Second blog entry - Royal National Park

So finally we had our first field trip with this unit of study, to the Royal National Park (RNP). In the early morning we left the university by bus. My first impressions, the first views from inside the bus was "wow" and I was about to be more amazed throughout the day.

The main task apart from getting to know the group and the group leader a bit more, was to capture three key pictures of the unique ecosystem in the RNP. Since I enjoy taking photographs this task is both easy and difficult for me, I have taken far more than three photos but I have chosen three down below.

I will start of the three pictures with a great quote that I read prior to the RNP trip.

"We must remember that a photograph can hold just as much as we put into it, and no one has ever approached the full possibilities of the medium." - Ansel Adams

To me this quote describes the art of photograpy in a very keen way, the picture you take is all about the details you put into in an what you want to show to the viewer. With my three photos I will try to show the viewer some of my highlights with the RNP trip, but also show the ecosystem as that was the main task.

The first picture I have chosen is this one of some sandstone in the RNP. This pictures shows what happens when sandstone meets the wind from the ocean. For a very long time the breeze from the South Pacific Ocean has blown in to the land of the RNP, this has formed the sandstone in strange but beautiful shapes. The shapes and the various colors is probably due to the different toughness of the materials.

Picture 1: Sandstone

My second picture have been chosen because I have never seen so many trees and plants growing right in the sand. This shows how the vegetation has adapted to the surronding nature.

Picture 2: Vegetation in the sand

My last picture is of the coastal banksia. Simply because I was very fascinated of this plant. Very clever of the Aboriginals to use this as a hairbrush.

Picture 3: The coastal banksia

The differences of the ecosystem in the RNP compared to back at home, in Sweden, are huge. Since I live in a neighbourhood with not too much nature but only houses my experience from the RNP is all new to me.

I have never been hiking in Sweden, but after my visit to the RNP and also other national parks in Australia (Lamington National Park, Noosa National Park) I am sure more interested in visiting some national parks back at home. There is some beatiful national parks in the northern parts of Sweden, like "Sarek National Park" which I would like to visit after my experience here.

All in all the Royal National Park was a great experience with some new knowledge which I had no clue that I would learn during the day! Thanks to group three and our teacher Nicky, on the first of three RNP trips with the class.

First blog entry - initial thoughts of the subject

Name: Robin Sedman

Student ID: 460260130

This blog will contain some of my experiences and thoughts about outdoor education, hopefully with some great pictures aswell from the two field trips to the Royal National Park and to the Blue Mountains.

I do not have any prior experience in the subject apart from a few trips into the woods when I was younger. It was like a small group of children together with their parents and we were exploring the woods and different tracks and paths in the nearby areas from where I was living by then.

For me personally I have chosen this unit of study just to get to see more of Australia's nature and to get to know more about outdoor experience and see if some of it could contribute to my daily life, both here in Australia and also back at home in Sweden. I will also have to practice my skills with working in a group which will be great in both my education and later on in my carrer as an engineer. My best possible contribution to the group would be some critical thinking, basically because I am studying engineering and that kind of thinking is what I get to practice each and every day.