Crossing the border for Adventurous Journey
Published Thu 21 Aug 2025
From eerie ghost tours to beautiful waterfalls, Elizabeth’s Adventurous Journey had it all.
The Ettamogah Venturer Scout invited four friends from Sydney to Albury Wodonga to go for a hike in her local forest and show them something different. 1st Balmain Venturer Scouts Theo, Kai and Oscar, and 1st Leichhardt Venturer Scout Eric, made the trip to support Liz in her King’s Scout Award hike.
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“We hiked through the rural town of Beechworth towards Eldorado in Victoria, as I personally live in a border town in Victoria,” she said.
“I chose this trip as I wanted to show my friends from Sydney a small part of my local area while doing something different that even local Scouts don’t normally do for their Adventurous Journey. It was so much fun catching up with friends who live so far away. I was also very relieved that everything went mostly to plan and everyone really enjoyed it.”
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What is an Adventurous Journey? An Adventurous Journey is a multi-day journey – not necessarily a hike – led by a youth member, supported by adults. Venturer Scouts more commonly undertake their journey unassisted. Adventurous Journeys can consist of one big adventure (such as hiking the Larapinta Trail or the Overland Track), or a canoe trip, a “pack and paddle” journey, or several shorter hikes to different locations in the one journey. It can even have adjustments made to make it more inclusive. |
While the Patrol explored a variety of local landmarks, they also encountered a staple of Scouting journeys – rain – causing them to make changes to the end of the hike. Liz said she liked being able to share her home with her friends.
“We hiked down a pretty fire trail into Beechworth where I got to teach my friends about the history of the area in the gold rush and Ned Kelly eras,” she said.
“We also went to the local landmark of the Mayday Hills Asylum for a ghost tour, which was super educational and also scary. It was pretty spooky as we did the night tour. We sadly didn’t have any ghosts appear on our tour, but it was an eerie area hearing about past patients of the asylum and how messed up some of the things they got up to were.
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“On the second day, we hiked out of Beechworth to another local landmark – Woolshed Falls – which was very pretty due to recent rain. On the third day, we walked down the road around a loop track which acted as a challenge due to some steeper parts.
“The last day it has been raining heavily all night, and it was going to rain all day, so I made the decision to get everyone to pack and call the safety car to pick us up as all our gear was soaked and we were only going to get more wet. We went to my place and dried off and got everyone ready for the train back to Sydney.
“Due to that rain, I learned how to ensure we made it to camp on time, and how to decide on the best course of action when the weather isn’t great.”
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Now her Adventurous Journey is ticked off, all Liz needs to do to achieve her King’s Scout Award is complete her leadership course and personal reflection.
Outside of the peak award, she is hoping to go to Kandersteg International Scout Centre (KISC) as a Pinky (short-term staff member) for a season and be able to grow her skills and passion for Scouting.
