Kayaking

Roz published in Accommodation, Activities, Events and Tours, Family Friendly Events, Kayaking,

Mournes, Carlingford and Mour

We Love The Mournes!

Last Monday myself and my partner headed up North to visit The Mournes. Whilst we had originally planned to experience the walks and trails we had to cut our visit short.
Jennifer of eastcoastadventure.comWe had arranged to meet Jennifer Cumming of East Coast Adventure at Warrenpoint along the shores of Carlingford Lough. This was my first time to visit the area and as we arrived there was a large group of seriously excited TY students piling off a coach to begin a sea kayaking activity.
Jennifer had arranged to give us a tour around the various activities on offer at East Coast Adventure and so we set off.
mountainbikingEast Coast Adventure offer a range of outdoor activities for kids, teens, adults and groups with accommodation, camping, glamping, customised activities and more with trained friendly staff all along the shores of the very beautiful Carlingford Lough. The scenery is breathtaking and the facilities are second to none. There is so much on offer at East Coast Adventure that it actually took us 3 hours just to have a tour! Mind you we did get along like a house on fire and yapped away for ages – hard not to with such a friendly crew 🙂
mountain viewThe Mourne mountains themselves are a magnificant backdrop to the lough and one that I shall have to get my walking boots out for the next visit, hopefully fitting in a visit to The Mourne Lodge who cater specifically for walkers and hikers as well as nature enthusiasts and we look forward to meeting Mairead and the gang!
award winning breakfast at carlingford houseWe spent the night in Carlingford House B&B which offers  beautiful spacious rooms with comfy beds and an award winning breakfast in the morning. We weren’t disappointed. Peter and Irene were so welcoming and after being shown to our room we headed down for a bite to eat in the local village.
Carlingford of course is home to the world famous Carlingford Oyster Company and yes, I hang my head in shame that I simply forgot to order them! I will most definitely be back for these beauties.
Meeting Barra at the BBCOn Tuesday we headed to Belfast to meet with BBCNI Weatherman legend Barra Best for lunch – he of the flame hair like myself #Redheads 😉
Barra had some great suggestions for us to include on our next tour including the gobbins cliff walk  which looks really fun.
love mourneAll in all we simply HAVE to get back to the Mournes, we only got to see the tip of the iceberg and it really is so much MOUR(ne) than that!
Thanks again to Martin Carey and Mandy McAvoy of MourneLive.com for the invite.
Useful Sites for Visiting the Mournes and Carlingford and the Cooley Peninsula are listed below:

In the words of Mr Schwarzenegger.. “I’ll Be Back” 

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Eco Trip Kindly Sponsored By

Ferrybank Motors Wexford Sponsor Eco Tour Ireland

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Roz published in Activities, Bushcraft, Bushcraft and Wild Camping, Canoeing, Events and Tours,

Cook a Turkey in the ground!

Into the Wild Survival & Canoe Trip’s have a large Xmas camp with tipi’s and canoeing end of November at riverhollow co Kilkenny:

“we’ll have a santa appearing, Turkey cooked in the ground and this should not be missed
Into the Wild Survival & Canoe Trip’s Also I’ll be in wicklow next weekend for a weekend camp with tipi adventures
And don’t forget to get your Christmas voucher for next years canoeing and wildcamping. ”
Holy Moly!!- See you there!
To book call Frank Deegan:  087 1355207
Email: intothewildsurvival@gmail.com or visit them on

Facebook: /Into-the-Wild-Survival-Canoe-Trips

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Roz published in Activities, Canoeing, EcoTour, Kayaking, Skills Courses,

Eco Tour of Ireland Day 3

Boyne Valley Activities Tuesday 23rd September

As I negotiated my way from Lough Bishop House through the diversion at Delvin to Athboy I suddenly realised that I was being beeped at! Who knew me in Athboy I wondered? James Murray  of BoyneValleyActivities.ie that’s who! James had obviously been checking out our photos and had recognised the Opel Mokka S kindly sponsored for our trip by Ferrybank Motors, Wexford and beeped me to follow him to the first of their two centres.
Boyne Valley Activities are based, as the name suggests, along the Boyne River Valley with a base in Trim, Co Meath and just outside Athboy at Drewstown House also. They run a number of activities to suit various ages and levels including their 10 meter tree canopy challenge course set deep in woodlands.
Two of James’ instructors (Gav and Fergal) were on hand to give us a taste of this high ropes course which is quite challenging thus all participants must first make it up the climbing wall before they are allowed to continue. You can view videos of the lads completing the course in no time at all and flying down the zip wire on our YouTube Channel here >>.
I am not a great swimmer – actually I would not call myself a swimmer at all as I cannot go out of my depth. So James had a tough job to convince me to get into a canoe with him to sample the beauty of his medieval tour.
But convince me he did and we hopped (rather ungainly on my part) into a reassuringly large Canadian Canoe (specially brought out for scaredy cats like me!) and as we travelled up river he pointed out the various and many castles and ruins along the riverbank. He has a deep local knowledge which he continuously improves and is a natural storyteller – now I know where the two Irish phrases ‘P*** Poor ‘ and ‘Hasn’t a bucket to p*** in’ come from! (Apparently people used to sell their pee as a cleaning agent..I’ll leave it up to James to fill you in)
This is a really relaxing and unique way to see the heritage of the area and also perfect for wildlife lovers like myself.
Boyne Valley Activities is run by both James Murray and Dara Llewellyn  and they cater for school tours, corporate groups, team building days and individuals interested in trying out Kayaking, White Water Rafting, Archery & High Ropes in a safe and controlled environment.
Next year I will be able to swim and boy am I going Kayaking!
For contact details and social media links to Boyne Valley Activities Click Here >>
Listen to our ‘Cuppa Tae’ Chat here: https://soundcloud.com/ecoactive/a-chat-with-boyne-valley-activities

EcoTour Kindly Sponsored By

Ferrybank Motors Wexford Sponsor Eco Tour Ireland

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