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Yesterday we went to Baysports which is situated beside the Hodson Bay hotel, Athlone which is located on Lough Ree. We left the school at quarter past nine and arrived at Baysports at ten o clock. First we had to walk through muck and water to get to an island where we did bushcraft. We were shown how to light a fire with flint and steel. All of us had to collect a certain type of reed to light the fire, and it was great fun. Then we had to build rafts as teams and launch them into the lake. We used 4 barrels and a wooden frame and 8 of us got to row it out into the lake. Then we did some activities on the land. We did a jigsaw where you use a go-kart to collect pieces and bring them back to your team. Another activity was tangrams and transferring a tennis ball with tubes to the finish line without letting it hit the floor. Then we did an obstacle course. We had to run through tyres and jump across tiles, but the difficult part was paddling from one side of the lake to the other on a surfboard in groups of 2. We had our lunch and a drink to refresh us after some tiring activities. After our break we went outside and all 23 waited at the dock and we split up. Half of us went on a boat and then the second half waited for the boat to return to bring us out to the water park, which was in the lake. All of us had to jump out of the boat onto the platform. Then we were allowed to do what we wanted on the water park. There were 2 bouncy slides leading into the water and there were 2 icebergs which are like climbing walls, there were also a hamster wheel, a rocker and trampolines. After that there were a few nerves as we went to the pier jumping activity. Many people did it, some of them did it straight away, some people never did it and for some people it took them a while! Then we got into our good clothes, had some lunch and got on the bus and went home. On the way home we stopped at McDonald’s and got a McFlurry ice-cream. We arrived back at the school at 3:30 it was a great tour and a lovely sunny day, Let’s hope it stays like that!
By Shane Guinan