Fiskville 2012 Challenge

7th of January till 18th of January

by Teisha Fullex

On the 7th of January 19 participants and 3 leaders from around Victoria all gathered at Fiskville to start an Adventure of a life time. When everyone arrived no one knew anyone. After we said our goodbyes to our family members our adventure started. Stewart gave us a short introduction about the challenge and about the day ahead of us.

At 1500hrs The senior group started their walk up to the training center to watch a short movie about the history of Fiskville and the Challenge. After the movie we got introduced to Carol and Michael (they are who i had at Hattah), they are the life performance instructors for the course.

The first 3 days involved classes with Carol. Learning about ourselves and other people, how they react and how they don't, about setting goals etc. Each morning included a 0600hrs wake up to be ready by 0630hrs to start our 5km walk. Each one of Carols classes brought the team closer together. Mark our leader told us that we had to come up with a Team name, our team name was "Team Unity". We were also given blocks of wood that we had to carry everywhere with us because we had to write on the back of it our "Baggage". After the 2days we had to write a submission as a team and present it to Carol, once she approves it we get to say goodbye to our baggage forever and not think about it ever again. So when we got rid of it we burnt it.

After the first 3 days we then boarded a bus to Bairnsdale then another bus out to where we start our rafting for the next 4 days. The first 3 days were rafting. But we in counted a bad storm where we had to get off the water for an hour and head winds the whole way, so instead it taking 3 days to paddle 66kms it took 4 days. We also had to pull our rafts out the water twice as well as all of our packs and carry them across rocks. Each night we would cook dinner, set up bivvies, dig Doug (Doug was the shovel but we ended up calling the toilet Doug as well) and make a fire. After Dinner we would have a team briefing, by the time that was over it was almost 2300hrs most of the time. We had to get up at 0600hrs every morning.

Once off the water we had to hike about 13km. 90% of it was up hill, and because of my knee i struggled a lot. But with the help of my Team and Wayne's walking pole i made it and achieved what i set out to do, which was "Complete everything that was thrown at me while at Challenge". That night we split up into 3 groups. A 2000hrs one, 2400hrs and 0300hrs. That was for the caving. I was in the 2400hr group, the cave was amazing but due to a couple of people in my group that we slow getting down we lost allot of time and we didn't get to see the whole of the cave, we only saw the wedding chamber and the music chamber, but both were amazing. When we came out it was 0300hrs and we still had to hike up a massive hill, before we did the caving i had half an hour sleep so when i got back to camp i fell asleep straight away. When morning come, one of the chicks that were in the first group decided that she will come and wake everyone up at 6am, let's just say that didn't go down well with me and i refused to get out of bed, so she raised her voice at me and i bit back. I didn't hear a word from her again. But i wasn't the only one that was pissed at her.

After the rest of the group got back we had breakfast and a debrief about the day ahead of us. The day ahead of us was our 24hr solo. So after camp was packed up we got all of our solo gear which consisted of; 4lts of water, couscous, hot chocolate powder, milk powder, baked beans, tuna and muesli, mini Doug, a bivvie, bivvie cords and 3 pegs. Dan and Nick pick our spots for us, we have a 10meter radius around our little camp. While on course we had questions to answer which were; What were my goals for challenge, my limiting story, the animal i have been while on course and a gift for the group. After sharing everything with the group we then went back up to the main camp and boarded a bus to go to the rock climbing and abseiling.

Once we arrived at the site we had to walk about 500meters to the abseiling and it was a 36 degree day so it was really hot. Because i had already done Abseiling before Dan and Nick made me jump all the way down instead of walking, So i did. And with the rock climbing they made me do the second hardest one. Which i struggled with but i made it up. After the rock climbing we then set off for camp for the LAST night of the Outward Bound component.

Dan and Nick cooked us dinner that night, we had buretteos, they were yummy. As a group we decided to sleep under the stars. That night we had a massive possum problem, and these possums were not scared, we were throwing water bottles, shoes basically anything we could throw we threw at them, and all they did was stand there and stare. So that night was pretty restless.

The next morning we had to get up early so we could wash down and pack the rest of our gear. Once packed up the bus arrived and it was time for us to go back to Fiskville. We were all sad to be leaving the Snowy Mountains but were excited to get back to shower because no one had showered for 8 days so we were all pretty smelly. We stopped at Sale for lunch, most of us walked into maccas, i think we all cleared it out we smelt and looked terrible so i wouldn't have blamed them all running away it was quite funny. Once we ate maccas we were back on the road. Once back at Fiskville everyone ran for the showers (well mainly the boys) us senior girls had our own on-suite so it was good. After the shower we had to go and have dinner. We had a 3 course meal that night because the big guns of CFA were there. On the bus we had to make a speech about "what did Challenge mean to us". So in between the meals we had the presentations. After Dinner was finished we had a class to go to with Carol. So as a team we walked up to the training centre and took our last class with Carol. When we got back to the main area in the pool room at about 2300hrs no one was tired so we all ended up dancing around and playing pool. Until about 0130hrs we all headed to bed.

Then our parents started arriving, again as a team we walked up to the training centre and our two representatives for Team Unity got up and made a speech, thanking everyone ETC. After the speech we were then presented with a certificate. After everything was finished there we went back down to the diner and had lunch. After everyone had finished we all stood in a circle and said our goodbyes. We have a reunion in May that we are all attending so we all look forward to that.

Participants:

Alan Edwards

Andrew White

Ash Brown

Dylan Hewitt

Graeme McCarthy

Jesse Sherman

Kathryn Sloan

Leesa Nitschke

Luke Commisso

Mark Caton (Leader)

Nadine Blyth

Nathan Freeman

Richard Evans

Ryan Pentreath

Sam Ainslie

Sarah Black

Teisha Fullex

Victoria Skase

Wayne Goodes

Dan (Outward Bound)

Nick (Outward Bound)