Ah-boo, for the journey included the terrible Valley of Certain and Awful Fatigue. That’s it pictured. Harmless looking, isn’t it? Pleasant, even. That’s how it fools you.  Then, it attacks your legs as you try, try, try to escape its clutches; fighting the valley and its bully-boy sidekick, Gravity.

Well, a bit anyway.

In fact, this is the Dargle Valley (a little further downstream, at Powerscourt, this itty-bitty brook becomes the highest waterfall in Ireland). To get here, we’d climbed the north side of Maulin and skirted along the ridge between that and Tonduff before dropping down into the valley. From here, it was a pretty steep climb—over thick heather and broken ground—to get back out and up to the summit of War Hill. Then, a relatively easy walk to the top of Djouce with its jagged outcrops before heading back along the Wicklow Way route, past the aforementioned waterfall and home again, home again, jiggity-jig.

Djouce is a bit of a tourist mountain in Wicklow. Its proximity to Dublin and the fact that there’s a very, very easy trail up it makes for a busy hill. I was well aware of its popularity and the fact that it’s a beautiful place which is why I chose this, slightly roundabout method of including it in a hike.  The Valley of Certain and Awful Fatigue is reasonably tough terrain with no paths to speak of and I felt pretty sure that this would avoid the requirement to smile politely at people along the way.  This was the case. The price was a heavy slog for an hour or so.

I did need to feign consideration towards a number of walkers during the descent, however. No day is perfect.

Thursday was supposed to be a nice, sunny day but, as frequently happens, the Wicklow Mountains hosted their own micro-climate. A damp and foggy micro-climate.  Cloud cover remained low for most of the walk and large parts of it were down to fifty-metre visibility with walking being done in compass-guided chunks of that length.  The steep scramble from east of the Lough was the most foggy but I’m proud to announce that my sterling navigational skills got us right on target.

Here and there, the cloud lifted for periods though and, fog or no fog, it was a very pleasant walk. Haven’t been there before but Lough Firrib is quite beautiful. Small and calm, nestled amongst bog and granite. Might visit again when there’s a hope of actually seeing the view from the top.

Hike Report
Going: Boggy but reasonable, very steep and rough final scramble.
Sandwiches and tea: Brilliant.

Last week, I took a walk up Derrybawn.  I’d been there before but figured that it might be a good route to get into the hills before all the snow had gone.  And it was a good route… more or less.

The route to the summit of Derrybawn – or, at least, some of the way – is a narrow, rocky track through deep heather.  Last week, with all of the melt-water, this was a narrow, rocky stream.  That is, the parts that weren’t covered in snow.

If you’ve ever walked over uneven ground, deep heather and sometimes-streams that have been covered in a thick blanket of snow, you’ll know that the going is slow and difficult. Although much of the snow had melted, there were still large drifts – some of which were hip-deep.  Not knowing what’s under the snow makes walking on it a bit nerve-wracking.

Still though, good fun.  I took a few photos along the way (mostly with no snow, oddly enough).  They’re on my Picasa page if you’re interested.  Like the day, the photos were mostly grey and dismal and I’ve played with them a little before uploading – mainly out of boredom.

Chalk up one for Gerry.  Gerry:1

Then, a couple of days ago, I attempted another trip to the mountains.

This wasn’t so successful.

Thick fog.  Thick snow.  The route I’d planned required crossing a large, de-forested patch and it was utterly treacherous while covered in snow.  No idea where I was stepping. Broken branches, tree-stumps, streams, mossy rocks, and many other delights made things very difficult – and a little dangerous.

In addition, the fog had reduced visibility to not much more than 50 yards.  With a lot of open mountain to cross, I called it.  It was a back-out.  I’m relatively confident in my compass-work but I figured it wasn’t worth the twin risks of broken ankles and getting lost in the fog.

Weather: 1

Rematch next week.  Hopefully.

Seefin is the most impressive as it’s the most intact.  Its passageway is more or less undamaged and you can see through its narrow aisle from its, rather splendid, doorway.

My brother, who accompanied me on the excursion, has researched this and tells me that the tomb was examined properly in 1932 or ’33 but anything interesting had long-since been nicked.  Bloody Indiana Jones.

As is normal for Ireland, the day was grey and overcast.  We did escape rain, although the going was boggy in places.  Seefin’s sibling, Seefingin was only another kilometer or two and also boasts a cairn.  The area around here is well stocked with neolithic tombs, stones, markers, barrows, and whatnot.  To prove it, here’s the view from Seefingin to yet another hill with yet another cairn.

Tea and sandwiches in the forest on the way back before a trek through a very, very rough forest track and home to curry and beer.

Another successful day.  More photos here if you’re sad enough to be interested.

The weather was reasonable (for Ireland).  Overcast for the most part and a bit of a breeze.  Good walking weather.  The going was steep and exceedingly boggy in places – ankle deep at times. Not a long walk, but good views and an interesting standing stone, inscribed with a cross.

Enjoyed it immensely.  Glad to be back.  Some more images over at my PicasaWeb.

I figured out how to mark a route on Google Maps so here’s our Sorrel walk.  Beautiful views over the reservoir and into the Wicklow mountains proper.  Rather typically, we had both forgotten our cameras so I was stuck with the crappy one on my phone.  I won’t bore you with landscapes.  Instead, have a skull (they’re oddly common in the mountains).  I believe it’s a sheep but my ovine physiology isn’t what it once was.

And, the highlight of any outdoor activity: a brew.  Boiling up some water on a little alcohol-stove burner (with improvised windguard to save carrying the whole thing around) for a cuppa.  Scalding tea and lovely sarnies with a nice view – who could ask for more.

If you look carefully, you can see my reflection in the teapot.  Steady, ladies.  Steady.

So Monday should have been a reasonable stroll of a couple of kilometers and an easy climb to get back into hiking shape.  Park on the Military Road in the middle of the Wicklow Mountains, an easy walk to the top of Fancy Mountain (really, that’s what it’s called – also known as Luggala).  Spot of view-looking from the top of the cliffs over Lough Tay and back down.  That was the plan.

Couple of issues though.

Firstly, it was foggy.  Really, really foggy.  Proper pea-souper stuff.  As there’s a trail of sorts to the top, I wasn’t too worried.  It made for pretty poor viewing once we (the brother and I) got there though.  Then, the greenhorn decides that he’d like to take a stroll down to the brook – in the valley to the southwest – and follow that back to the car.  Reluctantly, I agreed.  This was a mistake.

Now the fog made things difficult, but we were armed with compass and map so that was ok.  The map was pretty much redundant as there were no landmarks to be seen but navigation back to the road was the easy part (any bearing roughly northwest would do it).  The hard part was clambering over and through the heather and gorse and marsh and bog.  Holes abounded – real ankle-breaking terrain.  At one point, one of the brother’s legs disappeared down a hole and didn’t stop until his arse hit the ground.  Wet boot – nasty.  Glad it wasn’t me.

We made very slow progress.  Stopped at a giant rock for a brew and a sambo.  Then kicked off again.  Eventually, we made it back to the road and the car.  Tiring day, but at least the brother is unlikely to ever want to leave tarmac again.  Looking over our route on the map, I’d estimate we spent three hours covering about five kilometers.  Slow going.  Good though.  I enjoyed it immensely, although the fog didn’t clear in all the time we were there.

Here’s the area on Google Maps.  Rough route: Car parked at A.  Walked southeast to that lump overlooking the lake.  Then a descent southwest before a scramble back northwest again.  Not far – just difficult.