2024.04.08-14
Wow, this last week was one of the best ones I had so far, absolutely fabulous. Rotarian Graeme Fardon, Swedish Exchange student Elis and myself Valentin, we went on the Bibbulmun track and walked a 30km part of it near Albany. I went with Rotarian Kenn Williams, his wife Peta and Rotarian Murray McKay to the Walk for mental Illness on the Rotary Action Day which ended with a fantastic International Dinner with a couple of other Exchange students.
On Sunday I got the opportunity from former Exchange student Connor Owens to join him watch the Eagles win, which was perfect as it was my first AFLgame and I can’t wait to go again. In the evening my outstanding mentor Ian Fairnie invited Connor and myself to an amazing Japanese Teppanyaki Dinner. As I told you a remarkable week.
On Monday we started early to get down south to Albany in time to start our trekking adventure. During the drive I went through how the whole event came together. It started, with Ian mentions of the Track in one of the first E-Mails he sent to me and then when we started organizing it early this year. Pretty straight away I was supported from Graeme Fardon as my walking buddy, who then made this trip even possible for me, Rotarian John Kelly, who supported us with all his expertise and knowledge about hiking and his gear and of course Ian Fairnie.
We started walking after a drop-off from the Albany bus shuttles on Tennessee Rd South with a 4.8km walk to the West Cape Howe campsite. We were all motivated and enjoyed the nature and the fresh air a lot. After a Rice and Chicken Dinner we went to bed at around 7p.m. to be fit for the next day.
On Monday we started early to get down south to Albany in time to start our trekking adventure. During the drive I went through how the whole event came together. It started, with Ian mentions of the Track in one of the first E-Mails he sent to me and then when we started organizing it early this year. Pretty straight away I was supported from Graeme Fardon as my walking buddy, who then made this trip even possible for me, Rotarian John Kelly, who supported us with all his expertise and knowledge about hiking and his gear and of course Ian Fairnie.
We started walking after a drop-off from the Albany bus shuttles on Tennessee Rd South with a 4.8km walk to the West Cape Howe campsite. We were all motivated and enjoyed the nature and the fresh air a lot. After a Rice and Chicken Dinner we went to bed at around 7p.m. to be fit for the next day.

On Tuesday we started with our quick brekky and off we went to breath holding nature where we spotted kangaroos, snakes, spiders and a lot of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. We had a good pace and stayed in the time we set for the day, until my heals got hurting blisters and Graeme’s legs started to cramp. So went slower as planned and also lost more energy as wanted, but we arrived at the Shelter, we had planned to skip, we stopped. It was the right decision to stop after 16km and not walk the planned 30km. One thing I learned from this experience was to listen to experienced hikers, because John told us 16km is enough. But we were still alive and very happy. During the rest of the day we met a couple other hikers, who stayed at the same place as we did.

On Wednesday morning, we started slowly, because we were about to get picked up at 2p.m. at Mutonbird Rd. So we started our 10km walk from Torbay Campsite, where we stayed for the night, to hike the 7km along the Beach which showed us another dimension of hiking. We all three didn’t think that hiking on sand is that hard and exhausting. But we managed it and got picked-up.
We showered, relaxed and then got ready for the Albany Port Rotary meeting, where we got to be the guest speaker and talked about ourselves, our Walk on the Bibbulmun Track and the Youth Exchange and our experiences so far. Graeme, as the new District-placement-officer for their new Exchange student from Denmark, explained all the challenges they are going to face and answered all their questions.

On Thursday we made lovely sightseeing tour through Albany and surrounding. We started with the ANZAC Centre, which is really well done and gave me a good view on how the situation was during the WW1 on the other side of the world, as we don’t really learn about this in school. It is really focused on the stories of individual soldiers, which makes the whole museum really personal and easier to understand and to follow, while its still interesting.
Afterwards we went to the historic Albany Whaling Centre, where we saw infrastructure to kill around 15.000 Whales, you can’t imagine when you haven’t being there. It was an fascinating industry which wasn’t good at all for the environment.
Afterwards we headed to the natural bridge and the Gap, which are both impressive natural creations. We also went to the Dog Rock in Albany and the visitor Centre to get a Bibbulmun Track badge for our RYE-Jackets. In the evening we went to a beautiful Restaurant near our accommodation, where we enjoyed the last evening with great food.

On Friday we drove back to Perth through the Stirling National Park, the great playground in Katanning and seeing the giant Ram in Wagin. After 8 hours of driving, we all arrived at home.

On Saturday I went with Peta Williams to the Rotary Action Day where we meet up with other Rotarians from Applecross and the whole district. We participated in the Walk for physical and mental Health. On this day Rotary WA raised around 4000 AUD which is a great amount which is directly going towards Rotary Health. After promoting the Youth Exchange with other Exchangees, helping to set Up the Flags for the International Dinner in the evening and setting Up and Down a lot of the stands and helping with other things, Kenn and myself went home to get ready for the Dinner. Shortly after Kenn droped me off he again picked me up for the dinner. We did some preparations, learned the song all the exchange students sung later that night. It was a great night to connect with other Rotarians. I always enjoy meeting new people, because it’s one of the most interesting things out there.

On Sunday Connor Owens picked me up to watch a very successful win for the Eagles. It was my first visit to a stadium and my first ever AFL game I watched and I enjoyed it so much. It was so great and I’m really thankful for Connor for taking me. In the evening Ian invited us to a fabulous Japanese teppanyaki show. It was an incredible tasty and entertaining Dinner.


Thank you for everyone who helped making this week the week it was.
Valentin