On Wednesday 1st of May we headed off to Newgrange to finish the final part of our Gaisce, the Adventure Journey. We left school at 7 a.m. and stopped in Paulstown for breakfast. We arrived at Newgrange Lodge at about 10:30 a.m. and left our stuff in the lodge before heading outside to begin our day long hike. We were all excited for the days ahead and were happy to head off on the hike as we were with our friends. The first part of the hike was by far the hardest as we had to wade through mud. As difficult as it was, it was hilarious and involved lots of slipping and screaming. Eventually we made it out of this part and got to really nice green fields where we stopped for lunch. After lunch we continued our hike into the town, passing a beautiful mural on the wall and through a park. The next part of the hike involved walking on a road then through a park with a view of a river. This part of the hike went really quickly and we made it back at about half past four. We were all super tired and went to our rooms after dinner to relax for a while before coming back down for some karaoke before bed.
The second day we headed off on our hike at about 10 a.m. Today’s hike was shorter and we were heading to look at Newgrange. The hike the second day seemed to fly by and we were at Newgrange snapping lots of pictures before we knew it. When we arrived back at the lodge, we had lunch and relaxed for an hour before heading out to do our activities. We started off with an ice-breaker game in pairs before splitting up and doing some other activities. We tried combat archery, archery, team building and shooting targets with paintballs. It was a lot of fun and we were all tired after it once again. The second night after dinner we had our talent show, which was a great laugh and we all enjoyed it. We headed to bed after the talent show but most of us didn’t go to sleep until a while later!!
The next morning we were up early for breakfast and tidying the rooms. Once all the rooms were clean, we headed to the bus for the journey home after a memorable 2 days where we all bonded and made some fantastic new memories.
Written by Alanah Donnelly