www.gleninnesexaminer.com.au Glen Innes Examiner – Tuesday, December 2, 2014 – 5

Not many 20-year-olds get totravel more than 7000 kilo-metres to the world’s lastpristine environment and trekacross a continent. But that isthe journey thatAllira Searleformerly of Glen Innes is onas part of an indigenous youthleadership program led byadventurer Peter Bland.

The first of its kind pro-gram, which is done in part-nership with not for profitorganisation Yalari and MrBland, will see a group ofindigenous youth make thehuge trek from ‘the outbackto the icecap’ in December.

The group of five youngpeople will be led a group ofmentors and Mr Bland whowas the first Australian towalk to the north and southmagnetic poles.

They are all graduates ofboarding schools after attend-ing on scholarships providedby the Yalari organisation.

The group will leave tobegin their epic adventure onDecember 15 and Ms Searlesaid she is brimming withexcitement to begin the tripwhich will see a number ofstopovers on the way toAntarctica.

“We fly to San Diego thenfly to Buenos Aires, oneweek there where we will dosome sightseeing and get toknow each other better as Ihaven’t met some of the men-tors yet, then we go down tothe bottom of Argentinawhere we will get on a ship

which takes two days to get tothe coast of Antarctica,” shesaid.

Once the group and theirmentors hit the Antarctic thereal adventure begins.

The group will trek fromone coast of the Antarctic tothe other.

“It’s about a week we areon the ice for, they are drop-ping us on one side and wehave to hike and climb andcamp for a night or two andthen continue hiking and thenthey will pick us up on theother coastline,” she said.

“While there we will beabseiling and climbing gla-ciers and we will also do anarctic plunge jump.”

The adventure will be ledby Mr Bland who Ms Searlesaid she keeps in regular con-tact with ever since an initialboot camp in August.

“We did a boot camp inAugust where I met Peter andsince then we’ve just beentrying to catch up in prepara-tion every few days via thephone,” she said.

Ms Searle has been trainingregularly since the boot campand told The Glen InnesExaminer she hopes she isprepared physically for thetrek.

“I’m trying to do any sort ofincline training, so at themoment it’s just mountainclimbing around Canberra.”

Ms Searle has been busywith media appearances pro-moting the trip, recently

appearing on the ABC televi-sion’s breakfast program.

She has also spoken onABC Radio Canberra andABC New England.

“I think the interview withABC TV was the biggest I’vedone I was shaking the wholetime, I also went on air forABC radio in Canberra andABC radio in New Englandso it’s all been pretty big andfull on at the moment but it’sgone well.

The 20-year-old, whoworks in communications asan unsworn member of theAustralian Federal Policesays she tries to get back to

Glen Innes whenever she can. But her work with the AFP,

of which she is applying tobecome a member, some-times makes it difficult to getback home.

“I try to get back to Glenevery couple of months butit’s hard with work because Iwork shift work,” she said.

Ms Searle left Glen Innes in2008 after being successful inobtaining a scholarship toattend boarding school, amove which she said had amassive positive effect on herlife.

“I went to Glen Innes Highuntil grade 8 which would

have been 2008, and I appliedfor and was successful in get-ting a scholarship throughYalari to go to boardingschool,” she said.

“I chose the GlennieSchool in Toowoomba andgraduated in 2012,” she said

“It was a really greatschool for me.”

The group has primarilyrelied on crowd funding tohelp them undertake theadventure.

Anyone interested in sup-porting the group can stilldonate to their adventure atthe organisation’s website:http://www.leadershipgroup.c

om.au/ or at the Outback toIcecap Facebook page.

Mentor needs supportThe group has been raising

money by selling teddy bearswhich will make the trip tothe Antarctic, and one of thegroup’s mentors Kali Bailey who is fromInverell has been looking forcorporate sponsorship to helpget the group to Antarticathrough the sale of the bears.

If you would like to helpthe group through the pur-chase of a bear or a donationyou can contact Kali on 0458210 301.

Former Glen Innes High Student Allira Searle will bemaking the trip of a lifetime next month when shetakes part in an epic adventure to Antarctica. Joshua Paterson reports.

Glen Innes toAntarctica

❏ All Smiles: Allira Searle’s selfie from theOutback to Icecap Facebook page.

❏ Jumping for joy: Mentor Kali Bailey isstill looking for sponsorship for the trip.

Photo by Jamila ToderasThe Canberra Times

Photo by MelArnott