Dingoes: The Dingoes pushed through difficult night hikes this week. They were able to learn more about logistics, organization, and ways to support the group during these hiking experiences. A gathering was held surrounding the Openness token to support the group in developing greater receptiveness of each other’s experiences. In the gathering the group participated in an improv game to practice these skills. In the middle of the week, one Dingo was honored with the trail name Unique Panda during a trail naming ceremony. At therapy site, the Dingoes were able to focus on relaxation and rejuvenation through working on skills and Ngarnas. At the end of the week, the Dingoes landed at the Petroglyph site. The group enjoyed playing in the stream, hunting for spindles, and finding willow. Many of the group members enjoyed the beginning stages of preparing willow in order to make H-frame backpacks. The week ended with excitement over new skills and preparation for the new week.
Dingoes: The Dingoes pushed through difficult night hikes this week. They were able to learn more about logistics, organization, and ways to support the group during these hiking experiences. A gathering was held surrounding the Openness token to support the group in developing greater receptiveness of each other’s experiences. In the gathering the group participated in an improv game to practice these skills. In the middle of the week, one Dingo was honored with the trail name Unique Panda during a trail naming ceremony. At therapy site, the Dingoes were able to focus on relaxation and rejuvenation through working on skills and Ngarnas. At the end of the week, the Dingoes landed at the Petroglyph site. The group enjoyed playing in the stream, hunting for spindles, and finding willow. Many of the group members enjoyed the beginning stages of preparing willow in order to make H-frame backpacks. The week ended with excitement over new skills and preparation for the new week.
Gnowees: The Gnowees had a fantastic week! We started the week with a goodbye gathering where the girls shared their favorite memories with the outgoing students. We had a week full of trail naming ceremonies; three students received names of Bubbly Firefly, Energetic Bumblebee, and Sunny Sunflower. We opted for several late night and early morning hiking to avoid the heat of the day, which resulted in lots of midday rests and making friendship bracelets in the shade. The Gnowees had one night of intense fire making, when they busted for 3 hours and worked together through their frustrations to get a coal as a group. Staff led a gathering on “the things we carry” and students talked about what they could let go of, using a metaphor of their backpacks to help them lighten the load of the burdens they carry. A student had her birthday on Friday and everyone was thrilled to celebrate with donuts. We ended the week with a day hike to a stream where we all splashed around and cooled off before staff exchange.
Goannas: The Goannas had a great week this week! We started the week with several students in first camp, and many of them joined main camp on the second day with the other joining shortly thereafter. With such a young group we used this week to focus on group culture and how the students want the group to be portrayed. The group played a game allowing them to work on how they communicate with each other, and how they can work on communication here and at home. With this week’s temperatures, we chose our activities wisely and opted to play a lot of Werewolf and a pick your own adventure games. This allowed the guys to exercise their creative minds and come up with scenarios and problem solve them. We had two long hikes this week, both were around three miles. We completed the first one in 3 hours and two minutes, and the second one in 2 hours and 15 minutes. These guys crushed the hikes!!! They may be a young group but these guys are a great group with strong leaders!
Brumbies: After spending time at one particular site, the Brumbies were able to do a night hike where they peaked a small knoll. We had a very meaningful gathering while appreciating the full moon. The next day was eventful where there was a missed turn on the hike and they had to go back to the original camp until finally they were able to hike to a new site. The students were very supportive of each other and fought through adversity in order to get to their therapy site after a very long day. After exploring the therapy site, the group found water to play within the desert! While waiting patiently for two days, they were finally able to go down to the stream on Wednesday where they had the opportunity to collect wood for their busting kits, and enjoy the cool water during a hot afternoon. All of the students thoroughly enjoyed the day hike away from camp, and were thrilled to be around water!
Ulurus: Beautiful evening weather led to outstanding evening hikes under a star lit sky. Our group was able to work on skills which highlighted a gift-shop worthy bison carving. Our course area was teeming with wildlife and kept us engaged and curious about the native entomology. Three students were celebrated in a token ceremony and many group members constructed impressive balancing rock sculptures throughout the week.
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Peak Week – Adventure Therapy @ outBACK
This week was filled with new challenges, openness, vulnerability and laughter. We started the week by visiting our favorite petting zoo where students were about to learn about and interest with rare animals. We continued our journey on from there down to St. George where the group was challenged with rock climbing and day hiking as well as learning how to communicate with each other as new group. We enjoyed several days cooling off by a lake and reservoir to beat the heat. Some of the student’s favorite things this week was experiencing new foods this week. Two of our students were honored with tokens this week of True Speaker, for his open and honest comments given to the group regularly and Peace Walker, for setting calm and understanding presence in the group in the midst of disagreement. The group all challenged themselves in new ways, for some it was being honest and vulnerable, for others if was being more serious while for another it was simply to be less serious and have more fun. Ultimately the week was filled with lots of laughter and growth for the whole group.
