Dave Byrnes

Round Ireland - 2016

Overview Planned Schedule Map Diary Pictures

Day:	083
Date:	Tuesday, 15 June 2016
Start:	Meelmore Lodge
Finish:	Rostrevor
Daily Kilometres:	30
Total Kilometres:	2314
Weather:	Cool and overcast in the morning and warm and sunny in the afternoon
Accommodation:	Ross House B&B
Nutrition:	Breakfast: Muesli bars and Snickers Bar Lunch: Muesli bars, Snickers Bars and chocolate Dinner: Doner kebab, salad & chips, fruit trifle
Aches:	Tired feet
Highlight:	Great scenery in the Mountains of Mourne.
Lowlight:	I walked an unnecessary couple of kilometres at the end of the day because I didn't know where the B&B was in Rostrevor, and my smartphone could not get Vodafone UK coverage, which is what I have paid for in Northern Ireland. I could only get Vodafone Ireland coverage and forgot I had roaming switched off. Too late, I realised that my Vodafone UK package did include some roaming and switched it on to discover there had been a shortcut to the B&B that I was too late to use.
Pictures:	Here
GPS Track:	Here
Journal:	While having my breakfast of muesli bars in the hostel kitchen, I chatted to one of the two teachers also staying in the hostel. They were supervising students from their school (girls) who were in various parts of the Mountains of Mourne doing their Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions. It turned out she was also an ultra-runner, so we had plenty to talk about. I left the hostel at 9am and joined the Mourne Way on a cool dry and overcast morning. The peaks of the mountains were covered in cloud, but the weather looked promising. The grassy trail followed a stone fence as it gradually climbed along the lower slopes of the mountains in an easterly direction, and apart from a small navigational error that cost me about 20 minutes, I made good progress. After an hour or so I passed the teacher from the hostel meeting a group of students by the trail. All seemed to be going well. The Mourne Way then climbed steeply up the grassy Sleivenamuck on a faint trail, and I was soon unsure of whether I was going the right way. There was a complete absence of signs and markers and faint trails going in different directions. After checking the map and relating it to the topology, I followed a faint trail in what I hoped was the right direction, hoping to pick up the proper trail further along. No such luck, and I just continued to follow a fence line across occasionally boggy ground, when I suddenly saw marker post up against a fence post, seemingly confirming I had been on the correct trail the whole way. However, the trail continued to be hard to follow and there were no further markers, so I just navigated by topology along the mountain top, taking great views in along the way, and then descended to a point where the trail must go according to the map. Sure enough, there was another marker, but the trail was little-used and traversed the side of a very steep mountain, making it painful on the feet. Eventually I reached a road and took my first break soon after noon. On the other side of the road the trail was easier to follow and my speed improved. The day had now cleared to be warm and sunny and I enjoyed excellent views of the mountains and surrounding rural countryside. I encountered some more groups of student, mixed gender this time, also on some kind of expedition and none of them looking like they were enjoying the experience. One mixed group of about eight had at least three breaks in the space of a kilometre during the time I could see them across the valley. After crossing another low pass I followed an improved trail south towards the sea and Rostrevor, my goal for the day. Although my feet were better than yesterday, perhaps partly due to a pen-knife pedicure of some calluses this morning, they were still tired from the difficult trail and did not appreciate me travelling an extra kilometre or two at the end of the day because I couldn't get smartphone coverage to work out exactly where my B&B was located. I reached the B&B at 6pm and the host, Jane, gave me a friendly welcome (I must have looked tired) and later drove me into the village to get some shopping and take-out. The Mourne Way didn't disappoint from the scenery perspective, but I was surprised at the low quality of the trail and marking in a few places.