77th Belfast Scout Group use Dacia Outdoor Adventure Fund to explore Mourne Mountains
77th Belfast Scout Group is located in Belfast city and a lot of the young people in the group had never ventured to the countryside.
The volunteers wanted to arm their young people with skills for life, give them new experiences, to get active, have fun and to gain the top awards – which is why they applied for the Dacia Outdoor Adventure Fund to give them the boost they needed.
They applied to the Dacia Grant, hoping that it would allow them to buy emergency shelters, to help ensure they could keep safe in the mountains.
They realised after the trip that it had been 33 years since they last had scouts in the Mournes and now they have the shelters this will allow them to do more hikes. The group shared that they hired a scout-owned cottage and used it as their base for the weekend.
They started walking on Saturday morning, travelling around 15km and whilst climbing Slieve Meelbeg some of the group found it hard, but the group displayed great teamwork and encouraged each other on. They made lunch at the top before pushing on to and over the summit of Slieve Melmore.
The leader said: “Looking back it was a great weekend. We achieved our aim of introducing our scouts to Hillwalking and they really want to do it all again!“