the same three, myself nat and seo, went up the hills of sligo starting on the second on jan, came down on the 5th. we went up kings gully, (southwest bit of mountain) headed in to glencarbury, bounced along the south edge and came down into gurteen area, one the northeast of glencar lake.
the weather was smashing for the first two days. cold enough of course, but not as cold as you would expect. the views were beautiful and navigating was nearly unneeded. i kept a back-up bearing most times, just in case the weather came down on us, but never needed it.
we started off around 11am. the initial ascent is steep and solid, but quite fun. anazing looking back and watching the ground dissapear below you in a smooth green ramp. once up you hit a place as barren as the moon. a natural wind tunnel covered in limestone, amithist and flint. its seriously windy, but quite beautiful in its alien way.
we bumped along near the sothern edge of the mountain, not too near the edge of the cliffs, but near enough to enjoy the views. when we were within range, we turned off into the centeral plain to strike glencarbury.
glencarbury is an old mine. it has the remains of the buildings (within which we stayed the first night) and a mine. the mine is open, although possibly not safe. all but the top level is flooded. still, there was probably about a km of tunnels to explore. great fun, and very very freaky. the photos cannot convey the feeling of darkness and threat that you feel in there, knowng if something happens you are trapped in a pitch black hell. forever.
we explored in the evening and again in the morning.
second day we moved back to the southern edge of the cliffs, and worked our way along, with glencar lake marking our passage below. with the weather so good, our spirits were high and few rests and little food was needed. we just cruised along happy drinking water and the view around us. we found a wierd tree with only lichen on it instead of leaves. we found amazing pits of supersinky slime stuff into which the very visible remains of many trapped sheep were clearly visible.
at the end of the day we were working down the mountain, hopping the fences put up by the overy enthusiastic farmers. (oh the legendery petty greed of the irish for land) we worked our way along looking for a spot to bivy the second night. we found a spot on a little shelf on the slope with trees for cover. the weather finally turned sour the next morning, but not too badly. we got lightly damp, but it was all good.
the trip was very different to last years trip. although my fitness was crap, the good weather made it easy going. we were used to our kit, so we had no grief with it. it was good in whole different ways to last year. more meditative and relaxing than challenging.
the pictures are in random order. they were taken by myself on my waterproof camera, and by seo on a borrowed D40. like any pictures, they can only give the mildest representation of what it was like.
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