Gaisce Hike

To complete our Gaisce bronze award we had to accomplish a 25K hike and 37 participants headed out to Kippure Estate in Wicklow on April 24th and stayed overnight.

Day 1:

We left school at around 2 pm and arrived at Kippure Estate around 3 pm. When we arrived at our destination we were all put into our houses and we got 10-15 minutes to prepare ourselves before we headed for our hike. We had to accomplish 15K on this day which took almost 7 hours. Three professional hikers came along with us. We went on top of four hills which was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo exhausting. I really enjoyed it although it was tiring and luckily the weather was great on the first day. 

Day 2: 

I got up at 7:30 am to get ready, have breakfast and to clean the place. We had to be out of the house before 9 am so we could get started on the activities such as abseil wall, leap of faith and archery. Afterwards we then headed back to the mountains. Day 2 of hiking, the day that I will never forget. Why? The weather was gruesome. To complete 25K we hiked for another 10K in terrible weather. It started off with hailstones and as we got higher the weather got worst and the temperature dropped which felt like -20 degrees. I couldn't feel a thing and I couldn't move a bone which made me feel like giving up completely. This hike took almost 6 hours, 6 hours of torture. We then made it back to Kippure and headed back home. After I got home, I went to a party and lucky me most of the adults there were nurses and I got spoiled with hot food, drinks and comfort. 

The hike was a great experience and I'm proud that I have accomplished 25K in such horrendous weather.  

Drive or Dive

April 13th 2015

Class Ariel went to Leinster Driving Campus in Maynooth for driving lessons which was a great opportunity and experience. We arrived there at 9:30 in the morning and were divided in two groups both with groups of three or two. 

The group that I was put in went in for the theory while the other group went driving around the track for driving lessons. During the theory test I found out that you can be 15 years old to do the theory test and that's one thing I did not know about. After the theory test we were given three road signs and we were to come up with something funny about the signs which was a great laugh. We then tried out the beer goggles which were goggles that made you feel you were on drugs or drunk. We each got the chance to wear the goggles and while wearing the goggles we had to put a cone on top of the other cone and give our instructor a high five which gave me a headache after wearing the goggles. 

After our 15 minutes break we swapped around and we got the chance to drive around. It was my first time driving and I thought I was going to crash and end up in the small lake but thankfully I didn't.