On the road...

Hi guys, it's been a while since we wrote anything here so I thought I'd get the ball rolling....

5 members of V5 - myself, Rick, Ethan, Eoin and Colin - along with Ethan's French friend Quentin left Dublin last Thursday afternoon, August 30th, and travelled to Renmore, Co. Galway and stayed overnight there in a scout den. The next morning we hit the road about half ten towards Galway City.

We were hit by strong winds and some heavy rain, but we managed to keep our spirits up and kept a good pace too. We stopped for a while at the amusements in Salthill, and Rick managed to win a shark teddy which the group christened Shnorts (after a member of V5 who couldn't make the trip). In the afternoon we continued on and had lunch in Barna. After the break of about 45 minutes we kept going until our destination of Spiddal, which we reached about 17:00.

Within 5 minutes of arriving, Ethan & Rick secured us the use of a barn to pitch our tents in overnight, as the weather was pretty awful at that stage. This first leg of the walk took about 21 km, and it took its toll on our feet! We grabbed some food downtown, and had a few scoops before we headed back to our tents for an early night before the next leg of walking.

On the Saturday we had packed our gear away by 08:30, grabbed some food at 09:00 and were on the road out of Spiddal by 09:40. Eoin had to leave at this stage, so 5 of us continued on. By midday we reached An Tulach, where we planned to meet two other ventures, Sarah and Laura, who were on an Irish summer course. Unfortunately the place was empty because everyone was in their houses til 15:30, so we got some lunch and made ourselves comfy til they arrived.

After we met them and chatted for a bit we were on the road again at 16:00. We walked on to Ros a'Mhíl where we got a ferry to Inis Oírr at 18:30. We arrived on the island around 20:00 and immediately set up our tents. Then we went looking for some food, and got talking to some of the other visitors on the island. We were in bed by about 01:00, I think... Good night all round!!! Total distance walked for Saturday was about 18km or so.

We were up at 07:50 the next day and packed our gear and tents away. Wr missed our ferry cos it left early for some reason, but we got another one soon enough anyway. We reached Doolin, Co. Clare at around 10:00, and after a quick breakfast we hit the road again. We decided to go off the main road, and we had a quieter day as a result. We were faced with about 45 mins of steep hills at the start of the day, but the view from the top was absolutely spectacular. We had a more or less straight road to our destination of Lehinch, which we reached at about 13:00. The distance was about 15 or 16 km. When we got there we teamed up with Ruairi, who had just driven down to Clare.

After lunch in the town we travelled by car to Kilkee, Co. Clare, where we've been staying since. Photos of the trip will be added in the next week.

Hi guys,

I'm sorry the blog has been kind of dormant for a while now, but everyone's been fairly busy with work committments.

Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Group Council for kindly buying us new equipment - three Trangias, three fuel bottles and some methalated spirits for them as well. This equipment will be of great use on our trip to Conamara at the end of the month, and into the future as well.

We have a fairly busy couple of months coming up for V5, between an invitation to the Wednesday Troop's Annual Camp (July 18th - 24th), a trip to the West of Ireland (July 30th - August 3rd), another to Edinburgh (August 22nd to 25th) and other day activities in between. Murphy has written up the programme and will post it on this blog soon as well as emailing it to everyone.

Our next meeting will be held at the Crow's Nest on Tuesday, July 28th at 20:00 hours. For anyone going to Edinburgh this meeting will be important, and it is absolutely required that anyone planning on going on the Conamara trip attends also. Anyone planning on going to the West should inform either myself, Rick or Evelyn this week so we can book final numbers for the hostels on the way.



The map above outlines the route, and documents about the plan overview and costs can be found on this page. In short, it's from the afternoon of Thursday July 30th til the evening of Monday August 3rd and will cost around €150 in total. We're starting in Galway, finishing in Clare, and passing by Inis Oirr and the Cliffs of Moher on the way. It should be great!!!

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our next meeting. Please spread the word and if you are going on either the Edinburgh or the Conamara trip we really need you to be there.

Thanks a million.
Yours in Scouting,

Spud.

Summer programme planning meeting - Tuesday, May 5th at 20:00

Hi guys,

we're having what will probably be one of the last meetings before the Leaving Cert this coming Tuesday at 20:00. We need to pin down a plan for a summer trip, suss out who's going to Oxegen and sort some accomodation out for Edinburgh while we're at it.

Also we'll try to get dates for a few boating sessions or something. I know Ethan and Flynner were asking if we could have a BBQ or something to celebrate the end of the exams so it'd be good to sort something like that out.

Hope to see you there.

Spud.

Oxegen 2009 - Scouting Ireland Festival Crew

Hi guys, just a heads up that I got an email saying that Scouting Ireland is teaming up with the organisers of Oxegen 2009 to provide a tent pitching and repair service over the weekend of July 9th-12th. A new service they're also offering is a tent packing service on Monday July 13th.

Scouts interested in taking part must be over 18, and it'll cost them €20 for the weekend. In exchange for 6 hours of work a day you get to see a load of acts and get a free camping pass. Demand is pretty high so apply ASAP.

* * *

Also, there's going to be a tent salvage on the Monday. Basically if a scout group registers they can claim any leftover tents when the whole thing is over. I heard some 12-man Vangos got left behind last year, and seeing as we're in need of gear this could be great for us. If anyone intends on attending Oxegen (either with mates or tent pitching) let me know if you're available for the salvage. Cheers!

Easter Camp 2009

11 members of the V5 group camped from Good Friday to Easter Monday in Powerscourt, Co. Wicklow. We were quite lucky with the good weather conditions, and had hardly any rain.


At the Den on Good Friday. L-R: Murphy, Sarah, Spud, Sam, Eoin, Katie, Barrett, Rick & Laura. (Absent: Evelyn and Izzy.)

L-R: Katie, Sarah & Laura.

The site, Powerscourt.

The dining shelter.

Meeting on Tuesday 21st April at 20:00

There will be a meeting of the Ventures on Tuesday, April 21st at 20:00. Topics on the agenda will include group finances and equipment, possible fundraising ideas and the plan for a summer camp. Hope to see you all there!

Tuesday 24th March - Easter Camp meeting at 20:00

Hi everyone,

as Easter is getting closer and closer we need to sort out the specifics of our camp - food, tentage, transport, who's coming, etc.

We will be having a meeting solely about this at 20:00 this Tuesday, March 24th, in the Den. Everyone planning to be on the camp should be at this meeting.