#1: [06-Oct-01]

02-Mar-2008 --

2008 Ireland Tour

Needs local knowledge

Continued from 55N-06W

Preparation notes before leaving home - Park somewhere along the R254 or maybe "250, expect to walk 1.5-2 miles. If head for Church hill go N through it. First left, MAY be able to get onto a track that goes to within 800 yards of CP."

The end of a journey, a week long trip and this is the last point to do on the whole island known as "Ireland".

As you can see from my prep notes, I expected this to be very difficult. Google earth is pretty much a waste of time, from anything less than 5 miles up (!) all you get is a patchwork of coloured blobs. I've said it before and I'll say it again. USA <> the world guys. Get a grip on reality.

I tried many many of these single track roads, literally in some cases barely 6 feet wide and with grass growing down the centre of the "road".

At one point the road was blocked by a herd of young calves in the road - with nervous looking mum's off to one side, held back by a single strand of wire! Backing up was over a mile and very winding so I had to sit and wait nearly 15 minutes while they moved...

I then found another track, even more wild, completely unsealed, not drivable without a 4x4 which a Ford Focus certainly isn't.

Eventually I got back onto the "main" road and to exactly 8W, but just over 3000m or 1.8 miles or so to the South, as my notes had forecast.

As you can see this is REMOTE even by Irish standards, I had a 3-4 mile round trip through peat bogs, heather and up and down potentially a few hundred feet. Hours of daylight left - about 2 with bad weather closing in.

To go ahead in these conditions would just be dumb. Never mind I'll be back someday.

The 2008 Ireland trip comes to and end, all that remains is the 6 hour drive back to the cottage. Total mileage for the week ends up at 2,261.

In the Glenveagh National Park.