The great outdoors
I do enjoy being fit and I find Crossfit helps me nicely in my pursuit of better physical health. I also make an effort to get out for walks, weather allowing, as often as I can, even when I am not really in the mood because fresh air always makes me feel a bit better. I find my renewed interest in hill walking came about when I dared to try it ( a scary proposition at the time as it combined the equally daunting strangers and mountains) and realised I got something I wasn't getting elsewhere in life from the experience. The fresh air, scenery and the way it cleared my head entirely left me feeling recharged and so regatta boots were bought an interest was sparked.
I had my eye on this Carlow walking festival since it first cropped up in my news feed a few weeks back but I hadn't looked at it in any great detail when I realised it was my weekend to work. Until I managed to get holidays for the Saturday and I had a whole bonus day off looming ahead of me and I was wondering how to fill it. This is when I had a lightbulb moment and remembered the walking festival in the next county over and it felt like a happy coincidence.
I went on to the Carlow tourism website and found myself perusing walks like it was a menu and thinking where would I like to walk. Also I factored in that while I could probably pass myself off as an experienced hill walker that I would be pushing it to claim I was a very experienced Hillwalker and it was in this spirit that I chose a walk being led by a well known biologist less for my passion about biology and more because I liked the sound of the route they were walking.
Honestly because this is such a new pursuit of mine, most of Ireland is still unexplored territory so almost every walk holds the promise of something new.
In the spirit of adventure I found myself driving to Borris, Co Carlow, trusting google maps to get me there safely as I am not known for my sense of direction. Luckily it got me there safely and after registering I found myself on a bus with a group of other hill walkers heading to Corrabut gap. As we arrived we found ourselves encased in a freezing fog and I was glad of the extra layers I had in my backpack.
We headed off towards nine stones, a gang of brightly dressed hikers, stopping occasionally along the way so Eanna (the aforementioned biologist) could tell us about the wildlife and plant life in the area. I will confess at this stage that while the nature walk element definitely made it interesting that I was content to just admire the view. I am happy to see a tree and think oh it looks nice in this light and make some attempt to capture said image with my camera phone but I don't necessarily feel the compulsion to know the name or origin of the tree. That being said, most others in the group were riveted by this part of the walk,
The landscape was dressed seasonally appropriate for the month of October, the freezing fog added an eerie element to everything and it was beautiful in a wild kind of way. I was taking photos of everything and hoping that at least some nice shots came out but was really glad I had dragged myself out of bed to experience this.
We trekked up to the top of the hill beyond nine stones with everyone saying how lucky we were to be getting such a dry day and lamenting that we were missing out on what was said to be a beautiful view and then we reached the top of the hill and almost as though we were being rewarded for our hard work, a strong breeze blew the fog away and a breathtaking landscape was revealed.
I actually missed hearing about some bird native to the area because I was so entranced by the hills and trying my very best to capture them using only my phone. It was totally accidental though and with a view like that you could hardly blame me. We came down the hill, the walking leading us into fields and our make shift picnic spot where we ate lunch near the ruins of an old house before setting off again.
The walk took us down a country lane and then back up into the woods. I'd name the areas but I'm terrible at this sort of thing and I'd only get it wrong but I think we went through Slievebawn and Tomduff ridge but wherever it was it made for a really great walk. The sunshine certainly helped as did the many different chats I had with other hill walkers from all around the country.
And I had the opportunity to learn a great deal about the local habitat. We reached the end of our walk flushed, sweaty but everyone was in great spirits.
I will admit to sneakily changing in my car because my tshirt was wet and my boots hurt but I don't think anyone saw me so I escaped without scandalizing the lovely people of Borris and then I said some quick goodbyes in a local pub before sneaking off home to hibernate.
I'm hoping to come back next year and who knows maybe by then I'll count as a very experienced hill walker but we will just have to wait and see.
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