The camping trip was the first trip we went on as a group in TY. The point of bringing us camping straight after we receive our junior cert results is so that we can forget about them and continue to bond with the new students and to get to know the people better than we did before. This trip can also be counted towards our Gaisce award.
Everyone was very excited to go camping but was very nervous to receive our results. As soon as we collected our results and told our parents, we headed back to pack up the buses and headed to Lough Dan. We knew that putting up the tents would be an experience to remember but we did t think it would be that hard. After setting up the tents, we got ourselves organised and head d off on a 5 kilometre walk around Lough Dan. We had to prepare all of our meals ourselves, we were very organised and had all of our meals set out before we left. After dinner we all stood around the campfire singing and talking. Sleeping in the tents was fun while it lasted with the rain and wind it was certainly colder than I had expected.
The 17 kilometre walk the following day was the time you bonded with people you never thought you would bond with, it was well worth the uphill struggle. Getting in the lake after the hike was definitely one of my favourite parts of the trip. Everyone splashing around and on eachothers shoulders, it was so much fun.
Sleeping in the tents during Storm Aileen was definitely the hardest part of the trip because of the rain and the strong winds. Making your own food turned out to be surprisingly easy in the end, with all the organisation before the trip really paid off.
I have to say, the camping trip was honestly so much fun and so enjoyable. There was so many opportunities to get to know different people and to learn new skills. It is certainly a memory I will never forget.