carlingford!!

where to start??..........well we all awoke early monday morning and headed down to esso where most people stocked up on way too much sweets for the two days planned ahead. the bus arrived soon after and we all piled in excited and ready for the days ahead.

while on the bus we chattered loudly but in a good way and after a while the bus driver kindly turned the radio on and we sang simultaneously in what we thought was in tune but  ms o callaghan and the bus driver could've thought otherwise. around 8 30 we approached carlingford and we all gazed out the window at the sight of this beautiful village. although it was a very overcast day we were just happy it wasn't raining!! we all hopped off the bus ready and raring to go. we grabbed our bags and walked up through the village of carlingford which in itself was very drawing to the eye but what caught most peoples attention was the pizzeria where you could get a slice of pizza for 1 50...........we were already in love with this place!!

we eventually arrived in the adventure centre with few able to contain their excitement and sat down where the instuctors came and set down the ground rules and then split us into our activity groups and bedroom buddies. I was very happy with my roomies as we and another room had a whole floor level to ourselves!! we unpacked quickly and unanimously decided that for the morning task we would not require wellies....... to a lot of the girls dismay(including me!)when everyone was ready we headed off to the high ropes with pablo the instructor. as we approached the high ropes we quickly realised why it was called the high ropes. you could feel the anxiety as people realised they would have to climb these large poles. we were all geared up in harnesses which relieved some of the faint hearted, here we met peaches another instructor who showed us the necessary precautions and methods to complete these tasks. i decided i would get it done fast if i was to do the task so volunteered to go into the first group, the aim of the task was to get four people onto this one platform suspended in the air and eventually hold hands and lean back to form a star. my heart was racing and it was not until we completed the task that i realised what a rush it was. we went on to different tasks and with hard work completed them also! we walked back with a feeling of accomplishment only to be greeted by a well deserved delicious plate of chicken nuggets and chips.

after this we went to our water activities which was canoeing, it was great fun we paddled over to a castle and played games in the field behind. after this we went pier jumping and for me this was the highlight of the trip we all held hands and jumped in together and after getting used to the cold we decided to attempt jumping off the high wall. it was great craic!

we had dinner and we were then told to get our wellies on(whoo!) as we were going on a hike.. our initial thoughts were "a hike in the night is that not a bit iffy? but hey the instructors know what they're doin'" well were we in for a shock 1 hour 59 minutes and 32 seconds later we arrived in, exhausted, cranky and soaked to the skins(not to be helped by the sight of chinese being eaten by the other group members:L). but in the morning i saw things a little clearer and realised it was a great experience as each of us were scared and cold and this was when everyone started to bond and support each other and after lots of hugs and christmas carolling we all felt a lot better.

in the morning we packed our stuff glumly and went orienteering. we had to walk up more mountains to the groups delight and eventually ended up outside our bus saying goodbye to the instructors and loading our bags into the bus. we drove away tired but happy at such a memorable trip! :)