Tuesday, May 21, 2013

I was up late getting some of the blog posted last night, and Melissa was up even later handling some last minute business with Malorie (via chat, as our Skype connection wasn't working).  After a short night's sleep I got up around 8:30 and posted some more pictures to the blog.  I woke Melissa up at 9:00 and we packed up our things.  We were in the car and driving out of Dunkineely by 9:30 westward, along the coast and heading for Slieve League.

We had received some good advice on where to go from Damien.  He works for the coast guard and travels up Slieve League fairly often, either for training or to search for someone lost in the fog or fallen down a crevasse.  We drove through Carrick and found the lower car park.  Continuing past we arrived at a gate, and needed to open, drive thru, and close the gate again.  We drove along the dangerous (newly-widened) road to the second car park, and saw our obstacle of the day: a path along the mountains from peak to peak, with thousand-foot sea cliffs and amazing views to the sea.

 

We packed up our backpack and left the car at 10:00, basing several other older visitors, but soon we were absolutely alone.  It was very peaceful hiking this precipitous mountain trail, seeing or hearing nothing but our heavy breathing and the sea crashing far below.  There's not much I can write to explain our hike, but hopefully I can post enough pictures to do it justice.
 

Before the fog

 

 

 

 

We reached what could be the summit around 11:30, but continued onto a point higher in elevation, and got there around noon.  Either way, Damien told us that we made very good time up to the top.  When we reached this highest point, within 5 minutes the fog started rolling in, with no warning!  We told each other that we better get moving so we enjoyed our few minutes of breathtaking beauty and headed back down.

Summit View from Slieve League

 

 

After the fog

 

We left the car park around 1:40 and started driving north, but decided we were too tired and only made it as far as Ardara.  We had a disgusting lunch at a cafe featuring burgers with questionable origin, and also found Melis a silver ring to act as a second wedding ring (and it doesn't stick off and catch on anything, so it might become the permanent one!)
 

 

We rested up a bit when we got back to Dunkineely, went to the convenience store to get some sandwich supplies for dinner, and headed to Mac's Bar for a few pints of the black stuff.  We turned in early, around 11, and so ended our favorite day yet (besides the mystery meat).