Year 10 Cape to Cape Exploration

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Year 10 Cape to Cape Exploration

The recent Year 10 Cape to Cape Exploration was walked in late June, when the weather was unusually harsh. The camp was in the week preceding the strong gales and storms that lashed the whole south west coast and the boys experienced the full force of such weather.

The trek can take up to a week, though the boys manage the greater part of it in six days, which allows the full range of landscapes to be experienced, from the blasted coastal heath of the Leeuwin ridge to the cool and sheltered Boranup Forest tracks.

The trek was undertaken by seven boys and two staff, Mr John Webb and Mr Graeme Walter. This small number allowed a good level of engagement and for real camaraderie to develop.

The trek took the boys almost the entire length of the coast from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leewuin, with the exception of some exposed sections of coast which were judged too dangerous because of vulnerability to massive rouge waves. Such vicious swells roll in from across the Indian Ocean, spending their entire force on the rocky coast.

The trek passes some remarkable landmarks and landscapes. There is the stark marker of Sugarloaf rock on the first day, which acts as a visual milestone as the boys begin the walk south along the coast. Then there are the unusual shapes of Wyadup and Wilyabrup bays, with rocks and cliffs and headlands of increasingly unusual formations and of various ages making strange shapes for the surf to break over.

The boys have to be self sufficient for the whole six days, as the trek avoids the townsites along the way in favour of a more leisurely route from bay to headland.

The boys did experience two days of wild weather which included torrential rain and high winds, but this meant that the boys really appreciated the last two days of the camp, when the weather turned fine briefly, before rain lashed the bus on the way back to Perth.

The highlight for the boys was no doubt the sense of relief and achievement that they felt when at last they touched the Leeuwin lighthouse after six hard days of walking. This marks the end of the walk, and provides a clear sense of an ending to the preceding week's effort.

Though conditions were the worst endured on the camp on the five occasions this trek has been run, it nevertheless led to a fine sense of adversity being overcome.