I’m currently sitting in the Australian sunshine on our balcony, looking down through the numerous gum trees onto Deer Park centre where I’ll be working, and the Port Hacking River beyond. And my wonderful husband is out here with me playing the guitar. We’ve just been feeding about 10 different cockatoos on our balcony and taking lots of pictures of them, they’re incredible! They’re as common as seagulls and eat right out of your hand.
We arrived in Sydney last Friday after our long flights from Heathrow and Hong Kong, to a whole bunch of Youthworks people who came to meet us at the airport which was really nice though a bit overwhelming, and were taken back through the Royal National Park to our own little wooden house, that we don’t share with anyone! We’re so grateful to finally have our own home after 6 months of just having a room wherever we went. It’s such a blessing to have our own space, a living room and a kitchen! That first weekend we went to our friend Lex’s baby shower, and then borrowed a staff car to explore the area a bit.
Then since Monday we’ve done a full week of our training, which they refer to as Boot Camp, and rightly so. There’s three other guys doing it with us. We’ve had loads of orientation, admin stuff, a couple days in a house in Kangaroo Valley learning leadership and facilitator skills, a couple of days doing our bushwalk training and camping, and have just spent a fun though very very wet weekend camping at a Christian music festival, running a portable climbing wall, advertising Youthworks. It’s been fun but physically and mentally very tiring, as we’re only just getting over our jet lag too.
Then since Monday we’ve done a full week of our training, which they refer to as Boot Camp, and rightly so. There’s three other guys doing it with us. We’ve had loads of orientation, admin stuff, a couple days in a house in Kangaroo Valley learning leadership and facilitator skills, a couple of days doing our bushwalk training and camping, and have just spent a fun though very very wet weekend camping at a Christian music festival, running a portable climbing wall, advertising Youthworks. It’s been fun but physically and mentally very tiring, as we’re only just getting over our jet lag too.
The 2 day bush walk was epic, we navigated our 30k route through bush, and along the most breathtaking coastline I’ve ever seen. The bush is full of gum trees (‘sribbly gums’ are my favourite) and loads of crazy tropical plants. After walking through streams, past waterfalls, up and down hills, through paths that are so overgrown and above your head that you cant see where you’re stepping, occasionally getting a glimpse of the Sydney skyline across miles and miles of bush, the sun went down and just before reaching the campsite in the dark, we walked on mud that literally illuminated as you stepped on it! Reminded me of the film Avatar. The next day was mainly coastal paths of beautiful ripply sandstone, more bush, and amazing golden beaches. At one point we stood on an overhanging cliff top shaped as an eagles head, looking out to 180 degrees of sea, and down on huge red cliffs, with three big waterfalls along it. Only thing missing was a great whale coming out the water and splashing his tail. One day. I mourned my lack of camera throughout the trip, and mentally took some awesome pictures and made a beautiful album up in my head. It was a tough hike, we had hot weather and I spent the whole of the second day limping on both feet with painful shin splints and bruised toes. We both got really excited about the thought of leading these trips on our own, teaching kids compass and map reading skills. We found a dead snake, had a wallaby jump passed us in the bush, saw possums, wombats and lots of lizards. We’re always aware that there are plenty of snakes and spiders around but we’re learning to not live in fear of them as we’d never get anywhere otherwise.
This weekend at the festival was great training and experience of belaying the kids and adults as they climbed the wall. Though it did tip it down most of the time and it got a bit flooded. We’ve been surprised at how cold it is here! Since coming it’s been pretty cold and rainy and have spent a lot of time struggling to warm up! We got to hear a bit of Mike Pilavachi from Soul Survivor who was there speaking.
From tomorrow we’re away all week again doing training on the ‘Christian Discovery’ ministry that we’ll do with the kids on camps here, and also getting training in leading archery and abseiling, then we’ll get next weekend off.
From tomorrow we’re away all week again doing training on the ‘Christian Discovery’ ministry that we’ll do with the kids on camps here, and also getting training in leading archery and abseiling, then we’ll get next weekend off.
Soon boot camp will be over and we’ll start working with our teams at our separate centres (we live on my site – Deer Park, and Sam’s site, Rathane, is a short walk away). School groups will come in for 3 or 4 day camps and we’ll start assisting leading in bushwalking, climbing and abseiling, archery, high & low ropes courses, sailing, canoeing, raft building, waterslides, obstacle courses, and bush-cooking. Camps will be tailored for the different things schools request to learn out of the activities, such as trust, confidence, team-building, sharing, responsibility ect. So in each de-brief we’re taught to faciliate discussion in what they’ve learned, and they can apply back at home, or with their relationship with God. It’s an awesome thing. We’ve been very impressed by the professionalism, quality and organisation that Youthworks show in everything. Tons of people work here in the various sites, and we’re looking forward to getting stuck in and stepping out of our comfort zones.
Sorry haven’t had a chance to write sooner as we’ve been away from internet the whole time, and will be for another week.
We miss the rugby world cup! No-one seems fussed about it here and we’ve been working each evening so have missed a lot, but we’re loving the scores we’ve heard so far!
Our postal address here is
Sam & Katie Knott,
Youthworks Outdoors,
Rathane Road,
Royal National Park,
PO Box 705,
Sutherland,
NSW 1499,
Australia.
Landline number in our house is 0285253152…not sure of the code you’ll need to call Australia sorry. Hoping to have internet in our house soon, but for now we’re using the office.
Much love from us both x
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