Hope River

Bush
Instruction/Polytech
Supervisor: Rob Dunn
Instructors: Me, Quintin, Parfitt, Emma
Group: Richie, Dan, Ross, Rachel, Matt S, Stu, Tash



This was the first years second tramp, their assessment, where they run the show. So they chose and organised the tramp, and then coordinate their days. Third years were the assessors, Parfitt, Emma and Quintin were assessing, I was coordinating the assessors.

Probably another moment of faff, but don't they look majestic.
Photo: Mark Parfitt

29/5
Route: Windy Point, up the Hope River to St Jacobs Hut
Conditions: Sunny
Time: 8 hours
Started from windy point at about midday, walked across the bridge and the first years got lost, they saw the marker and walked the other way...? After 45mins of faff we got back on track. Assessed finding where we were on the map and some plants. Due to their poor decision making we ended up walking in the dark, which was good, they hadn't yet experienced proper long hard days. Had another good nav point in the dark where they thought they were past the hut already, took them a good 20mins to sort it out, their attitudes and team work was pretty poor, especially once they all got really tired. Ran a debrief for them that night focused around coordination, what makes a good team member and decision making. Unfortunately through out this day I was having knee issues that continued to get worse.

Some of the crew ascending Lake Man Biv
Photo: Mark Parfitt 

30/5

Route: Jacobs Hut to Hope Halfway Hut
Conditions: Sunny
Time: 4 hours
Made the decision to try and preserve my knee and walk out. Not a fun decision. The first years excelled in their faffage in the morning, we were meant to leave by 7am, at 6.50 Dan came to tell us that none of them had woken up they would be ready by 7.30am, by 7.55am they finally walked off. I walked the other way, started out fine, then after about 45mins started to feel my knee, by the time I got to the hut it was worse than ever. Lit a fire and wrote my philosophy statement.


31/5

Route: Hope Halfway to Windy Point
Conditions: Sunny
Time: 2.5 hours

Straightforward walk out to the van. Absolutely no issues with my knee, so no idea whats going on there.