On Saturday the 3rd of June some Venturers from 153rd Lusk headed for Co. Wicklow. We caught a train from Lusk station into Dublin City. After a short wait we hopped on the 44 bus to Enniskerry. We then walked for about an hour to the Wicklow Way Car Park (WWCP). It was very misty at this stage and we headed off the road and in towards the forest. We followed the markers of the Wicklow Way (the little yellow dude on the black sticks.) We found a few old shelters in a forest and we thieved some of the wood from them, say nothin’. After gathering some rocks wood etc. we took a before photo and then  we came up with a plan and started to construct the shelter. This took a few hours and it we finally finished it. We secured our rucksacks and then headed back to the WWCP. We ran down a great little short cut, which was handy. Mark “Duncan Stewart” Geraghty had arrived so we took him up to our shelter. He checked it and said it conformed to Duncan’s standard. We took the after phot!

o, and then got some food. After clearing up we resigned to our shelter, it was only 10:30 possibly one of the earliest Saturday nights I have had all year. The ground beneath was very soft because of the pine and muck, which we had kicked about earlier. We secured the door using a survival bag. Those with mobile phones hung them from the roof using shoe laces. The head room was only about 6 inches when lying down, this helped to keep the heat in. We were nearly asleep when a mobile rang at 11 ish o’ clock. ‘Twas that Therese Courtney one, the conversation was short because we were nearly asleep. Ear plugs would have been handy because of the birds and rain. It was pitch black inside without a torch. The sleep was broken because of all the noise. The next morning (Sunday 4th) we got up about 9am, had breakfast, packed up and dismantled the shelter. We walked down towards and caught a bus to Bray. The weather was useless in Bray so we got a train back into Dublin. After waiting!  around we caught a bus back to Lusk Vegas.

Barry Murphy