Family Adventure Interest Group

Goal of the group: To do life together as families with children. To have amazing fun, and to create new and lasting family friendships. Every week you will need to come prepared for all weather conditions. Welly boots for all participants is essential. For young children it would be good to have a back-pack carrier as pushchairs will not be able to be used for all adventures. There will be lots of adults around to give piggy-backs anyway, so its not a major problem.Our contingency plan for if it is really, really, really wet/stormy is to go anyway, bring/wear appropriate clothing and always bring complete changes of clothes for kids.Sunday 3rd May 2015Head from church car park at 11:30am after the first service for picnic lunch together at Roe Valley Country Park for the introduction and nice easy walk. A chance for children to run and adults to walk and talk. Suitable for pushchairs.Sunday 10th May 2015Have some lunch and then head to Downhill for 2pm for a family walk and orienteering challenge. Some of us will probably cheat and go to McDonalds on the way, feel free to do the same of course!Sunday 17th May 2015Meet at Glenariff Forest Park for a picnic together and then a good long walk/play/fun. Head there directly from church after the 1st service finishes. Walk is approx 5 miles.Saturday 23rd May 2015BBQ at the Taylor's house (160 Straid Road, BT57 8XT) - arrive in time to BBQ food for lunch and spend the afternoon . Optional afternoon explore through local forest if the kids get bored (unlikely). Slip-n-slide if weather is good enough, so come prepared to get wet! Hutch might be persuaded to do the BBQ all being well. Each family please bring a small savoury dish, rolls, drinks, desert to share etc.Sunday 31st May 2015Head from church car park at 11:30am after the first service. We are heading to Whiterocks (if the sand is back) or Portballintrae for a cooking on open fire adventure. Come prepared to scour the beach for drift-wood to make a fire on the beach and cook our lunch on it. It is recommended that you bring pre-cooked sausages (boil them gently to cook them through the night before, we will only be using the fire to add flavour and colour, and makes the "cooking" a lot faster on the open fire), and some rolls/ketchup or whatever other food you would like to have hot-dogs on the beach. Beach/Sand-dune games - bring buckets and spades, kites, footballs etc. Feel free to bring bodyboards and wetsuits, but remember that whatever you carry down to the beach you have to carry back to the car at the end.Sunday 7th June 2015Surfing / Bodyboarding at the West or East Strand in Portrush (depending which has better waves). Meet after the 1st Service to find out which is the better to go to from our resident surf watcher - Mark Riley. Go home, have some lunch and grab your wetsuit and bodyboards to meet there at 2:30pm. Go home whenever you get too cold!Saturday 13th June 2015The big hike! We have been building up to this, climbing Knocklayd mountain in Ballycastle. Head to Ballycastle with a picnic lunch in rucksacks that you are comfortable carrying on your back (no cool-bags etc for this one!). Meet for 10:30 am departure from Market Street in Ballycastle. Two hour walk to then have lunch at the base of the steeper climb up the face of the mountain. Approx. 10 mile return hike. Regardless of weather conditions, it is essential that you have (preferably) strong walking boots (trainers are fine for kids), a waterproof coat and a woolly and sun hat. Bring energy food like Mars Bars / Fruit as it will be needed, especially by the kids. Dogs welcome on this walk, but must be well controlled as there are sections where we will be walking through fields containing sheep.Sunday 21st June 2015Meet at Dunseverick Harbour at 3pm for an outdoor swim in the Slot rock pool. Dare you venture in for a swim without a wetsuit? Probably a good idea to wear a wetsuit, bring bodyboards / kayaks too.Sunday 28th June 2015Big lunch together at somewhere to be decided. Lunch will be sponsored by a local business.