Muir is an outdoor education course that involves fun outdoor experiences including Snorkelling, Orienteering, and Archery. Through this course, we learnt many key skills that we can apply to so many aspects of life.

Term 3 – Orienteering & Archery

Orienteering is a sport that involves using a map and compass to locate markers or control points in the quickest amount of time. Whilst orienteering in Muir, we competed in trios which really improved our capabilities of Collaboration and Effective Communication skills as we had different people on different things all working together so that we could win the race. My teammates for Orienteering were Luke Williams and Marshall Tomlinson, we work extremely well together and our communication was really effective and we all knew our jobs. Orienteering consisted of trips to Manning Park, Piney Lakes and a whole day excursion to Jorgenson national park. Jorgenson was a great day and great opportunity, getting to run around in a very foreign environment purely relying on your map and compass skills to make sure you got to go where you needed to. Luke, Myself and Marshall ran a variety of different courses on this day, including the easy and hard course aswell as a scatter course which we all completed with ease due to our teamwork. Orienteering also teaches you a lot of really helpful life skills like how to read a map and how to use a compass which you never know when you may need. In Term 3 we also had a unit on Archery, this was a very fun unit and was great to learn the skills that most people wouldn’t get the opportunity to learn, all whilst having fun in a safe environment.

Term 4 – Snorkeling

In snorkeling, we used Organization a lot and what we were able to do was based on what we brought. When doing snorkeling we were accountable for our own gear and bringing our own masks, snorkels, wetsuits, etc. This taught us to be accountable, and remember what we were doing. This will help us, later on, to be prepared for things and know that we can only get out as much as we put in. We can also apply this for our schooling when studying for tests and we wont get a good mark if we don’t put the effort in to study and be organized and prepared. The snorkeling unit consisted of numerous lessons in the ASC pool learning the basics and the core skills needed. This then evolved into trips to Omeo Ship Wreck and a overnight camp at Rottnest Island purely based on snorkeling for 2 days. The Rottnest trip was a huge part of the snorkeling course in Muir. The camp consisted of hoping on a ferry at Fremantle early in the morning on Monday 31st of October, we then arrived at Rottnest Island after a 25 minute journey and embarked on a 2km walk to our first snorkeling location, Little Parakeet Bay. We stayed at Little Parakeet Bay for the majority of the day doing 2 snorkels and playing beach cricket for the rest of the time. After we had finished snorkeling on day 1 we made our way to Rottnest Island Camp Ground where we set up our tents. We then did a amazing race around a portion of the island in groups of 4, just learning and having some freedom to explore the environment and finishing with a big BBQ as dinner. We woke up early on day 2 and packed up our bags and tents and packed them away to go and be put on the ferry we would later be catching. We then left for the Basin which was very close to the camp grounds. The water on day 2 was very cold so most people only did one snorkel, although their was a optional secondary snorkel for people that wanted to do it, Marshall and I decided to both do it as snorkeling here is a great opportunity that we may not get again. The second snorkel was amazing, although a little cold and contained a swim through which was a highlight of the trip. After we were finished snorkeling at The Basin we were coming to the end of the trip, we made our way into Rottnest town center where we were allowed to purchase whatever we wanted for lunch and just sit around and chat with our mates, before eventually making our way to the ferry and embarking back on the 25 minutes journey to Fremantle.

Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace is a worldwide organization with a mission to help provide innovative education, skills, research and science to help people care for the outdoors. Leave No Trace contains 7 simple principles that you can incorporate into your life when engaging in outdoor activities that only require just a couple of minutes time in planning. Throughout Muir we have tried to apply LNT Principles as much as possible.

• Leave what you find – Leave what you find was a very key principle throughout Muir, especially when it came to snorkeling. Removing or damaging something in a marine ecosystem can be very impactful on a number of different species and their habitats. Whilst snorkeling we tried to be as aware as possible not to damage any part of the reef’s aswell as applying see but don’t take, making sure that you are not taking souvenirs. Overall making sure we left it exactly how it was before we came.
• Dispose of waste properly – Dispose of waste properly was very important throughout all activities in Muir. When in the outdoors we made sure to dispose of all our rubbish correctly and even pickup rubbish that want ours to try and leave where we were better than when we arrived. To gurantee that we got every last bit of rubbish, once we had finished at a location we did an emu bob, this is a very effective method of making sure rubbish isnt left, where everyone lines up in a line shoulder to shoulder and walks forward as a line picking up any rubbish that they see in front of them, this makes sure that all ground is covered and we can dispose of all waste as best as possible.
• Respect Wildlife – Whilst Snorkeling and on camp at Rottnest this was a very important principle to apply. At Rottnest we had to be respectful of the Quokkas and make sure we were not touching or feeding them at all. It was also very important whilst snorkeling, making sure we didn’t touch any marine life.

Overall

Overall Muir is a really fun Outdoor Course that teaches you a lot of key skills in a fun engaging way whilst outdoors. It can improve so many different skills and suit a whole lot of different people. It has taught me to use capabilities and really think about your effect on the environment when outdoors and using Leave No Trace principles.