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Whatever you want to say that doesn't fit under the comments about places or another forum.

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Post details

Post (Contract pics)

BleckCra
2013-06-13 19:36:41

Picture: (Contract pics)

YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR TRACK CAN GO

Back through the mists of time, some of us gave one about the construction work inflicted on us by the Mourne so-called Heritage Trust - costly, pointless and insensitive.
I and some other stalwarts made our views known.
The Lord Stewart adopted a more mellow and conciliatory tone - and illustrated his view of good and appropriate track work with comments and pics of the old track running SE off Slieve Binnian.
He and we will be interested to know that this particular track is now to be dug up and replaced with well .... you know the thing - steps and dust - the spoor of the MHT.
The word "snook" comes to mind.

simon3
2013-06-13 09:16:04

Reviewer wanted, Northern Ireland Walking

Anyone interested in reviewing this ?

Descriptions of 34 walking routes across Northern Ireland. From two-hour strolls to eight-hour mountain challenges. Each route has its own sketch map and is lavishly illustrated with colour photographs. By Helen Fairbairn.

contact group@mountainviews.ie if you are interested.

simon3
2013-06-13 07:33:26

Lambay Island tour offered.

The following message came in. Is anyone interested in this, perhaps in doing liaison ?

I have details of the outfit arranging the tour.

Simon

Good Afternoon,

I was wondering if you have any members that would be interested in the trip below.

Lambay Island Tour

It's €90 Per Person for tour of castle & gardens / walking tour of the island / sea tour transport etc. ( own picnic ) half day trip.

Lord Alexander should be around to give you a tour of the castle and its history.

BleckCra
2013-06-12 20:07:27

Picture: (Contract pics)

YOU COULD FALL FOR IT

Go bag some wicked traverses. Mourne Mountains Beg/Cove.

Peter Walker
2013-06-12 14:49:22

Rain down...

The good Capn's lovely post made me recall another instance of the mind associating music with mountains. It's a bit of an anecdote...please forgive the indulgence.

Years ago I did charity walks. Not big, organised things, but self-devised-then-soloed routes in the Scottish Highlands. (As my sister put it: 'Mad **** in the mountains? People will sponsor you!'). This tended to focus my attention on a form of hillwalking that had interested me for years; how much can you do in a single day? (I'm sensible and I hate camping, so multi-day trips were a no-no). So in June 2003 I found myself in Glen Carron at Stupid o'Clock, stepping out into the rain.

I felt under pressure at that moment with £1500 of sponsorship to honour, but I also had my own desire to go longer and tougher than I'd previously managed. 33 miles, 4000m of ascent, river crossings, scrambling...on last day of the holiday I'd booked. It had to be today. So, over the railway, over the bridge, up the Allt a'Chonais track, towards the wilderness. Rain persisted and the clouds clamped themselves to the mountains with a limpet's devotion. I was fitter than ever but conditions were making a positive attitude a tough thing to maintain.

Alone with my thoughts (not unusual in the hills when you're from the mountain wasteland of Cambridge) I let my mind wander, and allowed my internal jukebox to settle wherever it felt like settling. It chose to settle upon a Radiohead album track called 'Scatterbrain', a song of golden guitars in minor keys, pitter-pat percussion (just like the rain bouncing off my hood), and sporting a gorgeous, ghostly vocal.

It's also a song where a man goes out in a storm and gets killed by lightning. And as I forged on up the glen, its refrains repeating in my head, I started to let situational realities infect my 'you can do it' internal urgings. After four miles of steady uphill I reached the point where the stream had to be crossed; here the safety of valley would be left and commitment would be absolute. What confronted me was a seething torrent, spanned optimistically by a two strand bridge. I've always been too gangly to deal comfortably with such constructions, and (to borrow a joke) I'm not as good a swimmer as I once was thanks to evolution.

I thought of the knife-edge sections I would have to do, slippery and cloud-blinded. I imagined teetering across those gossamer steel threads, water ravenous beneath me. My internal jukebox cranked itself up to full volume.

"I'm walking out in a force ten gale,
Birds thrown around, bullets for hail...'

I realised I was doing the wrong thing.

So, Radiohead stopped me from basically committing suicide; the opposite of what most folk think their music does. What might have happened if the IJ had selected the other album that I'd had on heavy rotation that week: Fountains of Wayne's 'Welcome Interstate Managers'? Are any insights into survival situations contained within the lyrics of 'Stacy's Mom'?

mcrtchly
2013-06-10 22:50:14

"Life on the edge" from mcrtchly Contract pics

Picture: Life on the edge (Contract pics)

Via Ferrata Tordini Galligani

A moderately difficult Via Ferrata in the Apuan Alps of northern Tuscany, Italy. For a full description see track 2227 http://mountainviews.ie/track/report/2227/

simon3
2013-06-10 21:16:04

"Gap of Dunloe." from simon3 Contract pics

Picture: Gap of Dunloe. (Contract pics)

Memorial to the Unknown Woman.

We descended a steep hillside to the south end of the Gap of Dunloe. While there is a road, it's pretty wild so we were heartened, humbled and surprised to see the Unknown Woman, she of red hair, pushing a buggy.
Woman with altitude, we salute you.

BleckCra
2013-06-10 20:32:09

Picture: (Contract pics)

ABOVE THEIR STATION

The Annalong track is the main track proper into the Eastern Mournes. The same kind of thing as ex Clydagh Bridge in the Galtees or Cronins Yard in the Reeks or Glendalough.
It starts after a 10 minute walk up from Carricklittle which is itself a good 15 minutes drive from any serious habitation.
In short, you have to go out of your way to be on it.
So yesterday, coming off Binnian I was entertained to see 2 coppers climbing over the stile on to it and the expanse facing them of the Mourne Mountains.
A him one and a her one - him glugging a bottle of juice like a corner boy; her all crimped and pink with a big annoying English accent.
The sun was splitting the stones.
"The perks of the job" I said to him.
"Grunt", said he back.
Then to little Miss, "What are you looking for up here?"
"Ah we're just out for a walk."
Now I recall that I pay them to protect my life and my property and a few other non-troublesome things like pirated CDs, embezzlement and insider trading that no one cares about. What I don't recall is paying them to be out for a walk in the sun on the Annalong track.
Let me extend an invitation for them to join me for a walk on the Annalong track ......... in January.

Conor74
2013-06-10 16:54:15

Dogs barred from Reeks...

...message on Cronin's Yard Facebook page today that following incidents where two sheep were killed by dogs, the farmers have taken the decision to bar dogs from their land.

BleckCra
2013-06-10 09:05:41

...

Ahh Verty. In da groove .........

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