25

Jul

Rest day bike ride into Marlo Print
Written by Siobhan and Emma, Snowy Student Term 3 2009   

Hey! Siobhan and Emma here. Today was rest day and we volunteered to participate in a bike ride into Marlo.

After breakfast we had enough time to put a load of washing through and pack our lunches and our packs before we were off to the shed for our bikes. We were off at 11:30 after a quick safety check. By then the sun was getting pretty hot so we took the bush track instead of riding along the highway. The bush track was all hilly, sandy and had overgrown vegetation on the path. Many people found it challenging but we persisted and were at Marlo in what seemed like no time at all.

Along the way there were areas on the track with deep sand forcing us to push ourselves harder to get through it. There were also many obstacles which we had to tackle. Some of the hills were extremely steep and many struggled but we worked as a team to get up them. At one stage during our journey we rode through thick bush on a wide track and there was a red bellied black snake on one side of the path. Some of us absolutely freaked out although the snake did move off in the end. We used our newly developed leadership skills to come up with the best option to avoid being attacked.
After a two hour ride we arrived in Marlo, our destination. We stopped at a nearby picnic place with an amazing view of the Snowy River and the beach. We unpacked and ate our healthy salad sandwiches and relaxed. Some of us, Scotty, decided to take on a dare issued by Rhianna to swim out to the buoy in the middle of the freezing cold Snowy River. He did and in record time he swam out to it and back, and had to get changed into fresh dry clothes. It was a fair call as now Rhianna has to do his duties for him for a week.

The ride back was easier as we stuck to the highway, but it was still hard as we were all exhausted from the morning’s ride. We worked on communication skills when cars were approaching and when people’s chains came off. There were three big hills left to overcome just before we reached campus and all of us kept going, not giving in to the burning in our legs. We finally reached our starting point, back at the big shed and stretched our legs, cleaned the bikes down and worked out the distance of our ride. It turned out to be way bigger than what we expected, 26km all up!!! We were all extremely proud of ourselves and that we had achieved something none of us were accustomed to. Goodbye, until next time.

By Siobhan and Emma, Brunswick Secondary College