Canada: 3rd Orleans Beaver Colony
The 3rd Orleans Beaver Colony and Cub Pack hiked at Camp Sheldrick to the Nation River. Along the way, they found animal tracks, identified them, and then made plaster casts of them. It was a nice sunny day and the 25 youth had a great time. At the Nation River, they watched the fast current carry branches and garbage down stream. That was a great lessons for the youth, they see where litter goes. It was a great 90 minute hike for the youth.
—Tom Breuer
Australia: 1st Albion Park, New South Wales
Well onto our 3rd JOTT and this time something different. With 3 Leaders and 6 Scouts in our group we boarded a train at Albion Park and headed to Heathcote near Sydney to take on the Uloola Track in the Royal National Park. After a scenic hour long train trip along the coast we arrived at Heathcote and the start of our JOTT.
Descending away from the train station, the walking trail soon crossed Heathcote Brook and then we climbed across broad rock shelfs to a ridge. The trail followed this ridge east along a valley for about 2 km until it crossed Heathcote Brook again and there we arrived at Karloo Pools. What a great spot for a swim and a picnic, the Pools are a collection of freshwater billabongs that have formed in a bend of the Brook. The water was so clear but very chilly. We had morning tea here then headed onto Uloola Falls.
From Karloo Pools, the Uloola Track climbed up the valley for about 1 km, before heading across a rocky plateau at the top. The trail was well marked with yellow and red stripes painted on rocks that showed the way across the plateau, as the track is easy to lose in places as we found out on our return trek. Eventually the track left the plateau and descended down to Heathcote Brook again and Uloola Falls. The Falls were stunning and even one of our scouts decided he would brave the cold water and go for a swim.
After lunch we headed back towards Heathcote to catch our train home. However this was not without drama when letting the scouts lead they wandered off the trail and into thick bush. We informed the scouts that they were only 80 metres off track and started bush bashing back onto track. A valuable lesson was learnt by the scouts in how failing to navigate correctly can you get you in trouble real quick.
Back at Karloo Pools all forgot about the chilliness of the water and rested weary feet before heading off for the train home.
—Troy Bates
