We departed from the Scouts Den at 10:30am on Friday Morning. We had 18 Scouts and Cubs and 7 Leaders on the Trip. We stopped in Roscommon for lunch on the way. We arrived in Achill about 2:30 pm and started to set up Camp. We had the camp up and running by about 6:30pm and all the Kids got their gear set-up in their tents. We got the BBQ fired up and everybody enjoyed Spare Ribs and Burgers and Sausages for dinner. We gave the Kids the evening to wander around the Camp Site and the local Play Park. There was a Carnival next to the camp site as the Achill Half Marathon was taking place on the Saturday so there was a great buzz about the place. On Saturday after have a hearty breakfast we spend some time storm proofing the tents as bad weather was expected later that night. We then departed for a trip to the Deserted Village, were Brian Kirwan told the Kids all about the history of the place (Even a mountain got renamed as part of the story). Some of the Scouts and Cubs along with a few leaders hiked up the mountain. Afterwards we drove alone the Atlantic Coast Drive and stopped to offer some encouragement to the participants in the Half Marathon, some of which looked like they could have got on the bus with us at that stage. Afterwards some of the runners said that the sight of the Scouts on the side of the road cheering them on really helped them. We then returned to the Camp site for lunch. After lunch we went kayaking on the Lake at Keel where the water was shallow and the fun was immense. Everybody had a great time playing all kinds of games in the water. After dinner that evening we got to see a Helicopter rescue taking place to help the Coast Guard air lift an injured fisherman from the Island. We stayed around the camp site for the evening and spend some time cleaning up around the site. This was followed by a singsong in the dinning shelter till about 11:30pm when we then got the Kids settled into their tents as we awaited the on coming storm that was forecasted. Guy lines were tightened and Pegs were reinforced with what ever came to hand. As expected the Storm hit land about 1am in the morning and it lashed the Island for the rest of the night. Not much sleep was had my most of the leaders as they were out checking on tents and equipment for most of the night. In total we only had problems with 2 tents and luckily for the kids these were both the Male and Female leaders’ tents. Bad weather was forecast for the day on Sunday so after meeting with the Surfing instructor at keel we decided in the interest of safety to no go surfing. We also met with the Owner of the Camp Site and decided due to the poor weather forecast for the remainder of our stay that we should move everybody to an indoor facility for the remainder of our stay. This was discussed this with the leaders and Kids and everybody was agreeable that this would be the best option so as everybody would enjoy the stay better if we could at least be guaranteed to stay dry at night time. We then packed away all the tents and some of the sleeping bags and gear that had got wet during the storm were dried in the laundry room on site. We played some games at the park and we used the Rec room at the camp site to play pool and table soccer. There was also a TV there for the kids to watch. After a fantastic dinner that evening we headed to Castlebar for a session in the bowling alley. This was followed by a trip to McDonalds for some food on the way back to camp. On Monday morning we packed away all our gear and headed to the Achill Adventure Centre where we all tried our hands at Archery and played some adventure and problem solving games. This was a great facility and all the events were housed indoors so we managed to stay out of the bad weather for a while. After lunch there was a beak in the weather, the wind stopped and the sun came out. Due to this lucky break we decided to go swimming at Keem beach, which is fantastic even with the scary drive to the site along the coast road. Everybody had a ball and we spend several hours there playing games and swimming.We were due to travel back to Castlebar on Monday evening to go to the Cinema, however after making the best of the nice weather at the beach we decided to give this a miss as it was too late in the evening to travel that far. So instead we set up our projection system and had a movie night in the Rec room at the camp site. Many of the kids and even a leader or two didn’t see too much of the film and within about 15 minutes they were asleep. It’s amazing what a few hours in the sea can do. On Tuesday after we packed up we were planning to travel to the beach again, but unfortunately the weather had turned bad again so we decided to leave the site a bit early. We stopped in Roscommon for a KFC on the way home, and after an impromptu meeting in the car park among the leaders it was decided that we should still give the kids a trip to the Cinema as we had originally planned. We then headed to Athlone and we went to see Shrek 4 in 3D. Everybody thoroughly enjoyed the movie. After the film was over we headed for Monasterevin and arrived back to the Scout Den about 8:30pm. I would like to thank everybody for coming on the trip this year and I hope that everybody enjoyed their time despite the bad weather. Of all the parts of a trip that we can plan the weather isn’t one of them. I would also like to thank all the leaders for the time and support on camp and throughout the year as well. I know that I am looking forward to next year’s trip already. Yours in Scouting Christy McEvoy Group Leader 14th Kildare Scouts P.S Check out the Photos in the Photo Gallery. |
|
Group News >
Summer Camp 2010 Reportposted 7 Jul 2010 05:43 by Brian Dunne [ updated 8 Jul 2010 08:46 by 14th Kildare Scouts Monasterevin ] |