As we approached our chosen wild camp site near Fofanny dam, I watched a swirl of cloud revolving down towards Happy valley in the Mourne mountains, I was feeling good, something was telling me this was going to be a great camp! Originally, the plan had been to walk The Mourne Wall, described by author and fellow hiker Paddy Dillon as one of Ireland’s most iconic mountain walks, but the weather had different ideas.
I’d spent the past few months putting in as much hill time as possible in preparation to tackle the Mourne wall, date picked, time booked off work, numerous discussions and plans made about kit, route, potential camp sites picked, but one thing we could not control is the weather. In the week coming up to our scheduled trek, I had been keeping more than a close eye on the weather, and with five days to go the Met office were reporting torrential rain, gale force winds and the risk of thunder and lightning! As the week progressed, the forecast was showing no signs of change, and it was decision time. So with a healthy respect for the weather and my own personal safety, I considered the risks involved by ignoring the weather predictions. In weighing up my options, I came to the conclusion that the wall wasn’t going anywhere, and the chance may have escaped me for now, but there will always be another chance!
Time for plan B
I’d made my decision to abandon the Wall attempt, but I certainly hadn’t given up on the chance of seeking some fun and adventure from a wild camp and a trek through some of the lower mountains and forests that surround the Mourne mountains.
Arriving at Fofanny dam Spud and I crossed onto the Mourne way, a waymarked trail, which we followed until we came to our campsite. Having quickly pitched our tents, we set about arranging a suitable area where we could cook some campsite delights, namely some of McGreevys fine sirloin steaks! (In my opinion, County Downs finest butchers.) Spud began preparing our gluttonous feast, as I experimented with using the long exposure settings on my camera. The previous nights rain had been horrendous, and the many rivers running into the reservoir were swollen, with the promise of more to come with further heavy rain predicted later that evening.
Having consumed our fill of steak and tea, it was hard to imagine that the moonlight night we were staring into was going to change within a matter of hours, but with that in mind we ventured from the forest to enjoy the night sky and chat about various topics. At around 12.30 am the heavens opened, and we quickly retired to the comfort of our tents. As I got inside my sleeping bag, I listened to the constant hammering of the driving rain outside and couldn’t help wondering if my tent would be up to the challenge .
Waking round 4am, I had a quick look through the door of my tent and was relieved to see that everything looked fine, so it was back to the land of nod, where I slept like a baby until 9am! As we began to pack up, the heavy rain started again, so with little time to admire the morning, we set off on our return trek along the Mourne way. One of the already swollen rivers we had passed last night had burst it banks in places, rising about two feet!
The final chapter of our mini adventure would be a walk back through the enchanting Autumn forest of Tollymore, with every colour of gold, green, red and brown shown in the discarded foliage that carpeted our way. As we walked through various squally showers towards Newcastle, finally a period of relatively dry weather graced us with its prescence!Reaching Newcastle and with the end in sight, Mother Nature presented us with one final reminder of who was in control, with a very heavy downpour of rain to give us one final soaking! Relaxing with a few pints of ice cold cider in Quinn’s bar, we reflected our enjoyable camp and walk, and drew up battle plans of those yet to come.
John Surginor
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