Primary 7 have just arrived home from an eventful 2 days on their residential. We headed off to Tollymore Adventure Centre, got into our wetsuits & collected the canoes. Off we went to Castlewellan Lake for a practice run. Once we had practiced all our skills, we had some fun - jumping off the canoes & splashing/dunking one another...even the teachers!
Back onto the bus and to the Adventure Centre, we got changed into clean clothes, had our dinner and repacked our bags. We then drove to Killeagh, back onto the canoes & the real adventure started. We stocked up the canoes with all our bags, water, food, charcoal and other essentials...oh and ourselves! Then we began paddling over to Salt Island.
After a 40 minute paddle and a beautiful sunset, we got settled into the Bothy. We set up our sleeping bags & wrapped up warm. We started a camp fire and spent the night roasting marshmallows on the fire and enjoying the craic.
The sun rose and morning came very early (earlier than some of us expected) - around 6am! Stevy started up the BBQ and began cooking the bacon for our bacon baps. Once fed and watered, we went for a walk around the island and then began our journey home. The winds were stronger than the night previous so the children showed great strength and perseverance to get back across the Lough. We saw lots of animals and nature on the island but the icing on the cake, we saw a seal on our way back - for some, it was their first time.
Back onto dry land and we headed towards the centre with a surprise stop at McDonalds.
Primary 7 really enjoyed their residential and to quote some of the children, ‘I stepped out of my comfort zone’ and ‘I had really great craic with my friends’ and ‘I didn’t think I’d enjoy one night but now, I want to stay for another!’
A big thank you to Stevy and all the staff at Tollymore Adventure Centre. They have shared their expertise with us throughout our monthly sessions with the centre and on our residential.
A special thank you to Mr Knight who organises the Adventure Club each year and ensure the children get this wonderful experience and learn some life long skills.
