Adventurous Journey and Residential Project FAQs

Adventurous Journey

Q: What is the difference between a practice journey and a qualifying journey?

A: It is a requirement of the award to undertake at least one practice journey before the qualifying journey. The aim of the practice journey is to provide you with enough experience to enable you to plan and undertake your qualifying journey safely and with confidence.
Practice journeys cannot travel over the same route as the planned qualifying journey, but should be must be similar to the planned qualifying journey in:

• focus and duration,
• environment, and
• accommodation used.

Q: I would like complete Cradle Mountain's Overland track but it's organised through an adventure tour company. Does this meet the requirements? Also, for my practice journey can I complete a trail on Mount Dandenong?

A: You may lose some of the organisational and leadership aspects of the requirements if the trip has mostly been organised for you. To meet the requirements, you could add an 'exploration' component by completing a national parklands survey, or a flora and fauna study. Your practice journey needs to practice the skills you will need for the qualifying journey, so the same type and length of journey is required as practice.

Q: It's hard for me to organise an expedition type activity.

A: Exploration activities are an alternative consideration for people who have trouble accessing the wilderness for the expedition type activities. In an exploration, the main focus is to observe and collect information relevant to the purpose. Example exploration activities: a cultural or historical trip, archaeological expedition, orienteering, a scientific survey.

Q: Who can be my hiking assessor?

A: Below are 3 suggestions:

• A member of your hiking group could, providing they meet the assessor criteria. They must be more experienced in this area than you are.
• DoE has an experienced hiker who sets up hikes for all awards. He takes school students on hikes in the April and Sept school holidays. You could join him and make one of these trips your adventurous journey or you could use this trip as your practice run and this person for guidance. You could then use him as your assessor for the 'real' journey by reporting back to him. Remember, risk management needs to be carefully considered for this activity and the assessor needs to be able to sign off on the preparation, planning and practice of the journey.
• Your health club or campus may have an outdoor education program. You could ask someone from that program to be your assessor. Check out the YMCA at Burwood campus. They run a number of camps and can help you find a camp that suits your interests and needs.

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