The Great night hike

After much planning, fundraising and panicking about fundraising, the day for The Great Night Hike had arrived and I was both excited and hopelessly disorganized. 

Despite all this I soon found myself on the road to Wicklow with many layers,  snacks and deep mistrust in Google maps. 

I did arrive in Wicklow with time to spare after taking a slightly more circuitous and scenic route than planned. As I drove through the Wicklow way I was overwhelmed by how beautiful it was there and wondered why no one had pushed me to make the trip before or perhaps they had and I just wasn't listening.

Mostly what I was feeling was excitement about the upcoming hike and even more do the few days I will be spending exploring Glendalough. I stopped to eat a mini picnic right where there was a stunning view of the Wicklow way and I felt like a woman on an adventure . There is something wonderfully freeing about getting into your car alone and taking off.

After my Pit stop I returned to my car to realise my phone had no signal so I returned to the road and hoped the Glendalough Hotel was somewhere nice and obvious and thankfully it was, nestled right at the edge of the Glendalough national park. It had the sort of views other hotels could only wish for. I had a bit of wander Before the time rolled round to register for the hike and I liked what I saw.

The Irish Heart Foundation team were set up in the hotel greeting us all and offering healthy snacks and water to everyone taking part. While waiting to get going I ended up meeting a lovely group of women sitting together and they proved to be great company on the walk that followed.

It wasn't long before we were heading into the woods. I think there was somewhere around 60 of us altogether but I must confess I didn't do a head count so I might be wrong. It was light for the early part of the walk but we moved too quickly for me to get anything more than a handful of blurry snapshots of trees. 

We weren't walking long once we started on the steps. I must say the national park in Glendalough is terribly fancy, all signposted paths and wooden steps plus a wooden path that takes you right across the mountain.

There's more than 600 steps but I certainly didn't count them. We started walking up along side a waterfall and the light grew dusky. Then the steps grew steeper, the walk got sweatier. By the time we reached the boardwalk. We were walking in complete darkness. As a side note however I do feel head torches are really going to take off 

At this point in the walk it got a little tricky. Just in terms of watching your footing. I mostly concentrated on looking straight ahead particularly as some of the more seasoned walkers in those parts did tell us we were probably better off that we couldn't see how steep the drop was just to one side of us and it seemed best not to think about that.

By the time we stopped for a break, I was deeply regretting the fact I had neglected to bring a hair tie as the uphill climb had moistened it with sweat and I was not loving the sensation but then another lady on the walk came to my rescue with a spare one. I declared it the best thing to happen on the walk but I do have a flair for the dramatic. 

We continued on, a procession of light walking into the dark against the wind, chattering voices and the sounds of rushing water somewhere nearby. The terrain changed to rocks and then to a path that was easier to navigate and the closer we got to the hotel,  the more aware everyone became of their various aches. It would have been much harder to get in that final stretch if not for the good company I was in. 

Around 10pm we stumbled back to the hotel to be greeted by the glorious sight of food and warm drinks.  I meant to leave much sooner but it was after 11 by time I got Into my car. The drive to Kilkenny was long but not too bad because I was still buzzed after the walk and I had a cramp in one butt cheek the entire drive home. 

I was glad to finally fall into my bed but id definitely be up to doing something like that again. Sponsored hikes definitely need to become a thing .