Reawakening
Slowly we are returning.
It’s been a very quiet summer from a hiking and photography point of view. Without doubt the longest break i’ve taken since starting this whole journey which started somewhere around four and a half years ago.
The camera was hardly touched during this time, which is unusual for me.
No hiking was done since my last trip up Brandon in May.
I spent the summer painting both the inside and outside of the house and also doing work around the house, which as well as being badly needed turned out to be incredibly enjoyable. As is often the way, you’re never really finished when you start jobs like these but the bulk is done , such that I can call it a great success.
The final garden clean up was down over the last few weeks, with the hedges all cut back now for the winter.
I’ve been out over the last 4 of 5 weekends, going to some well known haunts, just to try and get back into it.
At certain stages it felt like I was starting all over again, especially with the camera. The good news, it quickly came back.
Kilshanning / Maharees
The first outing was to Killshanning, out towards the Maharees for a spot of birding and just generally to get out. It was a fine day, but to be honest I just wasn’t feeling it. A few birds around, and a good few people, but I just wasn’t into it. I thought at this stage things may not go as smoothly as i’d hoped. I was even wondering would I still be interested in doing this, I was slightly concerned that i’d lost interest. I wasn’t going to let that put a damper on it, it was a nice day to be out and I did enjoy just.. being out.
As you can see from the below images, I was already looking towards the mountains….
Storm Amy
Next up, the Day After Storm Amy
The swell was supposed to be good on this day, so there was one place that had to be called into for starters, Clogher Beach, on the West Coast.
It was fantastic. The swell was pretty alright, i’ve seen it better, and the weather was beautiful with blue skies accompanied by a fine strong wind tearing inland.
I spent a good bit of time here , chatted to the odd person and just enjoyed the show. As you can see from the pics there was a guy on the rocks out on the headland taking pics with his phone. Not sure it’s somewhere i’d have gone in these conditions, but he was there anyway and provoided a good subject for a few shots. It did look worse with the lens compression making him seem closer to the sea, but not a position i’d have put myself in either way.
Following Clogher Beach I headed up to Ballydavid Head. You could see the Radio na Gaeltacht mast over in the distance with the waves crashing against the coast but it was impossibly hard to try get a shot with the sun directly behind it. Had loads of time and really enjoyed heading up. The wind was fantastic and the waves crashing against the black rocks were mesmerising. This time I ventured up the whole way to the tower instead of stopping at the usual photo spot.
For anyone that’s been up there, you know there’s loads of cover with the rocks when the wind is coming from the west. The sun came out and it was really nice to just relax up there for a bit. When not getting bashed by the wind it was almost summerish.
The light wasn’t up to much and it didn’t look like there was going to be a sunset so I head down before hand, which thankfully proved to be the right thing to do.. It was great to be up there tho, and was the first bit of an uphill hike I'd done in ages, even if it was only a a short one. I did get some nice pics documenting the hike.
Wild Camp
It was time to start upping the outings..
I had purchased a new tent a few weeks back and was only itching to get out in it. Headed off down to Brandon Point to where I'd made the other wild camping video previoulsy. I knew where I was going and it was pretty straight forward to get there, just a 3 or 4 km hike in. Carrying the load was a bit of a bump up in effort also, but we managed. The weather was calm and it was very nice for the first camp in a while. The sunset/sunrise wasn’t up to much but out didn’t really matter to be honest. Just a really enjoyable night out and long overdue.
In the morning I felt so good, I headed off out to Sauce Creek just for a look in as it had been while. It ended up being quite a good hike with a big backpack. Sauce creek is always beautiful and again just sat for a while at a high point in the middle of the trap just taking it on,, just fabulous…
As I'm writing this a few weeks later, I haven’t been able to get out since because of the weather. As soon as I get the chance I'll be off again.
Killarney
Next went back to Killarney , more specifically to Derrycunnihy.
I went up from the church into the woodland and hillside. It was wet, it was grey. It was nice to be out in , but no pics were taken. I’d planned on going downhill also but decided against it as the rain just got heavier.
West Coast
Next up a trip down to the west coast. I wanted to do a few short walks.
The looped walk from the Blasket Center coming back around by the school, again another walk from a video I've done before, thoroughly enjoyable.
First time getting to Beal Ban Beach. did a nice walk along it over to Wine Strand and Back. I’d been to Wine strand a few times but never been over the headland to Beal Ban. I’d seen Darrens video a weeks earlier and realised I hadn’t been on that part before so took the opportunity to head down.
Then the walk from Clogher Beach around the headland and back by the road. It was dark when I got back to the car park. Picture wise the light was fantastic when I was leaving the beach to start the walk, but it soon vanished and I'd missed the best of it. I still messed around taking shots. It was another really enjoyable day. I should have stayed below in the van that night, the drive home was long. Very much worth it.
The Paps
And finally we came to last weekend. On the Sunday it looked like there might be a break in the weather for a few hours and thankfully it held true.
I said I'd head back to The Paps Mountains and at least do the West Pap. as they are the closest proper mountains to me, (other than Caherbaranagh, which is a lot less well travelled)
Then maybe see how I felt when I got up there. I wouldn’t say I was nervous, I'm well familiar with the hike, but I was wondering how the body would cope as it was the first proper Mountain since Brandon in May.
Ended up doing the full loop taking in both peaks and managed to avoid the bad weather that was rolling in from the south west. It turned out to be a fantastic hike and thoroughly enjoyable. The heather coming down off the East Pap was rough going again, I'm going to have to find a better way down, but even considering that I was delighted to get it done.
Absolutely no light for pics or anything other than the document shots from the East Pap.
It was thoroughly enjoyable to great to be able to do it.
Where to from here….
I’m not sure. I have videos from all these places already and while I absolutely enjoyed the days out, making a video from any of these days out wouldn’t have resulted in anything better than any videos I've made before. It’s also just nice to go out without making a video, but I definitely missed that aspect of it at certain times.
I have a few mountains to get back up, just to get back used to it again before I go further afield. I definitely want to head up the west of the country over the winter but that’s very heavily weather dependent.
When putting this blog together, I've realised I've been out quiet a bit over the last few months, more so that I actually realised, so I'm quiet happy with that and realise how lucky I am that all these beautiful places are so close to me.
We might get a video before the end of the year, I know I said I'd be back in mid/late autumn but as always, we shall just have to see and figure things out as we go along. Not rushing anything at this stage.
Thanks for talking the time to read this and for checking in.
Hopefully see ye all in the near future,
Ed