Junior Squad Training March 2025

A weekend in Tramore and Coumshingaun.

By Eimear Casey

On the weekend of the 15th March, a group of junior orienteers from all around Ireland met up at Coumshingaun car park at 10:30 to set off on a weekend of training in Waterford organised by John Casey and the rest of the Casey Family.

  First we all began the walk to the start of the first exercise, out of the carpark and to the bottom of the mountains. The day started with a corridor map south of Coumshingaun to warm ourselves up. This means that only a line on the map was shown which we had to stay within. 

When we finished this, we took a break to regain our breath and have something to eat. Then we moved to a spot slightly further north to begin a normal course (with the option of long or short (I chose short)). This was very fun and as the long course went up to the edge of the lake, some of the hardier members even took a short dip! We all finished by 2:30 to drive back into Tramore to go to Splashworld swimming pool for some fun and to have a shower.

The break between exercises

After Splashworld, we reconvened at the Tramore 8th Scout Den where we got ready for dinner. Dinner was collected from Apache, and there was a lot of it! We ate until we couldn't anymore and all the leftover chicken etc. was put into the fridge. After dinner we went for a wander around Tramore before coming back to do a table quiz. Everyone got into teams and in the end team Gerry-O (Daire, Gerry, Niamh & Fionnuala) won. Everybody set up for bed and chatted until lights out. We slept (or didn’t in the case of most people including me) until 8am.

Dinner

After waking up and packing our stuff away, we had breakfast and made lunch for the sand dunes. We met down at the car park at 10 and walked into the middle of the dunes. Once we were in the dunes, we started on a score exercise with no north lines and no compass to get the minds going. 

Two of those courses later, we stopped and moved to the next depression over to do a one man relay with six legs, though lots of people only got 3 or 4 done in time. These were mini two control courses which you completed and then came back to the start/finish and got the next leg. Most people were very tired after this, so after we walked back to the edge of the sand hills, there were only a couple takers for the Maprun course. Everybody sat down on the grass, and following the Maprunners return, everybody walked back to the cars to get changed and on the way home.

   Overall, it was an incredibly fun weekend and I definitely improved over the training.