Our First Year School Trip to Petersburg by Emma Hannon
On our first-year school trip we went to Petersburg in Clonbur, Co. Galway. All of first years went on the trip over 3 different days (Monday 29th May, Tuesday 30th May and Thursday 1st June). Each form was then subdivided into 4 groups for each day.
On the Tuesday, we left Coláiste Bhaile Chláir at 9am on two buses. When we arrived at the adventure centre we were split up into our groups (A, B, C, D). Groups A & B were given the opportunity to do Kayaking and paddle boarding while groups C & D did raft building and the obstacle course.
When we were divided into our groups we then taken to get changed for the activities. Our outfit consisted of wetsuits, a jacket to go over the wetsuit, a lifejacket to go over the jacket and to finish off the look we put on helmets. We were then ready to start our activities.
Group D did the Petersburg obstacle course first and after Raft building. For the Petersburg obstacle course, we had to go to an island in the middle of the lake that was in Petersburg. The Petersburg obstacle course consisted of ,first a run up a little, steep, slippery hill, into a tunnel, onto bars which you had to go over, under, over, then to a balance beam that was a twisted, thin log, after we had to go up a tree to cross a rope, then we jumped off to run onto a jump that was made from logs, after we had to climb rope, then to jump over a puddle of water, to go under rope on the ground and to finish it all off we did the monkey bars.
After the obstacle course, we had to make our way back to main land. In order to do this we did raft building. For raft building we had to get on a make shift raft and paddle to get back to mainland. There were two rafts and eight students in a group. To balance the raft there were 4 students on each side of the raft. At the start, it did not go well but then as we became more familiar with paddling together so we got in sync with each other.
When we were finished, we took off the wetsuits and got changed into dry clothes to go back to school in, but before we got on the bus back to school we had our lunch. It was a great day in Petersburg and all of first year would go again if asked.
