Our second attempt at rock climbing in the Macgillycuddy's Reeks (the wonderfully named mountain range here in County Kerry), got even less momentum than yesterdays efforts. The sound of the alarm was followed shortly by that of rain on the roof of the van, so we didn't even bother moving from the horizontal warmth of the sleeping bags.
Just to be certain, we drove back around to Kate Kearney's Cottage and had breakfast in the drizzle. The reliably unreliable weather forecast for this region suggested a drier patch was on it's way. Not enough to dry the rock suffuciently, but enough to warrant setting out on a mountain walk. The nearby peak of Strickeen, at a modest 440m, looked to be just the right kind of objective.
As the clouds began to slowly lift, we followed a few sheep up what turned out to be a very good footpath. We had imagined that we might be bashing our way though neck deep bracken, but it turned out to be a well laid and maintained footpath almost all the way to the summit, with just the final section from the col involving a bit of bog jumping.
The inland views slowly began to open up as the clouds parted.
But the mountain side and the Gap of Dunloe was hugged by clouds until we reached the top.
They certainly know how to build a decent summit cairn around here. We seemed to a timed our hike well as we now had the views as well as the summit to ourselves. We sat and looked for nearly an hour, while munching through the various snacks we'd carried up.
The highest peak in Ireland (Carrauntooil at 1040m), remained hidden in the clouds, but otherwise we had some good views of a mountain range that was completely new to us.
Once all the food and water was gone and we'd located all the peaks along the attractive looking ridge behind us, we set off back down the hill. Hopefully, the weather will be kind enough for us to make an ascent of the highest peak via one of it's climbing routes later in the week.
Back at the van, there were a little gang of Sika Deer munching their way through the hedge and someone's back garden!
No comments:
Post a Comment