Stories

=Beach Education= Not so long ago my syndicate and I went on a bus trip to Riversdale to do beach education. The trip there was long and there was lots of hills so I wasn’t surprised that there was one person sick on the way there. At Riversdale the sun was shining brightly as we stepped off the bus straight into the smell of sea salt.

After we had had all the normal introductions, we split up into groups and one group went inside to watch a video, one group went to the beach to learn about flags and how to spot rips, while one group went to look at the boats and the lifesaving gear. That was alright but I couldn’t wait to go swimming. After we had watched the video we went and played games on the beach. We played seaweed and we built sand castles and played tag but I still couldn’t wait to go swimming.

F-I-N-A-L-L-Y we were told to go and get changed ready to go swimming. As we were told the rules I couldn’t stop my heart thudding in my chest. the water was only 17 degrees but I had a wetsuit on. Then we were allowed to hop in. Our group had the boggie boards first so we grabbed one and headed for the waves.

I was having so much fun with everyone yelling and screaming with joy and the bright blue waves coming in at us again and again and again. It was awesome coming in on the waves right onto the beach then running out again to catch another big wave. We only got about 15 minutes on the boggie boards before we had to give them to the other group.

It wasn’t as fun swimming than it was on the boggie boards but I still enjoyed it. Just as I was getting into the hang of it we had to hop out, get changed and go home. As I sat on the bus I thought about how much I had enjoyed the day at Riversdale beach.

=Living Dangerously=

Our quest for the waterfall could be dangerous, little did we know it would be.
As my mate Links and I packed all the gear for a climb to find the hidden waterfall on the other side hill, I was filled with nervousness. We packed rope food and water to aid us on our journey into the unknown. As we left I was filled with excitement at the hard but fun climb ahead.

We had to get to the hill first so we walked across paddocks, some empty, some with hay and some fill with cows. The whole climb was on the Barton’s property so we had to be careful on our journey up the hill.

As we left Link’s property and crossed the fence onto the Barton’s property I felt a sense of unease at what might happen if we got caught. What would we say? What would happen? Would we get in trouble? These questions only remained in my head for a few more seconds as we started to climb across the small hill in front of the big hill we had set out to find. This hill was small but steep so we roped ourselves together. Links would climb up first (since I had the backpack) and then he would pull me up. This manuver was pretty risky because if Links fell we would both fall. We made it to the top of the small hill without a problem. All this time the excitement had been growing inside me until I let out a small shriek of laugher.

At the top of the small hill there was the big hill in front of us but in between lay paddocks. Before we continued on we checked for the sound of a motorbike because we didn’t want to get in trouble. As there were no sounds of a motorbike we hurried across the paddocks and started climbing the hill. At first we to follow the track but then we came to boulders blocking the path so we decided to climb straight up the side.

All my enjoyment instantly turned to fear and my blood ran cold as I looked, all most verticly up at the path we had to climb. To my left there was a cliff that if someone fell they would be wiped off the face of the earth. There was no way I was going to be able to climb up there with the pack so Links climbed up to a tree with the rope tied around himself so I could climb up with the help of the rope. I was almost at the top when disaster struck! I slipped and started falling off the cliff. Since I was still attached to Links by the rope he started falling but he managed to grab onto a tree and stoped me falling to my death. At that moment my heart missed a couple of beats. I was so scared! To make things even worse it had started to rain, hard a few minutes earlier. Links started hauling me in but it was tough. After a few minutes and lots of huffing and puffing Links finally hauled me in. Then we just sat down on the ground and tried to get air to our lungs.

After we had recovered and had some water I thanked Links for saving my life. We had both got injuries, I had a sprained ankle and Links had a sore knee. Our journey continued for about an hour longer but that day we never found the waterfall. On the way down Links had to support me. We were thinking, how could this day get any worse. But it could. As we were walking through a paddock of cows we started hearing some snorting. We looked around and there was a huge red bull. We just started going as fast as we could. Me hobbling and Links limping but we were lucky because the bull did not charge. We made it home that day all in one piece and to this day we don’t know why the bull did not charge.