Round ireland kayak trip reaps benefits for local charities

A gruelling 41 day, 1,000 mile kayaking trip around Ireland by Portarlington duo John Bolton and Diane Cooper has resulted in a windfall for Laois and Offaly Hospice.

Forty-seven-year-old John and his 30-year-old business partner Diane took to the water in Kinsale on June 22 last, and arrived back at the same point having circumnavigated the country on August 2.

Now they’ve presented the funds raised as a result of the trip, totalling an impressive €10,000.

John and Diane are the people behind ‘True Fitness’ gyms, formerly of Tullamore and currently operating in both Portarlington and Portlaoise.

With a decade of kayaking experience, the two set off on the epic voyage that was the brainchild of John with hopes but no expectations of finishing.

“It’s a really tough challenge to do,” John explained. “It’s 1,000 miles in very inhospitable seas, particularly the Atlantic.”

With a week of good weather forecast in late June, the duo began their journey at the old head of Kinsale.

“That stretch from the old head all around the southwest coast can be really tricky,” John explained. “We knew when the weather was good that it’d be a good place to start.”

Though John says he didn’t regret his idea at any point in the trip, there were rough times. One of those times was getting across the Shannon’s mouth.

“It’s 15km wide,” John explained. “It floods and ebbs every six hours, so you have to get your timing right if you’re going to get across it. We were slightly delayed getting to it, and it started to ebb against us. Instead of taking three hours to get across it took five, and our total hours on the water that day was 17.

“It was probably the best trip I was ever on,” he added however. “It’s hard to describe, but it was amazing. Physically and mentally it was very tough, but it was very rewarding too.”

The kindness of strangers spurred them on at every step, John added.

'One of the things that stands out most was the hospitality of people we met,” he says. “People who never met us in their lives went out of their way to put us up for the night and give us shelter. It happened so often, it wasn’t isolated cases. People even contacted us through Facebook to tell us to make sure to stay with them when we were in their area.”

John and Diane eventually finished the challenge in 41 days, waiting an extra day so they could finish in the company of family and friends who travelled down to Kinsale to cheer them over their finish line.

Now they’ve handed over the €10,000 they raised to charity. “Diane had €10,000 in mind, but I didn’t to be honest,” John admits. “I thought if we got anything between €3,000 and €5,000 we’d do well. But they’re great charities, and people really responded to them.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about True Fitness can do so by logging on to www.truefitness.ie.