Trip Report 103
Navigation training
‘With dawn fast approaching behind us, we ventured into Annalong Wood’ This past fortnight I’ve had a few excellent navigation sessions in the Mourne Mountains in two very different conditions. On the first day I was joined by Spud in Annalong Valley, mother nature had seen it fit to hide everything under a thick blanket […]
Slieve Muck Loop
On reaching Slieve Muck’s summit trig point, which had suddenly appeared from the thick mist, I remember thinking, “Is that all you’ve got?” I really had expected a harder gruelling hike onto Muck.
Coast to Coast Cycle Across Ireland
I heard a sharp pop coming from my rib cage before doubling over in the ring. My opponent stopped and made that screwed up face we all do when we realise someone’s hurt. I got back on the balls of my feet and played out the remaining 20 seconds of the round: mostly dancing. Trying […]
Two nights of the Mournes at Commedagh and Tollymore
As it had been a couple of weeks since I had last been out for a camp, I decided a one nighter probably wasn’t going to do the trick. Already due to meet some of the others from HikersBlog on Saturday evening, I decided a camp on Friday night was also due. I packed the […]
Ben Crom Exploration
The weather was looking good, it was a bank holiday weekend, that could only mean one thing: it was time to go camping. We packed our kit and enough food to do us for a night and a day, and traveled to Newcastle Co. Down, our usual starting point to the Mourne Mountains. We met […]
Sallagh Braes – May 2013
The sun broke out from behind the clouds and shone brightly on the road I was walking. It was getting warm, and I was starting to sweat. The wind blowing a strong breeze, but it wasn’t giving me much relief… I had left from my starting point a few hours earlier. I was nearly at […]
Do something that scares you
We’ve all heard the Baz Lurman Song Suncreen with the sage voice telling us: “do something that scares you every day”. We’ve also most probably written off the advice as nice sounding but not really that apt for our situation. I challenge you to try this advice for a week tho, just one week, and […]
Sea to Sky 10k
I recently made a return to an organised trail race after a long absence due to work. I must say that the Sea to Sky 10k was the perfect reintroduction. In organised races it’s often true that either the course is excellent and the organisation is poor or vice versa. In this case (the first […]
Slieve Lamagan Summit Camp – A Wet and Windy
Slieve Lamagan had been calling out to us, always there but never on the agenda. Looming over Annalong Valley, silently watching. The mountains Irish name translates as creeping/crawling mountain, an odd name, which we were about to find out, was pretty darn accurate. The weather look promising, a predicted dry evening followed by some showers […]
Quick Bivvy By The River
After a rather inopportune stomach bug forced me to cancel my plans for a two night bivvy last week, I was itching to get out for an overnighter. Rusty and Eamonn naturally obliged and on Saturday evening we made for Tollymore forest to begin our camp in the Mournes, on the edge of the Spinkwee […]
