Today we headed back to Glenveagh Park, although we went in on the other side and decided to climb Mt Errigal. The walk started out through the saturated bog area near the road (Rd 251)…walking through the mud, the constant sucking sound of our boots in the ankle deep muck being the loudest noise within a couple kilometers. If we took a moment to look up, we were surrounded by green-gold swaths of bog covering rocky hills with pockets of water tucked in and around the curves.

Hiking up the slope, the terrain continued to increase in steepness and treachery with soft grassy cover giving way to rocky outcrops. By the time we got up to the top, one could barely see anything b/c the cloud cover obscured any view farther than 10 feet and the wind whipped hard from the north forcing a downward, southward viewing direction (luckily which corresponded to the path). The rocks were wet from rain and we walked along the edge of the cliff with a sharp drop, plunging off into the rocky depths below…okay, maybe not that dramatic but quite foggy and quite rocky.

We kept thinking we were about at the top as we reached the crest of one hill only to see another one in the distance. We finally made it, though, walking along a ridge with winds whipping all around us and our jackets soaked by the slanted rainfall. All the way up Patrick kept saying I hope we don’t get lost. Obviously, I replied, there’s only one way back…down. Of course, I ate my words…somehow we managed to go hike down the backside of the mountain and only by pure chance did we spot our car far off to the left. Though it took a ridiculously long time we eventually made it back and called it good for the day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Ireland 06, travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.