8th waterford, tramore Scouts. Home - Camps - Photos - Beavers - Cubs The Burren
The Burren Camp Log . . . by Stephen
We left early on Thursday morning, in 3 cars, Tom's, Paul's, and mine. I was
picking up Dara in Waterford so I didn't have to go to the Scout hall. Tom had said
to be at Poulnabrone Dolmen. I had my phone switched off to save batteries and we
were keeping good time along the route. When we eventually got to the dolmen at
11.15, I rang Andrew to see where he was and he said they were at SuperMacs in
Limerick, the best part of 2 hours away and that they were trying to ring us! We
looked at the Dolmen and went to Ballyvaughan, when we were waiting for them
and eventually we met them at the Aillwee caves at around 1. When we went into
the caves, we were given the tour and saw Stalactites and Stalagmites and pillars
and columns. At the end the tour guide turned off all the lights and said it was pitch
dark so we would not be able to even see our hands in front of us, but Nicholas
flashed a lighter so we could. After the caves we had our lunch and put on suncream
as the sun was out and it was very hot. We put on our rucksacks and started down
the driveway to the caves. Our rucksacks were really heavy and as we started
walking along the road away from the caves, everyone was sweating and Nicholas
was falling behind so Tom and Paul put some of his stuff in their bags. We then
decided to walk through a field to cut across onto the Burren Way. There were
horses in this field and they started running around excitedly. When we were on the
road a while we stopped and looked at a ruin of an old house. We started singing the
Maynards Winegum song. Paul took out the video camera and we taped a minute or
2. Then we started walking again until we met Fiona in the car and we were told we
could leave our sleeping bags and spare clothes in the car. Alleluia! Our packs now
seemed much lighter as we started to climb Poulacapple. The path was all zig-
zagged so we walked straight up it instead. We lost Tom and started going a bit
offcourse but eventually we caught up with him again. We all started walking in
bogs (especially me) . We started to descend and on the way, Nicholas and Dara
found a Bull's skull so we brought that along. We eventually came to a road and
Tom rang Fiona. When she came they looked for a good place to camp. They
eventually found one and we walked to it, although Ruairi, Colin and Dara walked
about 2 miles past it. Paul went and got his car, we put up tents, got some video
footage, and ate a dinner of Steak, Spuds and sweetcorn, which was nice as we had
all worked up appetites. After that we had a campfire, Colin and I collected wood
and Paul got out his guitar and we had a singsong. After a while, we settled into our
tents and went asleep.
The next day, Friday, we got up pretty early and had a fry-up for breakfast.
Then the leaders told us they were going to bring the cars and the gear to Doolin,
and that we had to hike by ourselves across the valley between Poulacapple and
Slieve Elva. We covered this in about 45 minutes and then we had to wait 20
minutes for the leaders. Then we started to climb Slieve Elva. This was really hard
as the grass was really long and it required a lot of effort. Nicholas kept stopping
and complaining and bugging me for hayfever tablets but we eventually got to the
top. When we were at the top we found a load of turf that had been dug up.
Nicholas decided to pick up a piece and slow himself down some more. When we
started descending we came across a forest. We walked through a small bit of it and
we could see a road to our right and we headed towards it but TOM said we should
go through the forest and Nicholas, who was in front at the time, kept saying he
could see open ground. So we went further and further into the forest until we were
on a ridge going downhill. We followed this for a while until we saw a dried up
riverbed to our left. We went on this for a while until it stopped so we decided to go
back onto the ridge. We walked right into the forest and couldn't see it. It was a
pine forest, all the trees were really close together and it was extremely painful, but
eventually we got to the ridge. Unfortunately it was blocked by a big gorse bush.
Tom told us to wait and he'd try to get around the bush and around five minutes
later he heard him calling us. He told us to follow his voice. The only thing was this
was through incredibly rough forest, but we eventually found him in a bit of open
ground. We took a break for a few minutes and everyone complained about the pine
needles that were down their backs or the pain we were going through. We decided
that a section of forest in front of us didn't look very thick. We made for this, and
started through it, but it was pretty thick after all. A few minutes later we managed
to get out of the forest over a wire and a ditch. We were in an open field at last and
there was much rejoicing!!! We came onto this road and went into a house to fill up
with water. Further down the road we met Fiona and we stopped for lunch. We had
super noodles and fruit. After about 20 minutes we started hiking again on the road.
It was hard going and some of us (Nicholas) weren't up to it and most of us had
blisters and when we reached the outskirts of Lisdoonvarna, we stopped at a water
pump, refilled our water bottles and Colin and Tom started a water fight in which
half the troop got splashed. When we were walking through Lisdoonvarna we
stopped at a shop for refreshments, and then continued on. We were counting down
the miles to Doolin and when we were only about 2 miles away, Fiona met us in the
car and told us she had gotten a new campsite because the other one was too strict.
At this stage some of the parents were after arriving and Fiona and Colin's mother
gave us a lift to the campsite. By then we were knackered so we rested for about 10
minutes and then started putting up the tents. Then we went for a swim by the pier. I
forgot my runners and was VERY slow over to the pier. The water was freezing at
first but we eventually got used to it and swam around for a while. Then we went
back to the campsite and had dinner. He had Pork Chops and burgers and it was
gorgeous because we were hungry. By nnow there was a lot of people at the site:
The scouts (7), Tom, Paul, Fiona, Christopher, Leoni, Leoni's son and daughter,
Colin's mother and 2 brothers, Leoni's brother and his son, Ruairi and Cathal's
parents and younger brother. That night we had a campfire again and Paul played
guitar. After that we went to our tents and fell asleep.
Saturday morning, we needed to get up early to catch the ferry to Inishmore.
However, there was chaos. The ferry company had over booked the boat so the man
said we could only get 8 on. Eventually Tom managed to get 14 on, and the rest
went to Inisheer. The scouts, Tom, Fiona, Paul, Christopher, John and Lorcan went
to Inishmore and the Parents, small kids, etc. went to Inisheer. On the boat to
Inishmore, the captain let us up in the wheelhouse where he shoed us all the
equipment and gear. When we arrived in Kilronan, Tom's cousin was nowhere to be
seen, but Tom went off and found him and we were soon in the back of a truck,
heading towards Dun Aenghus. When we got there we had to walk up a path to the
fort. When we got inside, there was stone wall in a semi-circle shape on one side,
and 250 feet of a cliff on the other. We got down on our stomachs and crawled out
to the edge and peeped over. It was frightening and amazing watching the waves
crash off the base of the cliff 250 feet below you. After a while, we went outside the
fort and cooked lunch (Super Noodles). Then we went back to a beach and had a
swim. The water has pretty cold and everyone was splashing everyone else. After
that we walked along the beach and admired the rock formations (!!!!!!!!). Tom's
cousin picked us up and brought us on a scenic tour of the island where we saw a
round building, stone walls and many more rock formations (on
bikes!!!!!!!!????????!!!!!!). We got back to the pier and rode the 'Happy Hooker' all
the way to Doolin. On the boat on the way we passed a school of Jellyfish. There
were millions of them, hundreds of millions of them. When we got back to Doolin,
we had dinner (Spaghetti Bolognas and chips). We tidied up and made a boundary
around our tents, and put the skull on the gateway. Later, we went swimming and
after that we showered. Then, the campsite owner came around to fill out our
permission to camp form. Ruari and cathal left that night because they were going
to Irish College in Cape Clear the next day. That night we also had a campfire.
Colin and I had written a song, and there was another song about a budgie that
people sang in different accents and that was very funny. After that was over we
went to our tents and fell asleep.
On Sunday Morning we went to mass in the nearby Doolin church. Then we
had a fry-up for breakfast before taking down the tents. We packed all our gear into
the cars, got into the cars and left the campsite. We went to the cliffs of Moher and
to The Burren Centre and Kilfenora. We then headed home, only stopping for lunch
in SuperMacs in Limerick. We arrived home at about half five.
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