Day 1    

At half seven on Thursday morning, a bus full of sleepy heads departed Tullow and set off on the road to Achill Island. After two and a half hours, we stopped off in Athlone for a bite to eat. After another 3 hours, we arrived to a warm welcome at Achill Outdoor Adventure Centre, Achill Island, Co. Mayo. The atmosphere was full of excitement and anticipation. We were shown our rooms and were divided into 4 groups for activities.  

 

The first activity for my group was rock climbing – we boarded a small bus for a short journey. The bus dropped us off at the side of unused land and we began our trek – we walked over rocks and through bushes for a while until we reached the side of the mountain we were going to climb. After a quick safety briefing about helmets and ropes our instructor, Ciarán set up two ropes. After a quick display by one student, soon all the group were ascending the rock and abseiling back down. Some students also took responsibility for bee-laying. 

 

Upon return to the centre, we were fed with wonderfully prepared food and given one hour to relax and unpack our things. We were then taken on a walk down to a local beach and took part in a hunt for several items beginning with certain letters!! 4 groups completed the task and won the much coveted prize – a packet of Custard Creams!! We were given tea and biscuits when we returned to the centre and “Family Guy” was the entertainment for the evening. At half eleven the lights were turned out and the majority of us settled down for a well deserved sleep – some decided that sleep wasn’t important and stayed up playing cards quietly until the small hours!!

 

Day 2

After a lovely breakfast, my group were off to test the waves of the Atlantic Ocean as we attempted to surf! The bus dropped us off at the beach and our instructor, Diarmuid, was very thorough in his lesson on how to surf. We all seemed to get the hang of it on the beach, but when we reached the water it was a different story, some showed they really were surfing naturals while others – including myself – realised my place was not in the water. As we waited (freezing) a few minutes for the bus to collect us Diarmuid was asked more questions about his hair in those few minutes than he was about surfing in the previous hour and a half!!

 

We returned to the centre for a delicious lunch and were given a free hour to relax and unwind. Next on the agenda for my group was canoeing – again Diarmuid was our instructor and as always he was thorough with his safety explanations and we were all caught on camera by Ms. McMahon. We rafted up the canoes and were split up between the two boats – which led to there being two separate teams. After paddling our way around the lake for a while we moored up at a shallow part and got out of the boats and played a game of rugby in the water to warm up!! Mr. Smith joined in in the fun here, and although was taken down with some strong Leinster tackles – wasn’t shy in demonstrating how it was done the Munster way!! When we finally got back on dry land we watched some extremely talented Kite Surfers performing on the lake and then returned to the centre for dinner. After dinner we were taught the skills of archery and were equally entertained by the instructor’s dog – Pockets. Following this and an extremely competitive game of “Pig” with Mr Smith, that Kevin couldn’t get the hang of, we retired to bed for the night!!

 

Day 3

After being woken by an ex-army officer working at the centre, we had breakfast and were given a choice of our final activity – I chose canoeing. After rafting up the canoes and paddling across to the far side of the lake we were given the choice of going sailing or going Bog Diving – needless to say I went bog diving!! Following some very acrobatic displays of bog diving and a pair of sunken shoes that were eventually found we returned to the centre for our final dinner and loaded onto the bus. We said goodbye to our instructors and departed Achill Island, sadly, and set off on our long