Page 71 - The Gonzaga Record 1994
P. 71
TRANSITION YEAR REPORTS
Outdoor Pursuits Week, Delphi
Roughly 2,500 years ago, a Greek
traveller arrived in a wee corner of Mayo
and remarked that it looked like Delphi in
Greece. Later, much later, in 1994, forty-
nine Gonzaga pilgrims arrived and saw
that little had changed since. Twenty five
miles from the nearest civilisation (eight
miles from the nearest town) is situated
the Delphi Outdoor Pursuits Centre,
which has provided solace for Gonzaga
Fourth Years for generations.
Each day at this institution was divided
thus: breakfast, a morning activity, lunch,
an afternoon activity, dinner, games,
evening diversions and sleep. We were
divided into six groups and there was one
water sport per day. Games ranged from
throwing water on each other to building
a raft. ‘Evening diversions’ was usually a
video.
The most popular activities were
surfing, hill-walking and abseiling. Of
Mud-wrestling at Delphi
these, hill-w alking was the least
predictable, as halfway through it could
turn into an out-and-out mud fight!
Everyone wanted a piece of the action,
not least Mr Whirdy. Ironically, upon our
return to the centre (a cluster of dorms
and a slop hall), we were all subjected to
the most bitterly cold of showers, which
expelled from our numb minds all
memories of primordial delight on the
bogland.
Surfing was cleaner, faster and
friendlier but it involved descending into
a damp, slightly rancid wetsuit. We were
all alarmed at the steam rising from our
thighs when our body heat boiled the
brine in the wetsuit. The surfing was great
on the wave-pounded beaches of Mayo
and to an uneducated spectator, the whole
thing could have been mistaken for the
shooting of a Gilette advertisement.
‘He watches from his mountain walls Windsurfing wasn’t nearly as popular,
And like a thunderbolt he falls’
63
Outdoor Pursuits Week, Delphi
Roughly 2,500 years ago, a Greek
traveller arrived in a wee corner of Mayo
and remarked that it looked like Delphi in
Greece. Later, much later, in 1994, forty-
nine Gonzaga pilgrims arrived and saw
that little had changed since. Twenty five
miles from the nearest civilisation (eight
miles from the nearest town) is situated
the Delphi Outdoor Pursuits Centre,
which has provided solace for Gonzaga
Fourth Years for generations.
Each day at this institution was divided
thus: breakfast, a morning activity, lunch,
an afternoon activity, dinner, games,
evening diversions and sleep. We were
divided into six groups and there was one
water sport per day. Games ranged from
throwing water on each other to building
a raft. ‘Evening diversions’ was usually a
video.
The most popular activities were
surfing, hill-walking and abseiling. Of
Mud-wrestling at Delphi
these, hill-w alking was the least
predictable, as halfway through it could
turn into an out-and-out mud fight!
Everyone wanted a piece of the action,
not least Mr Whirdy. Ironically, upon our
return to the centre (a cluster of dorms
and a slop hall), we were all subjected to
the most bitterly cold of showers, which
expelled from our numb minds all
memories of primordial delight on the
bogland.
Surfing was cleaner, faster and
friendlier but it involved descending into
a damp, slightly rancid wetsuit. We were
all alarmed at the steam rising from our
thighs when our body heat boiled the
brine in the wetsuit. The surfing was great
on the wave-pounded beaches of Mayo
and to an uneducated spectator, the whole
thing could have been mistaken for the
shooting of a Gilette advertisement.
‘He watches from his mountain walls Windsurfing wasn’t nearly as popular,
And like a thunderbolt he falls’
63
