Walk 20/2007 – the Dingle Peninsular, Ireland

Sunday 23rd September 2007

The low level walk

Happy Birthday Judith

A group of 4 ascended Mount Brandon ( see Graham’s report below). Debs chose to take a tranquil walk along the coast alone after her tiring day yesterday and another group of 7 took an alternative coastal walk of 10 miles around Cruach. The scenery was absolutely spectacular. The cliffs are very rugged and high/steep. The Atlantic sea thrashes and bashes over the rocky outcrops as well as against the cliff edges causing much dramatic frothing and spurting of waves. As we passed one of the many large sandy bays the huge waves again were so beautiful and depicted something from the Hawaiian coastline.

Ed – this is a trial of putting a video clip onto the website. The file is quite large so I suggest you only try this if you have a broadband connection. Click on the picture to see the video. There should be sound as well.

We were able to experience more picturesque delights of the coastline because we took a ‘non conformist’ approach to the footpath directions and went slightly off piste. However during this day we still had to endure some long sections of the tarmac troll and even tried to develop a limerick to liven our skip along and to capture the monotony of our roadpaths.

Bella the black Labrador pup accompanied us for a considerable stretch until we realised that she was never going to leave us and we had to send out a phone SOS to her owners to come and fetch her from her happy ramble along the hedgerows.

In the hedges it was a delight to spot several wild foxgloves growing along with the masses of colourful fuschia bushes and crocosmian. The grass in this area was a very lush emerald green, mimicking something out of fairyland dreams and simulated that of walking on a thick pile carpet. Barbara chose this gentle flooring to try out her starfish fall to the ground; the grass luckily cushioned her unprecedented collapse. During the final lap of our walk the heavens opened and anyone not wearing waterproof trousers needed to revisit that decision before they were soaked through.

A very happy night was spent back in Krugers bar revisiting the past two days of enjoyment and the sipping of alcohol assisted the laughter sessions along nicely!

Report – Cathy

Photos – Alan unless indicated otherwise

Walk rating – Excellent despite a lot of road walking

View of Mount Brandon.	Dog spots sheep.
Who adopted the dog?	Cathy and Noelyne try to resucitate the dog whilst Di calls for an ambulance – no, really they are reading the dog tag whilst Di phones the owner.
More fushias.	We seem to have found a café.
Judith goes for a paddle on her birthday. Why is’nt she wearing her birthday suit?	Some of the scenery as we walk back along the coast.
(Andy)

Mount Brandon

On Sunday four hardy souls, Nigel, Simon, Owen and the author of this dubious masterpiece Graham decided to undertake The Walking Clubs’ very first ascent of a foreign mountain. Cnoc Breanainn or to simple Englishmen Mount Brandon, Eire’s second highest peak at 952m. The four mountaineers set off on the perilous journey, perilous because we didn’t have a road map, but our cunning plan and deft sketch map got us to the start within 30 minutes. The route up Brandon is a pilgrimage route and is well marked by white posts and numbered crosses, 15 in total. The path goes in an almost straight grassy line, only veering around near the end reducing the effort of ascent. The top is frequently shrouded in cloud but as the Brandoneers topped out 90 minutes after leaving the car, all was clear, albeit hazy in the distance and the cloud thickening above us but still giving fantastic 360 views (the camera not really doing justice). Brandon Bay and it’s expansive beach, the interior mountain ridges and the coastline back toward Dun Chaoin where even it at this height the crashing waves looked impressively big. It was hard to know which way to look.

After a windy stop for pictures and admiration of the scenery the route back followed a ridge northwards, although we were tempted by the ridge south along to Brandon Peak. As we dropped down we found a nice sheltered spot for lunch overlooking another impressive ridge route, BinnFhada, to the top of Brandon with a good–looking scramble near the end. As recent scramble converts Owen and I had wanted to get our hands on some rock. As we dropped down to meet the Dingle Way we entered some bog affording Simon the opportunity to show us his ‘child going down a slide’ impression. His behind was only slightly wet at the end!

The Dingle Way crossing the moor is well marked taking us safely back to quiet civilisation, giving me an opportunity to read a text message from Cathy pleading for us to bring back some wine for dinner. My comment was “where the hell do they think we are, Sainsburys”! It was also noted along the ‘Way’ that the sheep were “very well presented” and Simon likened them to sheepskin rugs! Perhaps the altitude was affecting us. (Ed – yes, I think sheep and sheepskin rugs do have something in common.

On returning to the car we decided on a different ‘blind drive’ back to the Youth Hostel. Fortuitously we stumbled across a small shop that sold wine so two red and one white were purchased before we forced ourselves into the next–door pub for a quick Guinness. Interestingly the man who served us in the shop took one stride to the right and served us behind the bar. This is Ireland at its best. As the shopkeeper said (or was it the landlord), “people come in here for a loaf and stay for the Guinness”. We kept quiet about the wine, “what text message” was the answer to Alan’s enquiry until all was revealed.

Walk rating – An excellent day

Views from Mount Brandon. (Graham)	Views from Mount Brandon. (Graham)
Views from Mount Brandon. (Graham)	Views from Mount Brandon. (Owen)
Views from Mount Brandon. (Owen)	Just to show that we did try the Guinness. (Andy)