Cappanalea OEC continues to prove to be a popular venue for primary school tours. The Centre can cater for primary schools tours on a residential or on a day basis. All courses offered have an excellent mix of activity appropriate to the age group of each particular class. The healthy outdoor activities are pitched at a level to suit the young students and they are practiced in a safe and controlled environment. The activities offered tie in with the Adventure module of the Primary School Physical Education Curriculum.

Promotional Offer: – Any primary school who books with us before 6th April will receive €100 off their school tour to Cappanalea. This promotional offer is redeemable against the cost of one primary school tour in Cappanalea during May or June 2012. This offer only applies to bookings of 25 or more pupils.

Planning has already begun for next years adventure race Rás na Ríochta. Cappanalea OEC is pleased to announce that early bird registration has now opened. Rás na Ríochta will take place on Saturday 21st July 2012. It promises to be another great race. To avail of the early bird registration log onto www.adventureracingkerry.com. It would be the prefect Christmas present for anyone who is into adventure racing. This great deal of €55 pp will only last until mid February 2012. So plan toady and put a little R n R into your 2012 racing schedule.

It’s hard to believe that Cappanalea OEC is celebrating its 30th year in operation. The Centre first opened to residential groups in July 1981. Prior to that, the property which was purchased by the Killorglin Community Council in 1973, was used as a campsite and as a venue for non residential adventure activities. Since its humble beginnings the Centre has grown from strength to strength over the last thirty years. It has always been recognised that it was the staff and all those associated with Cappanalea OEC who were the major driving force behind its success.
To mark this momentous occasion Cappanalea OEC wishes to acknowledge the contributions that over 300 staff members and volunteers have made to the Centre. On the weekend of the 26th and 27th November 2011, Cappanalea OEC is hosting a weekend of celebration and a reunion of all staff members. We hope to encourage as many past employees and volunteers along with their partners to come back and participate in the :
Cappanalea Symposium: a 30 year anniversary staff reunion
26th & 27th November 2011 at Cappanalea OEC
Tickets €25 per person & Overnight hostel accommodation €10 per person per night (limited number of places)
The programme includes:
• self guided activities (including nostalgic paddles of the Upper and Lower Caragh; Climbs of Seefin Mountains and the high Reeks; sailing on Caragh Lake and biking in Lickeen woods or along the Kerry way);
• Pre-dinner drinks with a slide show compilation
• Celebration Buffet Dinner with bar
• Staff Party – music; dance and story telling
• Development Plan showcase and networking support
• And more self guided activities.
Full details of the weekend are included on our Facebook private event page. To access this information you must first become a friend of Cappanalea on Facebook. All current and past staff members will be invited to join this private event.

Cappanalea OEC is running a KES Active Schools Adventure Programme. The expedition will run over the October mid term break, from Monday 31st October until Thursday 3rd November 2011.

Invitations are being extended to all our KES schools and Centres seeking nominations to form a mixed group of young KES students. These students could be selected on an agreed criteria set by the school or centre, which could include; attendance; achievement; participation; possible benefits to those involved etc. Activities would very much focus upon teamwork and would build on the educational ethos of KES.

The group of ten or twelve students, aged 15 to 17 years old, would engage in a programme of sporting and cultural activity on a four day self contained wilderness expedition. Students along with two instructors from Cappanalea OEC, would pack and carry everything necessary for 3 nights camping and undertake projects and compile a journal as a means of recording the expedition.

The cost per student for the expedition is €195 pp.

Cappanalea OEC / Kerry Education Service will once again be running the FAS Outdoor Activity Instructor traineeship Programme for 2011/12. The interview process will begin the middle of August with up to 120 potential candidates going through the first phase of the process. From this 120 interviews there will be 24 trainees selected for the 45 week training course. The start date for the course is the 12th September. The activities the course will focus on will be Kayaking; Rock climbing; Hillwalking; REC 3 First aid and Power Boating.
Anyone with any interest in this course should get in contact with their local Fas office or go online www.fas.ie Course Code ETS64.

The second Rás na Ríochta adventure race took place on Saturday 16th July 2011. Event registration took place on Friday evening in Glenbeigh Sports Hall, from here competitors doing the sport and full course route dropped off their bikes for lock up overnight. Those who could not make it to the registration on Friday availed of the last-minute registration on Saturday morning.
The weather was not on competitors sides throughout the day and it proved quite testing on the hill and lake. The road racers were the first to be affected by this as they had to paddle into the wind on Caragh Lake, the paddle route was shortened that morning to take into account this strong wind. Once on dry land they made great progress along the course their route took them up over Seefin and down to Treanmanagh where they jumped on their bikes and cycled back towards the Centre via Caragh Lake road, blackstones Bridge and up by Shanacashel. The first home in this course was Darren Burke with an overall time of 2 hours 30 minutes, he was followed closely by Mary Daly in a time of 2 hours 55 minutes.
There was a total of 29 competed in the full course. This group began out near Kells on their bike and travelled along the Kerry Way and back roads to Glenbeigh where they picked up the route of the Sport course all the way to Treanamagh, on leaving their bikes they headed off running up the steep side of Seefin and along to Beenreagh. It was downhill then to the run / canoe Transition. The fastest 10 in this category had the choice of taking sea Kayaks to complete the course before disembarking at the other end of Caragh Lake for the steep accent to the finish line at Cappanalea OEC. Less than two minutes seperated first and second place with Sean Tagney 3 hours 50 min 50 sec just pipping Daniel Morrogh 3 hours 51 min 55 sec.
The Sport course of 13 competitors also started on their bikes and completed the mountain bike stage first from Glenbeigh village which brought them up over the Windy Gap and to the Transition 1 where they took off on foot over Seefin, they had a shorter hill run of 11km to the Run / Canoe transition (T2).
The fastest time here was 2 hours 33 min by Sean Murphy. The first lady home in this course was Lisa Daly with a time of 2 hours 55 minutes 30 seconds. Lisa was also the first female home in this course in 2010 and this year Lisa had another family member in the prizes her sister Mary who won the female catergory in the road section.
The day itself could not have been possible without the hard work of all the Cappanalea staff and volunteers on the day. Much appreciation goes to our sponsors who were particularly generous to the event. The prizes for the winners and the goody bags were sponsored by Landers Outdoor World Tralee. Also O Sullivans Bikes Killarney and Lucozade Sport were on hand with prizes and refreshments, thanks to you all for your support and hope to have a bigger and better event for next year 2012.

This summer Cappanalea OEC will have Sailing courses for both adults and children taking place on Caragh Lake, Killorglin with fully qualified Sailing Instructors.

The course dates for children from 10am – 5pm are:
27th June – 1st July
4th – 8th July
2nd – 5th August

The course dates for Adults are:
Four evening sailings over two weeks from 6pm -9pm
Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th July
Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th July

The cost for children are €190 and the cost for adults would be €170. For further information please contact the centre.

On Saturday 21st May Cappanalea OEC was proud to host the retirement function for our departing CEO Dr. Barney O Reilly, who retired after having served 25 years in Kerry Education Service.
Since taking over as CEO of Co. Kerry VEC in 1998 the Service has been developed greatly and now employs over to 1,000 employees county-wide, staff including full and part-time teachers, administration, cleaning, caretaking and support staff.
Dr. O Reilly has always been a great advocate of the outdoors and his biggest success with Cappanalea was when funding was secured to up-grade the centre with a grant of € 4 million from the Department of Education back in early 2000. And that is the reason behind why his retirement function was hosted in Cappanalea. The celebrations started off on Saturday afternoon with activities at Cappanalea, unfortunately the weather was not great and as a consequence the uptake for the activities was poor but those who managed to get out had a very enjoyable and educational wildlife walk led by Darren Reidy for Killaney National Park Education Centre. The evening festivities kicked off at 7pm with a drinks reception and slide show followed by a fabulous three course meal, the catering was provided by Cotters Caters. Those in attendance were past and present CEO’s, school principals, committee members and staff of KES. After the speeches and presentation of gifts the music and sing-song was provided by Mike Dowd and his band. The party went on untill the wee hours of the morning.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish Barney and his wife Ann all the best in the future and may they both have a long and happy retirement together.

The trainee students from the FAS Outdoor Instructor training course are just back form a climbing trip to Wales. The group left on Saturday 30th April and returned home Saturday 7th May. The group based themselves in the Vagabond Hostel, in Betws y Coed which is an hour from Hollyhead. The location, weather and climbing was excellent all week. All the students clocked up a lot of lead climbs for their requirements for their Single Pitch Award assessement which is happening the start of August.
The locations where the students climbed were Pant ifan Upper Tier Tremadog, Worlds End-Llangollen, Pothole Quarry-Ruthim, Holyhead Mountain, Pinnacles-Capel Curig and Clogwyn Cyrau-Betws y Coed. The location is also quite suitable for those who wish to do any multi-pitch climbs.

Each year the second year Health and Leisure students from Tralee IT head off on a canoe expedition on the River Barrow. The Trip involves two days and two nights, where students canoe and camp along the River Barrow. The trip forms part of their Level 3 Canoe Proficiency Assessment. This years trip took place on 19th & 20th of April, the weather was excellent (however this also meant that there was not much water on the river), i was lucky enough to tag along on the trip. And as i am not a paddler myself i actually really enjoyed the trip. The scenery was lovely and at many different areas along the river we could see lovely river bank walk ways for walkers, families to enjoy, and the weirs along the river added a bit of excitement to the trip.
The students camped on the first night in a campsite just outside Kilkenny, then it was an early start the next day as we headed for Goresbridge for the start of the trip. The trip itself consists of about 15 miles. On the second night we camped on the river bank quiet close to the town of Graiguenamagh. It was great to have the local amenities to re stock for day two, day two was not as long as the first day because of the journey home. The trip finished up in St. Mullins.