After breakfast I went for one last walk around the site, enjoying the centre and its beautiful scenery, until it was time for Assembly. Today this was to be a little bit special. After the children’s daily weather report, Steve invited me to the front of the hall to thank me for visiting Somers and to present me with a range of gifts and curriculum documents. Next, we asked the children to sing ‘Haggis on a Surfboard’; an adaptation of ‘Wombat on a Surfboard’ which they had become accustomed to singing each morning. This was really special, especially seeing some of the children from the previous day’s activities, standing and cheering as everyone sang. I will remember this, and my time at Somers, fondly for some time to come.
It was now time to leave Somers and, despite my short time here, I still felt slightly sad at another series of goodbyes as I made my way off site and started my journey to Rubicon – the final Outdoor Education Centre I would be visiting in Victoria. This journey, under the advice of the map Steve had printed, should have taken only 2.5 hours; however, after a wrong turn early on in the journey, I arrived at Rubicon 5 hours after I set off! The drive, however, was beautiful; filled with large trees and ferns which dominated the long, steep, winding road.
At Rubicon, I was greeted by Dean, the principle of the centre and my contact prior to my arrival. He, like everyone else I had been fortunate enough to meet with in Australia, was very friendly and welcoming. After a brief chat we went for a walk around the centre, talking about the different activities, looking around the ski and equipment sheds, dormitories, kitchen and so on. Rubicon, like Somers, is residential in dorms, with children visiting from a large number of schools. The programs at Rubicon, however, run for 5 days instead of 9 and the age of the children is slightly older at 13–14 years. Rubicon also works with a school group each year which are involved in the ‘Summit to Sea’ expedition, a 21 day trekking and paddling expedition with twelve 16 year old students, one school teacher and one activity leader which runs in September. During this week, the ‘Summit to Sea’ group was visiting Rubicon to conduct some practice expeditions and tomorrow they would be walking out at Lake Mountain on snow shoes, snow camping and then walking back Saturday morning. I had asked Dean if I could join in on this short, one night expedition so that I could meet with a group that had volunteered to do a long and enduring outdoor excursion whilst also getting a chance to experience snow camping for myself, having never done it before. In preparation for this, Dean helped me get together all the necessary equipment I would need for the trip and put it aside for my collection tomorrow morning.
Having seen the centre, met the staff, and with there being no children on site, I headed with Dean for the 20 minute drive to his house, where he was kindly letting me base myself until Sunday. Once settled, Dean laid out an array of nibbles and we sat talking and munching for most of the evening until he served up a delicious dinner, which we ate whilst continuing our conversations until his wife, Jill, joined us later in the evening. After dinner, Jill served up some home made mango ice-cream which, I swear, was the most delicious ice-cream I have ever tasted. It was just like eating fresh mangos! This we ate whilst watching a television program about AFL (Australian Football League); both Dean and Jill are fans of the game.
Half way through the program I excused myself for bed as I needed to pack my bag for tomorrow’s expedition and get a good nights rest before I met with Page, the environmental leader at Rubicon, first thing for a discussion on her work at the centre.
