Everyone met at the scout hall at 8am on Wednesday the 29^th of December but of course some were late. We headed out to the town of Inniskeen where The Monaghan Way begins. There we waited for Shane, David and Liam to show up. So finally at around 9 o clock we headed off on route with the Rovers Scouts also joining us on this adventure. I was given the map and told to lead but after ten minutes I may have took a few wrong turns but it turned out alright as we found our way eventually. As usual the boys were in top spirits, as for the girls we did have some complaints but we kept on going. The Monaghan Way involves going through fields, walking on small roads and climbing over little bridges. It was very tough but the scenery was brilliant on the way, which included Louth Ross and the old railway tracks.

After 3 hours of hiking and a few short breaks we were outside Cullaville. We travelled on by the Cullaville Castleblayney road for 10 minutes and then back into the fields where a few cattle did their best to scare the lives of the girls but the cattle backed down in the end.

Little obstacles did come in our way but with a little bit of team work and Jim’s singing we ploughed on through. We stopped for a long lunch after 5 and a half hours walking and ate on top of a hill with a great view. This is where we realised we were really only outside Toome which is only like ten minutes outside Carrick.

Everyone got on really well and we had a good laugh together. The road into Castleblayney was like a miracle as we were all so tired and couldn't wait to get home. We walked to Castleblayney college and sat there until the bus collected us and took us back to the scout hall. There we got a Chinese take-away to celebrate our success of a really good day and hiking a total of 21km.

Carrie Martin

Venture Scout