwear and all five to get into the two person tent, (I could always explain this to concerned educational authorities later). I threw in ground mats and (ex Outward Bound Australia) sleeping bags and pretty soon they were wet but warm in their little tent sauna. Time to take a deep breath.

So, up went another two tents and I shuffled all the kids into the marginally drier of these two tents and set off on the long walk back to our vehicle. I hoped there might be someone camping at Blue Water Holes but the campsite was bare. Just as I resigned myself to the six km walk, along came a familiar white Troopie with blue Tonka trailer behind. I flagged them down, Mark and El(?) looked very confused, they thought I was a Cranbrook teacher already out there. Still, they couldn’t have been more friendly - despite being in the middle of the start of a course. I explained what was happening and Mark immediately offered a lift back to our vehicle, no dramas. This accomplished I got our little 1988 Tarago van down to Blue Water Holes and loaded up the kids. My concern now was our 2WD van wouldn’t make it back up the steep track. No worries there either, Mark, having just completed his second group shuttle, waited and drove up right behind us.

Four hours of driving later and we were all home safely, kids were delivered into anxious parent’s arms and I actually had heartfelt thankyou’s from parents. Kids who had given a somewhat distant farewell were genuinely hugging and happy to see their mums and dads.

A couple of points from this story:

• Outward Bound is an organisation of awesome people. Having done three courses as an accompanying teacher, five years as a staff member and now still randomly coming into contact with Outward Bound people fifteen years after my original course I can say this with some authority. It’s a positive ‘can do’ attitude that sets every Outward Bound person apart, whether it’s Stu and Andy giving up their Sunday to get me set up with some old packs or Mark appearing (as if scripted) to offer me a lift. The day to day battles against the forces of evil administration and the non believers can get you down but remember you are doing a good thing.
  
• Bivvies are great. I was always a bit dubious when I first saw them in use but having seen them in so many different ways, they are definitely safer than tents in the majority of situations. If only I’d had a bivvy in the hail storm we would have been absolutely fine. It’s important to realise that they aren’t just a cheap substitute for a tent, they are a safety item.
  
• Having now been in the situation of organising and running Outdoor Education activities on my own I realise how important all the systems that Outward Bound Australia has in place are. Sometimes as an instructor you can lose sight of the incredible amount of support that is available for you, and the quality of that support also.
  
• One thing that you do miss out on though is that ‘end point’ of a course for the kids. When those buses drive away and you all breathe a sigh of relief and turn to cleaning and debriefing, those kids still have another couple of hours of their course, it only finishes when they are back with their parents. It’s a shame that we rarely get to see that reunion, I suspect that if Outdoor Education staff did, their level of job satisfaction would be much much higher. I also suspect that observing the moment of student/parent reunion would help explain a lot about the behaviour of those students.