When I arrived at the school at 8:50 on the 30th of April I immediately felt a buzz of excitement amongst my friends! We couldn’t wait to begin our adventure! We all piled onto the bus and we were on the road for approximately 9:10. With Selfie Sticks, Go Pro’s and speakers on the bus it was quite the journey. When we reached the Burren Outdoor Education Centre the realisation of the journey ahead of us finally seemed real, and several of us began to feel quite nervous. We were shown to our rooms where we threw down our bags. We began to get ready to start our walk which meant dancing! Instead of looking at the maps we danced to warm ourselves up as it was bitterly cold! We eventually set off on our walk armed with maps, High visibility vests, sunscreen and lots of water. Thankfully the weather improved drastically with the sun shining throughout the majority of our walk. For the beginning of our walk we walked along the country roads which proved to be quite entertaining. The usual game of “sweet and sour” was played but with only about 5 cars passing every hour on the road the game was abandoned quickly. When we reached the foot of Abbey Hill we stopped for a short break, to get a drink and take in the breathtaking scenery! After short walk it finally dawned on me that the only way to get to the top was to climb straight up the rocky hill. After only a minute or two our legs began to burn but we kept going. When we reached the top everyone forgot the pain of climbing up as we caught a glimpse of the view. It was a stunning view of Galway and the Burren. We stopped for lunch at the top of the hill where we encountered two doggy friends which seemed to enjoy our food more than our company! After all the pictures and videos were taken we began our dissent which proved to be quite eventful with many falls due to the loose rocks. The sheer concentration needed to place our feet correctly was astounding. We stopped on a relatively flat surface to do our footloose dance! Thankfully we reached the bottom with no injuries! The last five kilometres seemed very short and I was surprised when we reached the adventure centre because I thought we had at least another kilometre if not more to go. Showers were badly needed before the preparation of dinner because we had just walked 22 kilometers. Dinner preparation went surprisingly smooth with thirteen people cooking all at once. When everybody’s dish was cooked we all sat down and ate. After dinner a few of us set up the room for Sarah’s surprise birthday. When we were ready we called Sarah down and had a small party for her. We wandered outside and discovered an obstacle course which was extremely fun. A ball was discovered in the field and we rolled out some tires and we began to play Rounders. With Ms.Kearney involved the game became ruthless with zero rules being followed to the point where the game was abandoned. After a short break we began to play Red Rover which proved to be the highlight of the night! We watched Grown Ups 2 and headed to bed. We woke up at 8 and cleaned the rooms, packed our bags and we all strolled down for breakfast. At 9:15 we set off on our walk along the Flaggy Shore. We spotted a few seals on our walk, jumped from rock pool to rock pool, and we ran out of swarms of May Flies! After about seven kilometres we stopped for lunch on the roadside. When we began again the pace had slowed as we were all beginning to feel the exhaustion from our walk the day before and the lack of sleep. We finally finished the remaining eight kilometres at 12:30. When we got to the adventure centre we thanked them for allowing us to stay we got our bags and piled back on the bus to return home. The bus journey home was relatively silent with many people falling asleep. The two days that I spent on the adventure journey were some of the most fun days of transition year!
Mary Power
TY 2014/2015