Thanks for the best wishes guys. It may not be Mountain Biking but heres how we got on.
Thursday evening we headed off by bus to Killarney to be ready for the following mornings climb of Carantoohill. Home Sweet Home for me. After arriving in Killarney, we headed for something to eat and after a good few pints we we were carbed up and ready to tackle Carantoohill the following morning. At 8am we met the other climbers and headed for the base of Carantoohill. We didn't head up the usual route which is to climb up the Devils Ladder. Instead we climbed Caher Mountain and headed accross a ridge for a few kms and then climbed the rest of the way to the summit of Carantoohill. It was foggy and wet which caused poor visibility. I was surprised how dodgy some of the trails were as we crossed the ridge. One slip and you were done for. I certainly wasn't expecting that. 6 hours later and we were back at the base. Tired but stoked to have completed the climb.
We headed to Galway after a meal of pasta and chicken. We arrived in Galway at about 10.30pm and although all the teams were due to meet for a few pints, the guys were wrecked and headed for bed early. We travelled to Mweelrea in Mayo the following morning which which was great craic. You realise how good the roads are in Dublin when you travel the Mayo roads. We were in the back of the mini bus and were progressively launched from our seats as the bus hit every bump on the road. We headed up Mweelrea at about 10.30am. The climb was a real slog accross bog for most of the bottom section of the climb. Everybody was beginning to feel it. We could see about 30 feet in front of us with steep cliffs and ridges in parts of the climb. This climb took us about 3.5 hours to complete and off to Lisburn we headed.
We arrived in Lisburn about 9pm and had another feed of pasta. We were climbing Ulsters highest peak the following day which we all anticipated was going to be the easiest. How wrong we were going to be with that assumption. We got about 3 hours sleep on Saturday night (noisy hen party) getting up at 4.30am to head for Slieve Donard. We began the ascent in the dark and it lashed rain as well as blowing a gale. The terrain was hard rock all the way. When you reach a wall near the top you have the follow it for about 30 minutes. This part was like trying to walk up your stairs with it tilted back to nearly vertical. The calves were feeling it big time. After heading back down from the summit we blagged some showers in the local GAA club and had some breakfast in the local cafe. Off we went to Lugnaquilla tired but well fed.
Lug was a bog fest after all the rain but the sun was out for the whole climb. We were all pretty wrecked at this stage but were determined to complete the last climb. The craic was great with all the climbers and everybody was looking forward to a few pints after the climb. We were only able for 2 pints afterwards as we were bunched, smelly and craving a decent shower and bed. Got home at 11pm after a busy weekend. Made some new friends on the way and we have so far collected nearly €8,000 for Focus Ireland. I have to say that I was sceptical about having a go at hiking but I have to say that I enjoyed it and despite my initial assumptions, its not as easy as it looks. Having said all that, I need to grab my Anthem fast and head up those Wicklow hills in case I get converted to the other side.
