S.E.A. Venture - Australia

June 12 - July 8, 2007

Camp Seafarer offered their twelfth international adventure trip to Australia.

An interactive, fun and learning adventure experience was planned, not merely a sightseeing tour of Australia. This trip provided a wonderful opportunity to continue the emphasis on camp values of personal and character development while seeking to move beyond the small world into the larger one with the goal of celebrating its wonderful diversity. Such an experience can make a difference in a young person's life and it is the goal of the S.E.A. Venture program to help participants become more confident in themselves and eager to learn more about others.

The S.E.A. Venture - Australia adventure began at Camp Seafarer. At camp, the group focused on teambuilding and group and individual expectations.

The group departed for Sydney on Thursday June 14th. We began by exploring the Sydney Harbour and the sights around The Rocks - the place where Sydney got its start as a penal colony. We visited the Opera House and then walked through the Botanical Gardens where we saw native Australian plant life, native birds, fruit bats, and the occasional game of rugby. The group cruised Sydney Harbour over to Manly Beach and got to enjoy Aussie (that's short for Australian) meat pies and took a stroll along Sydney's Northern Beaches. A morning was spent visiting the Sydney Olympic Park in Homebush - site of the 2000 Sydney Olympic and Para-Olympic Games - where new swimming records were set in the Olympic Aquatic Center.

Just west of Sydney are the Blue Mountains. A day was spent hiking through this amazing bushland, visiting Wentworth Falls and the Three Sisters (a rock formation that is part of the Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime). Here, we enjoyed the great views from atop the high escarpments and explored the trails along the canyon floor as well. This is the land of eucalyptus trees and laughing Kookaburras.

Once we departed the Sydney area, we went to the warm and sunny Northern Territory to begin our Outback experience. We flew to Darwin where we met up with a local guide who took us out into the bush. Outfitted with all the essentials, we traveled by canoe into Nitmiluk National Park up the Katherine Gorge to a campout under a blanket of stars and moon. Katherine Gorge affords beautiful and stark scenery, hot days and cool water so clean you can drink right from the river - REALLY! Along the way we also visited some Aboriginal art sites painted on the rocks from thousands of years ago. From Katherine Gorge, it was on to Kakadu National Park with stops along the way at some refreshing swims at Gunlom Falls and Edith Falls. Along the way, our guide shared stories and knowledge of the area - everything from Aboriginal culture and dreamtime stories to traditional bush tucker, medicinal plants, and adaptations of flora and fauna to this unique environment which sees 20 meters of rain from November to March, and 10 millimeters of rain the rest of the year; it is truly a landscape of extremes!

Next, we left the National Parks and headed into Arnhem Land - the land that is deeded to the tradtional Aboriginal owners. We traveled across the border to the community of Gumbalanya. Here we visited the Injalak Arts Center, home to the beautiful weavings, crafts and paintings from local artists. Aboriginal guides (and artists) took us up into the Injalak Dreamtime - the beautiful mountains that were the traditional homes of their people - to show us their sacred paintings and to hear their stories. The day ended with a service project in the community. The reatreat is the opportunity to share experiences over dinner that night where we cooked an aussie BBQ for our guides and their families. This experience was unlike anything most world travelers ever experience - the opportunity to view this art, in this place with these traditional guides is unique and rare by any standards, and the chance to overnight in Arnhem Land is unique to the S.E.A Venture program.

From the Outback, we want back east to the coast along Cairns and the Northern Beaches. Northern Queensland is all about the rainforest, the reef and the rivers. From here we discovered the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef while snorkeling or SCUBA diving through colored fish and corals. Carins is also the gateway to some of Australia's finest whitewater rafting. The rivers of Northern Queensland are wild and technical, but our professional guides gave excellent instruction, loads of encouragement, and a good dose of fun and humor. Also, opportunities to explore the world heritage listed rainforests of the region introduced us to a world of biodiversity unlike anything back home. Lastly, no trip to Queensland would be complete without sailing on the reef...hoisting sails with the wind as your motor, we explored the blue waters with hopes of seeing dolphins.

The excursion came to a close in the beautiful city of Brisbane, but not before one more challenge. We hit the trail in the rainforested interior of the central coast along the Border Ranges to climb the East Coast's tallest peak, Mt. Warning. At 1156 meters, the trip to the top is anything but a walk in the park, but the summit affords 360 degree views of the mountains of the Border Ranges to the west and the Pacific Coast to the east. From the top you can almost imagine seeing the west coast of the USA.