No I am not going to Denmark, Denmark, I'm going to Denmark Australia!

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For being apart of the Environmental Program with CIEE, the five of us got to go on a Regional Trip together to Denmark in the South West of Western Australia. It is a three day trip where we will be staying at the Centre for Sustainable Living.

Day One:

The day started out early where we all piled into a van and headed off to Denmark.

The Centre is really quite impressive. It has passive solar design, solar panels for space heating, on site waste water management, their own wetland and probably so much more that I don't remember. It is a really interesting place to show you how green you can really become.

There are several room that we each grabbed and through our bags in and then we headed out to the beach. A few of the people went swimming but I decided to walk along the beach where the water amazingly clear. At one end you could actually see where the Denmark River flowed into the Southern Ocean. We then stopped off in town where we grabbed some food for dinner. We walked back to the centre and the trail was really quite nice. We got to see some of the local fauna there including Gallinula, Herons, Cormorants and even a Kookaburra.

Once back we prepared dinner. We made a nice pasta meal that we could all sit down and enjoy. While we were having dinner we had to sit through a presentation about the Centre, which started off interesting but definitely didn't stay there. It seemed to go on forever! Finally it ended and we headed to our rooms to relax.

Day Two:

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Unlike most Uni students who have already started drinking, we are heading out different sites around Denmark.

First we started out at an Organic Farm. It was a bit cold and rainy but when we got there it started to warm up. We met with the farmer who showed us his green house and then we began planting our own seeds. I can't recall what we were planting, I believe there were three different types of plants though.

We spent some time there and then we grabbed some lunch and met up with our next guide. He was to take us around and show us some sustainable forestry operations and land care/rehabilitation projects.

We stopped off at a few spots where our guide showed us overgrown vegetation in one area. It showed us all the tangled up undergrowth that was there and how it was hard for trees to prosper in a place like that. Next we went to an area that had a control fire go through it. It showed us how this is necessary to kill off the excess undergrowth to give trees more space to grow. Even though the burn happened just a month or two ago you could already see the forest healing itself. And last we were taken to a restored wetlands site.

When we were finished checking out the wetlands we actually helped out our guide clear out a section of land. We did some weeding while he told us about the seed collection he helps work with. Although weed pulling isn't that exciting it was kind of fun to help out with the restoration program even if it was just a little.

We returned to the Sustainable Living Centre where we went to their small little multi purpose community centre. Its a neat little place that is filled with local art. On top of that it is as green as you can make it. It has energy free ventilation, solar panels and a green roof filled with local vegetation.

After a bit of time at the centre we headed out once more to a different beach. This time we got to check out the Elephant Rocks. These are huge rocks sitting on top of the mountains. Nobody knows how they got up there, but there they sit. The ocean was cold and I chose not to jump in although others dove in head first.

We spent a bit of time hanging out around there, and then we headed back to the centre to clean up to go out for dinner. We walked into town by the small path we had taken yesterday.

Dinner was simple and nice and even included some ice cream which makes every evening complete. We headed back together and chilled at the Centre.

Day Three:

This morning we headed out to go hiking. We went to Mt. Hallowell. The hike wasn't to hard although we were headed up and up and up. Once at the top we had a beautiful sight. The God light was shooting on through down on to the trees. The rocks where huge and easy to jump from rock to rock. It was really a beautiful spot.

The hike down was ten times easier and we did it in half the time. Unfortunately once back we had to head back to Uni.

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” Saint Augustine

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