Gáisce Hike :)

Yesterday 14 of us + 2 teachers set out for Wicklow for our Gaisce hike...it was definitely a weekend to remember!

We came into school in our hiking gear (ie. tracksuit bottoms etc). We left after lunch, at 2 o'clock. When we arrived at Knockree hostel in Wicklow, lots of us recognised it from our ecology trip in 3rd year...

We checked in and got our rooms...I was with Aoife, Siobhán and Ashling N (Aoife & Ashling are from 5th year). We put our food that could go off in the fridge, packed our bags and then set off for the first leg of our hike at about 4 o'clock At first when our guide (I can't remember his name) showed us the mountain we'd be climbing, I got a bit of a shock...it looked huuuuge, but as we got going I realised it wasn't too bad. This is the mountain we climbed...we went to the end of the trees near the top;

We stopped for a few breaks along the way to regain our strength which was good because they were needed (for me anyway). The wind on the mountain was so strong...we could nearly lie back and be held up! The views were lovely along the way...we could see so much. When we got near the top our guide decided to go back down because the wind was too strong to go any further. We got up and down in record timing...we arrived back at the hostel at ten to seven! Our guide said we had walked almost 20km!

After that we went to our rooms for showers and stuff...the shower I went into was fuh-reez-ing! And there was a big spider too!! eeshk :/

Then we went down to the kitchen to make dinner...I had to get help 'coz cooking isn't my strong point...who knew pasta could be so easy! ;) After we cleaned up we got into our pj's and went to the tv room to watch 50 first dates...such an awful movie :D We were getting kinda freaked out by girls from another school who kept watching us through the window...but it was all part of the fun :L

"Quiet time" in the hostel was after 11pm and the movie finished at 10.59...perfect timing! Then we went to bed...ish...we finally got to sleep at around ten to twelve after some wall-feeling, talking, and eh....forcing into bed ;)

We were woken this morning at 8.00...according to Siobhán I was a sight for sore eyes when Ms. H came to wake us...I quote "You looked like someone who had been asleep and didn't want to be woken!" hehe :D you got it in a nutshell Siobhán!

We packed up our stuff and went for breakfast....just a side note: Kellogs mini-packs are in no way filling! We brought all our stuff downstairs and gave back our keys...but we weren't finished yet!

We had two new guides today...Mick and Andrei. We started off with orienteering. Team Andrei (the one I was on) lost :( actually we let then win! jk :P Then we did archery...I was surprised coz I was ok at it and I thought I'd be awful! The final score was 1400 to us and 1320 to the other team...I scored two bullseyes which was really cool! Here's us behind the targets afterwards...

After archery we went to use the low ropes...there were tight-ropey things that we had to walk across and that sort of thing; easier said than done because we were blindfolded when we were going across! Everyone had a go...even the teachers! Here's me going across blindfolded with Aoife ready to catch me if I fell...I made it though!

Speaking of falling...there was another rope thing after that and there was a metal wire that you had to walk across with the help of these two blue ropes that were in a criss-cross kionda shape (worst description ever!). When Aoife was going across I was standing behind her (supposedly) ready to catch her...but she fell back and I wasn't looking and I missed her...nevertheless she landed on top of me and the two of us went flying onto the ground...sorry Aoife! Siobhán caught the moment on camera....

And afterwards...

Afterwards we did some team games like making a square out of different shapes, making numbers add up to 15, moving a ball using drain pipes and "skis". I think Team Mick won most of the stuff :( :D

And that was it! We grabbed our bags, waved goodbye and got back on the bus. We stopped in Enniskerry to get ice-creams. We got back to Esso (where we were being collected) at 2.20. I had such a good time...the weather stayed gorgeous for most of the trip...I was really hot anyway! (I used my suncream too :D) ...so many funny memories (Siobhán feeling the wall for me...taking pictures of bananas....loads of funny conversations and mis-interpreted sentences!! :L) Fortunately I'm not in much pain at all...I'll upload more photos from the trip later. Thanks to the teachers who brought us! :)

Everyone who went ^^