Photos: Malcolm Mc Gettigan and Torquil Fleming-Boyd
Does life as you know it end when you have kids? The Outsider crew borrows some children and their parents for the weekend and sets out to see if adventurous fun and frolics they can have in the Southeast with small people in tow.
A freezing northeast wind is blowing in making the water choppy. The kayak rocks and then I watch him lose his balance and fall in. He disappears under momentarily and then resurfaces with a gasp and look of shock on his face. For a split second I am worried but in an instant his mouth morphs to a broad grin and I shout victorious – I won!
We’re engaged in wobble wars. At least that’s what the crew at Dunmore East Adventure Centre call it. The opponent that I have toppled from our overturned double sit-on-top kayak is 8-year-old Luka. I should know better but today it seems my competitive inner kid has got the better of me.
All around me other children ranging from 4-14, and the adults that have accompanied them, are having a ball in the water. The less confident are in double kayaks with a grown-up – or at least they started in them. As their confidence grows and with encouraging words from our instructor Conor, they begin clambering across the kayaks that we raft together to swap places with each other. Eventually someone doesn’t quite make it and there are shrieks and splashes and hoots of laughter as they topple in.
We happily spend an hour or so paddling, splashing and bobbing around the sheltered waters of Badger’s Cove in the company of the chattering kittiwakes that are nesting above us on the cliffs. Originally we had thought we might go coasteering (scrambling, climbing, swimming and cliff jumping your way around a section of rocky coastline), another activity offered by the centre, but the unseasonal north-east wind has made the sea too stormy to allow it. But the kids manage to get a sample of it anyway – crawling up seaweedy rocks with Conor to jump off. I marvel as one of the really tiny ones who can’t swim has a go. Unhesitatingly 4-year-old Frankie follows in the footsteps of older brother Harry (7), jumping in off rocks well over twice their height. Oh to be back at that age before fear!
Before everyone gets too cold we head for hot showers and hot chocolates in the centre, which is located on Dunmore East’s harbour. It’s been a great morning, despite the slightly uncooperative weather. Before kayaking we tried archery and rock climbing instead. These activities are located in the centre’s indoor space, old converted fishing sheds and again the kids were in their element, fearlessly scaling the indoor wall and bouncing down the abseil like pros.
Together time
While traditionally, the Dunmore East Adventure Centre has catered to groups of kids through camps and day outings, recently they have seen more and more families wanting to do activities together. Karen Harris, who set the place up about 1993 with her husband Gavin Sweeny and friend Rupert Musgrave says, “When families go away on holidays, they often want to spend the time together doing something fun. Because a lot of parents work and life is so busy now, they don’t just want to drop them off to a camp anymore and not see them for the whole day. We’ve really tried to adapt our programmes to facilitate that. I set up the business so that I could have more time with my four kids and so I understand wanting to spend fun times together.”
After all the sea air and activity, we’ve worked up hearty appetites and decide to head for lunch. Wandering through Dunmore East we get to see just how picturesque it is. Seagulls wheel overhead and the smell of salt and wild garlic linger in the air. With its motley collection of thatched homes, colourful fishing harbour and grand old buildings and hotels like the Victorian Haven Hotel (once the summer home of the Lord Lieutenant of Waterford during English rule), it reminds me of West Cork.
In the end we chose from a collection of child-friend eateries and settle on the bright and sunny Bay Café down the road. Everyone enjoys a hearty lunch of soup, and open crab sambos and salads. And we finish with the unbelievably good chocolate cake. Be warned – extreme food coma is a side effect.
With afternoon snoozes and sunny reads on our minds, most of us head back to the sheltered front courtyard of our little holiday house complex. The kids however have simply recharged and drag their parents down to the playground with its views over the yellow gorse-clad cliffs and out to the impressive Hook Head lighthouse in the distance.
When they come back a few hours later, they tell us they’ve been busy exploring not just the modern playground but the cosy coves, caves and sandy beaches, perfect for picnics. After dinner they eventually fall into bed leaving most of the adults free to sneak off to Power’s Bar, or ‘The Butchers’, as it’s known locally for a few bad games of pool and a quiet pint. Pints cost a pleasing €3.75 each.
Beach bonanza
Next day, we’re up bright and early and off to neighbouring Tramore via a lovely coastal drive to see what’s up over there. In its heyday, this seaside town with its 5km strand was famous for its bathing boxes, fairground and dance halls. In fact the amusements date back to Victorian times when boxing and Buffalo Bill’s came to town.
These days the hurdy-gurdy element still thrives but a new surfy vibe is breathing life and energy back into this bustling beachside destination. We spy no less than three Irish Surfing Association-approved surf schools from which to choose, offering lessons to young, old and family groups, not to mention a skate park and kitesurfing school.
The more gentle swell that washes this coast makes it ideal for learners in comparison to the usually stronger surf in the West of Ireland. On the sunny day we visit, the waves are tiny but the place is positively humming with gangs of teenagers and kids as small as 6 heading into the twinkling water with their instructors from T-Bay Surf Centre. They range from total beginners on foam boards to competent surfers on short boards and all of them seem to be having a great time. Some of our younger group members head into the water for their first surf and as a permanently-learning-to-surf-adult I am instantly gripped by jealousy that these kids have the opportunity to learn at such a young age!
But that is the great thing about surfing. No matter how bad you are at it, everyone seems to have a great time. Later I am told by Paul Kenny, the owner of Oceanics Surf School that he recently took a 62-year-old woman out for a lesson. “She had the same grin on her face as those 6-year-olds when she caught a wave and stood up for the first time,” he laughs.
Several of the local surf schools also aim to round out the surf experience by offering other activities. For example at Freedom Surf School Also you can combine water sports with Irish or French. Or you could take an eco walk with T-Bay or Oceanics Surf School.
Eco enlightenment
The rest of us head out with Oceanics on their Environmental Beach Discovery. Compiled by Eanna Ni Lamhna for the surf school and further developed by local field ecologist Grace O’Sullivan (who worked at sea for Greenpeace for 20 years), this walk turns kids into beach detectives as they explore Tramore’s unique sand dunes and salt marsh habitats.
We are thrilled to watch the kids’ faces turn from certainty that they’ll be bored, to puzzled as they hear about the piddock mollusc which has a set of ridges (like teeth) which it uses to grind into soft rocks such as limestone that, to wowed as they shake the stones and hear evidence of the little creatures inside. And we adults learn more than a thing or two from O’Sullivan about the history and ecology of the area like how to identify delicious sea beet which is like spinach except tastier or that Tramore’s famous Metal Man was built in 1823 by insurance company Lloyd’s of London to warn seafarers away from dangerous shallow waters following the sinking in 1816 of the Sea Horse killing 292 men and 71 women and children perished.
As we finish our walk, we meet our little wetsuit-clad buddies returning from their morning in the surf. All of them have caught their first waves and most of them even stood up for a while too. They want to know when they can go again.
Again, I sense the green eyed monster on my shoulder. I know that if they keep it up, pretty soon all of these kids will be better than me at surfing and all the other activities so they’ve taken part in over the weekend and I’d better make the most of paltry victories while I can. Anyone for a race up the beach?
Ends…
in the sunny Southeast
Words: Roisin Finlay
Photos: Malcolm Mc Gettigan and Torquil Fleming-Boyd
Does life as you know it end when you have kids? The Outsider crew borrows some children and their parents for the weekend and sets out to see if adventurous fun and frolics they can have in the Southeast with small people in tow.
A freezing northeast wind is blowing in making the water choppy. The kayak rocks and then I watch him lose his balance and fall in. He disappears under momentarily and then resurfaces with a gasp and look of shock on his face. For a split second I am worried but in an instant his mouth morphs to a broad grin and I shout victorious – I won!
We’re engaged in wobble wars. At least that’s what the crew at Dunmore East Adventure Centre call it. The opponent that I have toppled from our overturned double sit-on-top kayak is 8-year-old Luka. I should know better but today it seems my competitive inner kid has got the better of me.
All around me other children ranging from 4-14, and the adults that have accompanied them, are having a ball in the water. The less confident are in double kayaks with a grown-up – or at least they started in them. As their confidence grows and with encouraging words from our instructor Conor, they begin clambering across the kayaks that we raft together to swap places with each other. Eventually someone doesn’t quite make it and there are shrieks and splashes and hoots of laughter as they topple in.
We happily spend an hour or so paddling, splashing and bobbing around the sheltered waters of Badger’s Cove in the company of the chattering kittiwakes that are nesting above us on the cliffs. Originally we had thought we might go coasteering (scrambling, climbing, swimming and cliff jumping your way around a section of rocky coastline), another activity offered by the centre, but the unseasonal north-east wind has made the sea too stormy to allow it. But the kids manage to get a sample of it anyway – crawling up seaweedy rocks with Conor to jump off. I marvel as one of the really tiny ones who can’t swim has a go. Unhesitatingly 4-year-old Frankie follows in the footsteps of older brother Harry (7), jumping in off rocks well over twice their height. Oh to be back at that age before fear!
Before everyone gets too cold we head for hot showers and hot chocolates in the centre, which is located on Dunmore East’s harbour. It’s been a great morning, despite the slightly uncooperative weather. Before kayaking we tried archery and rock climbing instead. These activities are located in the centre’s indoor space, old converted fishing sheds and again the kids were in their element, fearlessly scaling the indoor wall and bouncing down the abseil like pros.
Together time
While traditionally, the Dunmore East Adventure Centre has catered to groups of kids through camps and day outings, recently they have seen more and more families wanting to do activities together. Karen Harris, who set the place up about 1993 with her husband Gavin Sweeny and friend Rupert Musgrave says, “When families go away on holidays, they often want to spend the time together doing something fun. Because a lot of parents work and life is so busy now, they don’t just want to drop them off to a camp anymore and not see them for the whole day. We’ve really tried to adapt our programmes to facilitate that. I set up the business so that I could have more time with my four kids and so I understand wanting to spend fun times together.”
After all the sea air and activity, we’ve worked up hearty appetites and decide to head for lunch. Wandering through Dunmore East we get to see just how picturesque it is. Seagulls wheel overhead and the smell of salt and wild garlic linger in the air. With its motley collection of thatched homes, colourful fishing harbour and grand old buildings and hotels like the Victorian Haven Hotel (once the summer home of the Lord Lieutenant of Waterford during English rule), it reminds me of West Cork.
In the end we chose from a collection of child-friend eateries and settle on the bright and sunny Bay Café down the road. Everyone enjoys a hearty lunch of soup, and open crab sambos and salads. And we finish with the unbelievably good chocolate cake. Be warned – extreme food coma is a side effect.
With afternoon snoozes and sunny reads on our minds, most of us head back to the sheltered front courtyard of our little holiday house complex. The kids however have simply recharged and drag their parents down to the playground with its views over the yellow gorse-clad cliffs and out to the impressive Hook Head lighthouse in the distance.
When they come back a few hours later, they tell us they’ve been busy exploring not just the modern playground but the cosy coves, caves and sandy beaches, perfect for picnics. After dinner they eventually fall into bed leaving most of the adults free to sneak off to Power’s Bar, or ‘The Butchers’, as it’s known locally for a few bad games of pool and a quiet pint. Pints cost a pleasing €3.75 each.
Beach bonanza
Next day, we’re up bright and early and off to neighbouring Tramore via a lovely coastal drive to see what’s up over there. In its heyday, this seaside town with its 5km strand was famous for its bathing boxes, fairground and dance halls. In fact the amusements date back to Victorian times when boxing and Buffalo Bill’s came to town.
These days the hurdy-gurdy element still thrives but a new surfy vibe is breathing life and energy back into this bustling beachside destination. We spy no less than three Irish Surfing Association-approved surf schools from which to choose, offering lessons to young, old and family groups, not to mention a skate park and kitesurfing school.
The more gentle swell that washes this coast makes it ideal for learners in comparison to the usually stronger surf in the West of Ireland. On the sunny day we visit, the waves are tiny but the place is positively humming with gangs of teenagers and kids as small as 6 heading into the twinkling water with their instructors from T-Bay Surf Centre. They range from total beginners on foam boards to competent surfers on short boards and all of them seem to be having a great time. Some of our younger group members head into the water for their first surf and as a permanently-learning-to-surf-adult I am instantly gripped by jealousy that these kids have the opportunity to learn at such a young age!
But that is the great thing about surfing. No matter how bad you are at it, everyone seems to have a great time. Later I am told by Paul Kenny, the owner of Oceanics Surf School that he recently took a 62-year-old woman out for a lesson. “She had the same grin on her face as those 6-year-olds when she caught a wave and stood up for the first time,” he laughs.
Several of the local surf schools also aim to round out the surf experience by offering other activities. For example at Freedom Surf School Also you can combine water sports with Irish or French. Or you could take an eco walk with T-Bay or Oceanics Surf School.
Eco enlightenment
The rest of us head out with Oceanics on their Environmental Beach Discovery. Compiled by Eanna Ni Lamhna for the surf school and further developed by local field ecologist Grace O’Sullivan (who worked at sea for Greenpeace for 20 years), this walk turns kids into beach detectives as they explore Tramore’s unique sand dunes and salt marsh habitats.
We are thrilled to watch the kids’ faces turn from certainty that they’ll be bored, to puzzled as they hear about the piddock mollusc which has a set of ridges (like teeth) which it uses to grind into soft rocks such as limestone that, to wowed as they shake the stones and hear evidence of the little creatures inside. And we adults learn more than a thing or two from O’Sullivan about the history and ecology of the area like how to identify delicious sea beet which is like spinach except tastier or that Tramore’s famous Metal Man was built in 1823 by insurance company Lloyd’s of London to warn seafarers away from dangerous shallow waters following the sinking in 1816 of the Sea Horse killing 292 men and 71 women and children perished.
As we finish our walk, we meet our little wetsuit-clad buddies returning from their morning in the surf. All of them have caught their first waves and most of them even stood up for a while too. They want to know when they can go again.
Again, I sense the green eyed monster on my shoulder. I know that if they keep it up, pretty soon all of these kids will be better than me at surfing and all the other activities so they’ve taken part in over the weekend and I’d better make the most of paltry victories while I can. Anyone for a race up the beach?
