The Beachport Rivoli Bay Lions Club is still celebrating the success of an international visit by a group of young people.
The club’s publicity officer David Snook OAM said for the first time since Lions International was established in Australia in 1947, the Lions District 201C2 held a youth exchange camp.
“Ten youths from across the world landed in Adelaide and then were bussed to various locations south of Adelaide.
“The visitors came from such places as Mongolia, America, Canada, Austria, Malaysia, New Zealand and three from Australia,” Mr Snook said.
“Travelling on an 18 seater bus, provided by the Lions Club of Beachport Rivoli Bay, the group visited Yankalilla and Victor Harbor, before spending a week in the Lower South East based at the Noorla Yo-Long camp, which is administered by the South Australian Police force.
“This camp is fully equipped with a large hall, accommodation and many other physical activity facilities and is located between the towns of Rendlesham and Millicent.
“While in the South East the Lions Clubs of Beachport Rivoli Bay, Millicent, Mount Gambier and Naracoorte were scheduled to provide some activities for the exchanges to participate in with rest days in between.
“Some of the Lions clubs also provided some of the meals for them and the various Youth Exchange National Committee members.”
Mr Snook said his club’s task was to give the group an experience In paddle boarding.
“This was initially cancelled because of rough windy weather and had to be held two days later at South End,” he said.
“Alternative activities were found and the youths visited Duckaroo wild life rescue facility outside of Beachport.
“This proved to be a real hit with the exchanges as they were able to handle kangaroo joeys and see other rescued animals including birds, wombats and various other species of Australian wildlife.
“Another site on this excursion was the Woakwine cutting, which is a drain cut through the Woakwine range of hills.
“This drain was a privately constructed effort by one man and his employee taking four years to build and is the deepest drain in the Southern Hemisphere, at ninety feet or 28 metres deep.
“The Beachport Rivoli Bay Lions Club many years ago built a viewing platform and shedding to protect the machinery used in this project.
“Since then a new viewing platform has been erected by the Wattle Range District Council.”
Mr Snook said following the Woakwine cutting visit the group went to the surf beach at Beachport and joined in with the surf lifesaving club and were given tuition in the finer arts of surf lifesaving by two qualified instructors.
“They then competed in beach racing and tug of war before venturing out into the water surfing on supplied surf boards,” he said.
“The following day saw better weather and paddleboarding was provided by Still Water Paddle boards at South End.
“They quickly mastered this event and the proprietors took them for a paddle of almost a kilometre to see a congregation of sting rays in shallow water off a headland.
“Talking to one of the exchanges, they all had a great time while being accommodated at the Noorla Yo-Long camp, which has been established for an initial period of three years.”
