If you have not already done so, inform your Award Leader of your intention to complete your Adventurous Journey. Your Award Leader may also like to be given the link to this website.
Please note: If you are completing the Award through Outward Bound Australia’s Open Award Centre, you do not need to complete this step.
To set up your Adventurous Journey (Practice and Qualifying) and record Preparation and Training activities click on the Adventurous Journey section from the list of sections available on your ORB landing page.
To create your Practice / Qualifying Journey:
- Click on Practice or Qualifying Journey option from the Adventurous Journey Overview, according to the Journey you would like to create.
- Insert your Journey details in the pop-up windows.
- In the Assessor Details section use the following information:
- Mrs. Caroline Bowman
- dukeofed@outwardbound.org.au
- +61448238930
- In the Supervisor Details section, use the following information:
- Outward Bound Australia
- dukeofed@outwardbound.org.au
- +61262355700
- In the Assessor Details section use the following information:
- Press Setup to finish setting up your Journey.
Behaviour
Completing the hike is only half of the requirements. At all times we expect you to:
- Behave respectfully to your peers and Supervisor in both your actions and language.
- Participate in decision making within your map group.
- Give the experience 100% of your commitment and ability.
- Keep a daily log of your trip to assist you with your Adventurous Journey Report.
- Be responsible for you own rubbish.
- Respect the environment.
- Bring only the medication that has been declared in your medical form.
- No other drugs will be permitted, including alcohol, tobacco etc.
Outward Bound Supervisors will send you home if you fail to meet these standards. In this instance we will not approve your journey and we will not issue a refund.
Mobile Phones and Music
There is usually limited mobile phone reception on our walks. You can switch your phone to flight mode if you want to use it to take photos, otherwise turn it off and leave it in your pack. You are not allowed to listen to music, so please don’t expect to walk along with earphones in or play music through speakers at camp.
Toileting
Read your specific itinerary to see what toilets, if any, are available on your journey. If you need to go where there are no toilets you will need to bury your waste. Please bring a sturdy hand trowel for this purpose.
Environmental Care
We follow the seven principles of Leave No Trace. Read up about these principles before leaving home. You might even want to print out the summary as a reminder during your journey.
Ensure the digital Participant Consent and Medical Information Form is filled in and submitted. Your journey dates will be opened in the form 6-weeks before your journey start.
We ask you to complete this no later than seven (7) days prior to your journey’s start date.
If you are 17 years or younger, you will need to have your parent or legal guardian complete and submit on your behalf.
If you are diagnosed as having anaphylaxis or chronic asthma you will be required to provide your management or action plan. If your plan is older than 12 months, please visit your GP to have your documents updated.
Getting the right gear for you is crucial for your enjoyment of the journey and ensuring you don’t hurt yourself. Be ruthless in your choices and only pack exactly what you need. All of your items should fit inside your hiking pack to avoid damage to both your gear and the environment, this includes your sleeping mat.
Under 18 years-old? For your safety, your pack should weigh no more than one-quarter (25%) of your body weight.
18 years-old or over? For your safety, your pack should weigh no more than one-third (33%) of your body weight.
Click on the image below for our recommended kit list. To help you source everything, we have teamed up with Camp List, who offer many of the items specified for hire and/or purchase. To see what they have available go to www.camplist.com.au and in the central search bar type “Outward Bound Australia”.
What meals to pack
For your Gold Adventurous Journey, we expect you to provide the following meals as a minimum:
- Lunches for every day.
- Dinners for every night.
- Breakfasts for every morning.
- High energy snacks for every day.
Enjoy your food, enjoy your journey
The key to a great hike is great fuel. Here are some tips to consider and some food suggestions.
- A balanced hiking diet includes more fat and sugar than a normal diet.
- Remove as much packaging as you can and re-pack in zip-lock bags.
- Package your zip-lock bags by meal rather than individual items and label them
- e.g. Lunch Day 1
- Canned food is too heavy and glass bottles and jars may break in your pack, so dispense these foods where possible.
- Pack breakfast and dinner in one big strong stuff-bag, and lunch and snacks in another of a different colour. This makes it easier to find what you want when you need it.
- Consider if you really need a bowl, or can you eat from your pot? Do you really need a dinner knife, fork and spoon?
- There are often no garbage bins at campsites or on trail so you’ll have to carry out all the packaging you carry in.
- Bring the lightest food that takes the shortest time to cook.
Be aware that everything has to survive without refrigeration (please don’t bring a cooler bag). Check out the Food Safety Information Council for advice on appropriate foods for camping and bushwalking.
Food Suggestions
Breakfast
Cereals, muesli or instant oats with long life or powdered milk.
- Long life milk can be found as single-serve poppers
- Powdered milk is much lighter and only needs water added to it.
Hot breakfast such as baked beans or spaghetti provide great protein but are heavy to carry. You may also need to wake up earlier to cook, eat, and clean up in enough time.
TIP: Measure out the amount of cereal per day and put in a snap lock bag with powdered milk.
Lunch
Crackers like Ryvita, Salada, and Vita-weets provide good levels of carbohydrate.
Bread and wraps are ok for Day 1, but can quickly go stale.
Cheese such as Laughing Cow, Dutch Edam or Babybells keep well.
Dried meats including salami and jerky etc. are great forms of protein and salt. It will keep fresher if whole, so remember a knife. Fresh meats are not recommended.
Salad vegetables including carrots, cucumber, capsicum etc. keep well in packs. Also consider deli items like sun-dried tomatoes.
Spreads like Vegemite, hummus, chunky dips and honey make great additions to crackers.
TIP: It’s better if you don’t have to cook lunch as we may not have time.
Dinner
Packaged pasta and rice are good options, although may take longer to cook. Couscous is a good choice if you want a speedy meal.
Add a packet tuna, salmon, or ham to get protein and add freeze dried vegetables for nutrition. These are cheap and easy meals. Just remember to look after the rubbish.
Freeze dried/dehydrated meals from brands like Back Country, Campers Pantry and The Outdoor Gourmet Company are a great balance between weight and nutrition but are more expensive to buy.
Snacks
Hard fruits like apples are great. Soft fruits if not protected can go soggy. Dried fruits are your best option.
Make your own trail mix with a selection of sultanas, seeds, dried fruit and chocolate! However, please do not add nuts to your mix. We are a nut-aware organisation.
Packaged bars and snacks like muesli bars, LeSnacks and grain biscuits are good snacks and are generally light. Strip off the bulk packaging at home and keep these foods together in zip-lock bags.
Packaged soups, particularly if your journey dates will be cold, can be a great treat. 2-minute noodles and all other similar foods are okay for a hot snack, but are not satisfactory for an evening meal due to their limited nutrition.
TIP: Think of your snacks as supplementary to your main meals. Sugary things are okay for a special treat, but not as a source of long-term energy.
Drinks
When you are walking, water should be your only drink. If the weather is hot, you may consider bringing Hydralyte to help restore electrolytes. Please don’t bring drinks such as Gatorade etc. as they are not designed for the endurance exercise of hiking.
Hot drinks like Cup-a-Soups, hot chocolate, milo, tea or coffee are a lovely treat at camp. Just remember to measure out the quantities needed rather than carry the container.
Physical Training
We advise you do several training walks in the footwear you will be wearing and carrying your loaded backpack. Walk around the block to start with and build up to hour-long walks over uneven ground. Gradually increase the weight of your pack each time. This will greatly increase your ability to walk and carry the heavy pack, thereby enhancing your enjoyment of the journey. Training in the bush is ideal.
Navigation
Your Supervisor will coach you how to use topographic maps with an expedition compass. However, why not start learning now? If you are at school, ask a Geography teacher for a tutorial. There are loads of great videos available online as well.
Equipment
Make sure you know how to use all your gear before you head out. You want to feel confident that you know what you are doing. Find a suitable patch of grass and practice setting up and packing down your tent, until you can do it by yourself easily. Cook up your intended meal/s in the stove you will be bringing so you know how much you can fit in both the pot and your stomach. You don’t want to get to camp and cook up a feast, only to find out you have too much or too little of both quantity and flavour.
If you are undertaking your Qualifying Adventurous Journey, you will be required to submit an Adventurous Journey Report before you can be signed off. Download the suggested template. Bring a small notebook and write the key headings of your report on the first few pages to jog your memory on what to look out for along your journey.
Your AJ Report always looks better when you add pictures, so remember to bring a camera to document your experience.
Go to the next section below and download and print the itinerary, route plan, and map for your relevant journey.
Itinerary
This is the basic overview of your journey. Your parents will want a copy of this so they know where and when to drop your off, and pick you up. To bring on your journey, we recommend printing this as 2-pages to the printed sheet, or as double-sided.
Route Plan
This is the detailed hiking notes for your journey. You must bring a copy of the Route Plan with you. We recommend printing these on A4 paper. You will be writing on this document during your journey, so you will need to be able to protect the pages from damage. Either a zip-lock bag and pen, or laminating the sheets and writing with a very fine tipped permanent marker are suitable options.
You will see that some information has not been completed.
- The Actual Time column will be completed by you during your journey.
- The Personal notes and observations column will be completed by you during your journey.
- Magnetic Bearings have been left blank. You should calculate these yourself. Speak to a Geography or Earth Sciences teacher, or look up an online article on how to convert Grid to Magnetic bearings.
- Some Grid Bearings have been left blank. Using the Route Description notes and your map and compass, have a go at working out the necessary bearings. Speak to a Geography or Earth Sciences teacher, or look up an online article on how to work out topographic grid bearings. Your Outward Bound Supervisor will also be covering this vital skill throughout your journey.
Maps
You must bring a copy of your map with you. Your maps need to be printed in a very particular way to ensure they are correctly scaled and useable. Each map document in the next section below has specific instructions to ensure the correct quality. We recommend having your maps professionally printed from an Officeworks or similar company.
Your map is one of your most important documents during your expedition, and you should protect your map from damage. Suitable options are to purchase a map-case, or laminate all your map pages individually and bring a very fine tipped permanent marker to draw up your check-points over the laminate.
Itinerary
GNW Ku-ring-gai to Wondabyne via Brooklyn
Route Plan
GNW-G Ku-ring-gai to Wondabyne Route Plan
This document can be printed in black and white. You can print this as either single page, double-sided, or two pages per page.
You can also find detailed information about your route using the following links:
- Mt Kuring-gai to Cowan (via Berowra Waters) walking track (wildwalks.com)
- Jerusalem Bay Track (Cowan to Brooklyn) walking track (wildwalks.com)
- Brooklyn Ferry service timetable
- For Brooklyn to Little Wobby ferry
- Little Wobby to Mt. Wonabyne
- Use these route notes from the start until the summit of Mt. Wondabyne.
- Patonga to Wondabyne station via Mt Wondabyne walking track (wildwalks.com)
- Use these routes notes from Mt. Wondabyne summit to the end at Wondabyne Station.
- Wondabyne Station | transportnsw.info
- For timetable information regarding services out of Wondabyne Station. Remember that there is no car access at Wondabyne, so will need to catch the train to leave the journey. The first station south (towards Central) is Hawkesbury River Station (Brooklyn).
Map
Remember you must bring a protected hard copy of your map on your journey. You will also require a very fine tipped permanent marker pen to plot your route.
There are two (2) map documents you need to print. Both must be in colour and at 100% / default scaling.
- GNW-G Hornsby to Little Wobby 1-2
- Print this document on A3 paper.
- GNW-G Little Wobby to Wondabyne 2-2
- Print this document on A4 paper.
Meeting Points
Start: Hornsby Train Station 9:00am
End: Wondabyne Train Station approx. 2:00pm
- Please note that Wondabyne Train Station has no car access. You will be required to catch the train at least one station south or north to be picked up by car. See the Route Plan notes below for the train timetable.
Route Plan
You will find detailed information about your route using the following links below. These are your track notes.
To print your track notes, click on each of the links. The page will have a large heading in a dull red box. At the centre bottom of this box is a PDF icon with text “Download & Print Map and Notes”. Click on this, then close any pop-ups that may show. You now have the PDF document for your journey sections.
- Hornsby to Brooklyn
- Crosslands Reserve campsite on Night 1.
- Ridge Top Campground on Night 2.
- Brooklyn Dam Night 3.
- Brooklyn Ferry service timetable
- For Brooklyn to Little Wobby ferry
- Little Wobby to Mt. Wonabyne
- Use these route notes from the start until the summit of Mt. Wondabyne.
- Base of Mt. Wondabyne Night 4.
- Patonga to Wondabyne station via Mt Wondabyne walking track (wildwalks.com)
- Use these routes notes from Mt. Wondabyne summit to the end at Wondabyne Station.
- Wondabyne Station | transportnsw.info
- For timetable information regarding services out of Wondabyne Station. Remember that there is no car access at Wondabyne, so will need to catch the train to leave the journey. The first station south (towards Central) is Hawkesbury River Station (Brooklyn).
Map
Remember you must bring a protected hard copy of your map on your journey. You will also require a very fine tipped permanent marker pen to plot your route.
There are two (2) map documents you need to print. Both must be in colour and at 100% / default scaling.
- GNW-G Hornsby to Little Wobby 1-2
- Print this document on A3 paper.
- GNW-G Little Wobby to Wondabyne 2-2
- Print this document on A4 paper.
Meeting Points
Start: Colac Train Station 9:30am
End: Camperdown Train Station approx. 3:30pm
Basic Trip Notes
Please refer to the official Great Ocean Walk website for your basic itinerary information.
The specific notes for each day can be found here:
- Parker Inlet to Aire River
- Aire River to Johanna Beach
- Johanna Beach to Ryan’s Den
- Ryan’s Den to Devils Kitchen
- Devils Kitchen to Twelve Apostles
Map
You need to purchase the official Great Ocean Walk Map.
The link above takes you to one place where you can purchase this map, Meridian Maps. You are not obliged to use this provider. We strongly encourage you to weather-proof your map. Meridian Maps has a laminated option for purchase.
We expect everyone to bring a hard copy of the map on your journey. You will also require a pencil (for paper map) or very fine tipped permanent marker pen (for laminated map) to mark your route.