It was the week-end before the Lake District adventure. We needed to do some training so that the hilling walking muscles would be slightly used before arrived. As it turned out, this served us well. It was a fine day - though very wet underfoot. We drove to the Sally Gap and did the relatively quick and easy Gravale. It’s the first step on the middle section of the Lug walk. The more complete day would include the much more difficult (Duff Hill a very rough and steep ascent), followed by the real achievement of Mullaghcleevaun . However we knew our limitations and did not have such lofty objectives.
Wicklow, originally uploaded by M+MD.
Wicklow looked great in the bright sunshine and we were soon enough on top of the first unnamed summit. I recall that the path off of Gravale is a liitle unclear - but we fell to the temptation of taking the direct route toward the summit we could see. The map wasn't much help, though it did keep us moving towards the left and the objective was indeed Gravale, but the route was not the best. In fact we should have stayed very left. In that way we would have found a path that took us along a turf bank and lead us quickly down to the saddle before the final pull up to Gravale. As it was we veered to the right of this path. It made for some interesting cross bogland walking - a bit damp with lots of heather banks and up and down. As we progressed we could see the saddle and the start of the last leg of the climb - but the going was slow. However it was serving its purpose - this was a training expedition and not the pursuit of any specific objective!
As we approached the saddle from the side we ran into some pretty wet terrain. We managed our way around that - testing the waterproofing of our boots in the process. Just as we approached the last stretch we came to a pretty innocent looking piece of peat. Senan was up ahead and decided to go for it. He almost made it through but he found that the very last section was more like quicksand than peat. Soon he was stuck in the peat up beyond his knees! Of course he was rescued and lives to tell the tale. Katy was holding the camera and despite Senan's pleadings "will you stop taking pictures" and "it’s not very funny you know" she managed to capture the whole rescue in half second steps!
The evil photographer!, Uploaded by M+MD.
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