Arrival
We arrived at Carlingford at around 11:30am and we proceeded to the sports hall where they gave us a talk about the centre. The Cralingford staff showed us our schedule for the week which looked promising. They told us the rules and they were very fair in my opinion. They then brought us to our rooms, I shared with Sam, Daniel, James, Ciaran and Mark. We unpacked and went down for Lunch. After lunch they took us out for our afternoon activity.
The activities
Each day we had three different activities. One in the morning, one in the afternoon and a final activting in the evening. On our first day we went to the Skypark which I thoroughly enjoyed. This consisted of different challenges we had to do while we were attached to a harness. There were a few zip lines too. The harness was the best I'd ever seen and it was very safe, it insured that you were always clipped onto the wire so it was impossible to fall off. The next day we did an activity called challenge Island. This consisted of many different challenges around the campus that we had to complete such as crossing a drop with planks, finding our way out a big dark container with loads of different tunnels. We got into zorbs and played different games in them like last man standing.
The following day we went to Ziptopia which was a Ziplining park and it was fantastic. We spent the morning on zip lines going through forests and over quarries, it was incredible fun. Another activity we did was laser tag which in my opinion was the best activity. We all wore big suits to stop our clothes from getting dirty and we headed off to a wooded place where the laser tag area was. There was a big castle in the middle which made the games very difficult but also very exciting. There was one type of game that we played that myself and Tommy teamed up for, the sniper mode and to be honest we made a good team. After the laser tag we did a high ropes course which looked very scary from down below. There was a team challenge were we had to split up into groups of four and attempt to climb up 5 ledges and get to top, as we got up each ledge the gap increased and it got more difficult. We had to get up to the top in 10 minutes, all four people in the group had to get to the top in order for the group to succeed and none of the groups succeeded. Our last activity was the cannoning and it was the worst one by far. The water was freezing and nobody got any enjoyment out of it at all. Each canoe could fit four people and 3 canoes were strapped together, so there was 12 in each. One of the boats sank putting Tom, Jane, Caroline,Kathrine and Mia into the freezing water. We went out to a small beach and played a quick game but our coldness took away from the enjoyment of the game.
The evening activities were very enjoyable. On the first evening we went for a walk which I enjoyed. We got told a few ghost stories that spooked a couple of people and the instructors also presented us with a challenge in which we had to see how many people we could fit on a bench and I think we set a record. The following night we did circus skills were they showed us different things diablo. The next night we went for a walk with blindfolds and it was much better than expected and we all had a good laugh. The next night we did the Carlingford challenge which included grabbing a cereal box with your mouth, making a shoe tower and talking on the spot without stuttering. There was also a pool table and a table tennis which added to the entertainment in the evening.
Food
The food there was excellent, for breakfast they gave cereal with toast. For lunch they gave us meat with chips and baked beans. For dinner we got different meals such as Bolognese, chicken curry and stew. On Wednesday night we went to chipper at 9:00pm and we all really enjoyed it. For lunch we had a choice of sausages or chicken goujions with baked beans.
Accommodation
The accommodation was really good for an adventure centre and as I said earlier I was in a room with six people. There were three bunk beds and we also had en-suite facility's. In conclusion I thoroughly enjoyed my week in Carlingford and definitely recommend it to any future Transition Years.
We arrived at Carlingford at around 11:30am and we proceeded to the sports hall where they gave us a talk about the centre. The Cralingford staff showed us our schedule for the week which looked promising. They told us the rules and they were very fair in my opinion. They then brought us to our rooms, I shared with Sam, Daniel, James, Ciaran and Mark. We unpacked and went down for Lunch. After lunch they took us out for our afternoon activity.
The activities
Each day we had three different activities. One in the morning, one in the afternoon and a final activting in the evening. On our first day we went to the Skypark which I thoroughly enjoyed. This consisted of different challenges we had to do while we were attached to a harness. There were a few zip lines too. The harness was the best I'd ever seen and it was very safe, it insured that you were always clipped onto the wire so it was impossible to fall off. The next day we did an activity called challenge Island. This consisted of many different challenges around the campus that we had to complete such as crossing a drop with planks, finding our way out a big dark container with loads of different tunnels. We got into zorbs and played different games in them like last man standing.
The following day we went to Ziptopia which was a Ziplining park and it was fantastic. We spent the morning on zip lines going through forests and over quarries, it was incredible fun. Another activity we did was laser tag which in my opinion was the best activity. We all wore big suits to stop our clothes from getting dirty and we headed off to a wooded place where the laser tag area was. There was a big castle in the middle which made the games very difficult but also very exciting. There was one type of game that we played that myself and Tommy teamed up for, the sniper mode and to be honest we made a good team. After the laser tag we did a high ropes course which looked very scary from down below. There was a team challenge were we had to split up into groups of four and attempt to climb up 5 ledges and get to top, as we got up each ledge the gap increased and it got more difficult. We had to get up to the top in 10 minutes, all four people in the group had to get to the top in order for the group to succeed and none of the groups succeeded. Our last activity was the cannoning and it was the worst one by far. The water was freezing and nobody got any enjoyment out of it at all. Each canoe could fit four people and 3 canoes were strapped together, so there was 12 in each. One of the boats sank putting Tom, Jane, Caroline,Kathrine and Mia into the freezing water. We went out to a small beach and played a quick game but our coldness took away from the enjoyment of the game.
The evening activities were very enjoyable. On the first evening we went for a walk which I enjoyed. We got told a few ghost stories that spooked a couple of people and the instructors also presented us with a challenge in which we had to see how many people we could fit on a bench and I think we set a record. The following night we did circus skills were they showed us different things diablo. The next night we went for a walk with blindfolds and it was much better than expected and we all had a good laugh. The next night we did the Carlingford challenge which included grabbing a cereal box with your mouth, making a shoe tower and talking on the spot without stuttering. There was also a pool table and a table tennis which added to the entertainment in the evening.
Food
The food there was excellent, for breakfast they gave cereal with toast. For lunch they gave us meat with chips and baked beans. For dinner we got different meals such as Bolognese, chicken curry and stew. On Wednesday night we went to chipper at 9:00pm and we all really enjoyed it. For lunch we had a choice of sausages or chicken goujions with baked beans.
Accommodation
The accommodation was really good for an adventure centre and as I said earlier I was in a room with six people. There were three bunk beds and we also had en-suite facility's. In conclusion I thoroughly enjoyed my week in Carlingford and definitely recommend it to any future Transition Years.