Day: |
055 |
Date: |
Wednesday, 18 May 2016 |
Start: |
Leenaun |
Finish: |
Murrisk |
Daily
Kilometres: |
38 |
Total
Kilometres: |
1502 |
Weather: |
Mostly cool and overcast all day with a
couple of sunny periods and a couple of light showers. |
Accommodation: |
Croagh Patrick Hostel |
Nutrition: |
Breakfast: Fruit & yoghurt, scrambled
eggs & smoked salmon, toast & jam Lunch: Muesli bars,
Snickers bars and a donut Dinner: Lasagne & salad,
meringue, ice-cream and berries |
Aches: |
None really |
Highlight: |
Two highlights today. Firstly,
despite over-committing in terms of kilometres and time, managing to
reach the summit of Croagh Patrick (764m) in fine weather, after it
had been enveloped by cloud all day. Secondly, enjoying a
delicious home-cooked meal and spending a very pleasant evening with
Tracy (sister of Karen, who I had met when hiking Lands End to John
O'Groats in 2010), Steve and their boys, and Tracy's father, Kevin,
at their home in Louisburgh. |
Lowlight: |
None really. |
Pictures: |
Here |
GPS Track: |
Here |
Journal: |
Knowing I had a big day ahead, I went down
to the hotel dining room right on 8:00am, the designated start of
breakfast time, to find the dining room already full of diners.
It was annoying to know that I could have breakfasted earlier, but I
ate quickly and was on the road by 9:00am. I was looking
forward to meeting the family of Tracy, sister of Karen, a
long-distance hiker I had met in 2010 when walking from Lands End to
John O'Groats, for dinner tonight at her home in Louisburgh, so
wanted to get to my Murrisk hostel in plenty of time to have a
shower before I was picked up. However, I had a long way to
walk to reach Murrisk, including a climb over the shoulder of Croagh
Patrick, Ireland's Holy Mountain. If I had time, I really
wanted to climb to the mountain peak as well, but that would add an
hour.
With all of this in mind, I intentionally walked a bit
faster than usual, despite the extra pounding on my feet, in the
hope that everything would work out. In two places during the
first half of the day, I opted to roadwalk where there was a Western
Way choice between road and off-road, calculating that any scenery I
missed, would be compensated for by the views from Croagh Patrick at
the end of the day, should I make it.
Even from the road, the
scenery was excellent, with grass and gorse covered steep mountains
overlooking farmed glacial valleys dotted with lakes. In some
places the road climbed high to give great views, and apart from the
first 5km, there was rarely a car.
Around midday, I got my
first views of the impressive Croagh Patrick in the distance, but
could see the peak was covered in cloud so figured, that even if I
had time, it wouldn't be worth climbing to the peak if I couldn't
see anything. I decided to worry about it when I got there.
By 2:30pm I was starting to get tired and the roads I was
following rarely seemed to take the shortest route towards the
mountain, which was a little frustrating. Time was slipping
by, and my working assumption was that I needed to be on the
shoulder of the mountain by 4:00pm to have time to detour to the
summit. This seemed unlikely, but with the continuing cloud
cover it didn't matter anyway.
The Western Way finally left
the road to go cross-country, which was a welcome change for my
feet, and at 3:00pm I found a nice spot for another snack as I
seemed to be running low on energy. After another kilometre or
two of boggy trail along the edge of a pine forest, I reached a
series of forest roads that took me to the southern slopes of Croagh
Patrick. On the higher slopes I could see the trail to the top
of the mountain shoulder I wanted, but the way to get there was not
obvious (Croagh Patrick is not on the Western Way official route, so
I intended to use other trails). I headed upwards across the
grassy slopes, eventually scrambling up a steeper section to reach
the trail. I then followed it in the direction I wanted to go,
eventually reaching the crest of the shoulder at the base of the
final steep climb to the Croagh Patrick summit. I could see
some pilgrims carefully making their way up and down the treacherous
loose rock trail.
It was 4:30pm, later than I wanted to be,
but the summit was now clear of cloud. I hid my pack, taking
my small pack with my valuables, and set out to climb to the summit
as fast as I could, texting Tracy that I would be ready to be picked
up at 6:30pm from the hostel. I wasn't far into the climb
before it became obvious it was going to take longer than I hoped.
It was a long and really treacherous steep trail and I saw several
walkers slip and fall short distances. My guess is that the
trail has not been maintained since St Patrick climbed it in the 5th
Century and fasted for 40 days on the summit and I was very glad of
my trekking poles.
I reached the summit soon after 5:00pm and
the views were just magnificent, in every direction. I did a
lap around the chapel that sits on the summit, taking in the views
as the sun came out. Magic, and well worth the effort taken to
get there. I was impressed by some of the people/pilgrims
trekking to the top and had passed one guy, well into his seventies,
moving very slowly. It was going to take him many hours to
descend, and I hoped he would be OK (his younger wife seemed to be
doing it easily). It occurred to me that St Patrick had a
sense of humour, making this the pilgrimage site. There would
be a lot of easier mountains to climb in Ireland!
I couldn't
dally long and soon began the descent, travelling as fast as I
dared, and picking up my pack on the way. I texted Tracy to
make the pickup at 7pm, feeling quite guilty about delaying dinner,
and reached the very modern hostel at 6:35pm. I checked in and
may be the only guest. I certainly have an eight-bed dorm and
bathroom to myself. I quickly showered and was picked up by
Steve, Tracy's husband, at 7:00pm. Dinner was delicious and we
had a good chat. I learned a lot about various Irish topics,
including the school system, that I didn't know much about, and we
all got along very well.
Steve drove me back to the hostel
around 10:30pm. I had had a great day, but I'll be tired
tomorrow. |
|
ADVENTURE LIST
Round Ireland
(2016)
Hume & Hovell Walking Track
(2013)
Via Alpina
(2012)
Australian Alps Walking
Track (2011)
Land's End to John O'Groats
(2010)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2009)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2008)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2007)
Australia Tip to Top MTB
(2006)
Adelaide to Darwin MTB
(2005)
Sydney to Melbourne MTB
(2004)
Three Peaks Race
(2004)
Appalachian Trail
(1986)
Alpine Track
(1983)
|