After the stress waiting for our JC results, I was ready and excited to go on the camping trip. It had been talked about for weeks beforehand and past fourth years had said it was the highlight of transition year so as you can imagine this was something I was looking forward to. The transition year camping trip is somewhat of a custom for fourth years, after they receive their results from the Junior Cert they go out to the country for three days to settle their minds of worry from the build up to receiving their results. So when we headed off on the bus I was just relieved,delighted and ready to take a few days off from school to go into the countryside. When we I arrived at the campsite I was a little surprised to see how clean and well looked after the area was. So I thought this was off to a good start from the beginning. Setting up wasn't too difficult either an my tent was up pretty quick, without many problems. The first mornin, after a cold an windy night, we went off on our first hike, it wasn't too long but it was really only to show us the area around us. It was our proper hike the next day that was the real highlight of the trip, a 22km walk up the side of the valley, down the side following the lake and back around again. The walk was a little tiring but it was worth it to really appreciate the massive landscape of Lough Dan. For the rest of the day we would light a fire, make our own food, play cards and chat. Even though it was wet, rainy and cold for most of the trip didn't spoil my enjoyment of this experience.