We woke up at 0730hrs. We could hear other teams moving around outside but none of us wanted to move as it was lovely and warm in our sleeping bags. Eventually we got up and made some breakfast. It was really foggy and we knew that it would be quite hard to navigate our way to the checkpoints. We hiked off into the fog and within a minute could not see where we had come from. Scary. On and on we went looking to our map and compass to get around the unseen landscape. It started to rain then and the temperature dropped. At one point we had a bit of difficulty finding a particular checkpoint so we did a grid search and eventually found it. We arrived at high camp and once again looked for a nice spot to pitch our tents. By then we were soaked as it had been raining for a long time and the wind was really strong. We made lunch and packed our day bag and set out again. We had to climb up this steep mountain which had a sheer cliff at the other side. When we got to the top the organisers told us that we were going to abseil down the cliff. It was a long way down but we made it without injury. By then it was six o’clock so we headed back to high camp. We got changed into some dry clothes and put on our dinner. Sometime later when we were all full and rested, we headed out for a bit of socialising, and had the crack with all the other teams who were on the event. They were teams from all over Ireland.
Sunday morning and we woke up to a howling wind beating at the side of the tent. This was no time to be brave so we turned over for an extra few minutes sleep as we knew that we were going to need it before this day was done. After a while we had breakfast and decided to head outside. The weather was awful as we tried to take down the tents, but we managed it ok. The weather was so bad that the organisers decided to let everyone head back in larger groups than normal. We had to cross a river which was in flood with all the rain. Everyone gathered for the final presentations and we all got our Sionnach badges. We hiked back to the car and changed into another set of dry clothes and headed for home. On the way back we stopped at McDonald’s for some food. That was lovely. Back at the scout hall everyone agreed that we had a great weekend, full of adventure in the worst weather conditions. Our next Sionnach is in the Comeragh Mountains. See you there. Thanks to Grainne for the pictures.
