Snowdon & Ireland… Day 3
14 September 2024
By the time we were up on what effectively was our day three, it was a quarter to 6 in the morning and, as usual, we were ready to go. At least in the room. None of us had bothered to watch outside. A powerful storm with sideways rain was hitting the hills. It was like a power shower. And it took the 5 minutes that we needed to cross the road to the car park and to load the car to get us (and the car) completely drenched. The waterproof gear we put on was on top of wet tops and bottoms. We sat in the car for a good 15 minutes to decide whether we should abandon or continue. With no mobile communication, we did not know if the weather was going to improve or stay bad.
In the end, Jason went to talk to the car park warden tucked up in his rainproof sentry box to ask for his advice and a weather forecast. The conclusion was that we would go up but through the longer and less dangerous path of the Miners’ Track. Believe it or not, it rained so hard we took two umbrellas, and I wore a double layer of waterproof pants.
The Miners’ Track follows a beautiful valley with an easy incline which continues for 6 kilometres and gets to just below the ridge of the Snowdon summit. This is where the steep climb starts. The scenery is waterfalls and lakes.
The weather did improve a bit and a couple of hours in, the shower became drizzle. The steep uphill, however, had become a river; the steps up, little waterfalls. We were effectively climbing the bed of a small burn, in spate. By the time, we reached the ridge at the top of the mountain, the fog had also settled in. We were lucky there is a railway track taking you up Snowdon. We used it on the ridge to find our way up to the summit.
Another hill with supposedly the most spectacular mountain views of the UK, we saw very little. After the routine photo proving we were there, we went straight back down the valley. We covered the 13km round trip in just 3 hours and a half. And having started early we had the time to stop at the hostel and use their dry room to change from our wet clothes and to try and dry our gear for an hour or so. We had been wet to the bone.
The good news about our fast ascent of Snowdon meant we had a bit of extra time before catching our next ferry, which was just an hour away, and would take us from Holyhead, North Wales, to Dublin. We had therefore time to stop for another supermarket shop and make new provisions of bananas, avocados and tomatoes (and ham and cheese); and to eat sandwiches in the car park overlooking the Holyhead Marina, which we also used to lay out our wear and to dry the water accumulated in the car.
This is maybe a good time to mention the “three bags” game performed routinely by my Aussie colleagues. Both Sonia and Jason had created their little alcove in the car, near their seat, where they kept their own provisions of clothing, food, water and personal items. All in separate bags – three at least. Every time we stopped or finished a climb, they would start opening all their bags and reorganising their kit moving it from one bag to another until the supposedly proper “organisational structure” was achieved; even though they never remembered how they split their items and kept missing them. It must be a national endemic trait to keep provisions and a change of clothes always stashed away and ready to go! Who knows!!!
The 5pm o’clock ferry arrived in Dublin at 7pm. At 7.30pm we were in the hotel (a double room with an extra baby bed…). At 8.30pm in a pub in Temple Bar for our traditional Guinness and pies (not Jason, he had a chicken Caesar and water!!!). At 10pm in bed. If day three had been long, day four was going to be even longer. The plan was to drive two hours north to Northern Ireland, climb a hill; and then drive 6 hours south and diagonally across Ireland to its most southwestern corner for the last of our 6 peaks.
I guess you get the routine. Up by 5.30am; in the car by 6am. We were on our way. Slieve Donard is the tallest peak of Northern Ireland, and the climb starts from the car park on the beach of the seaside resort of Newcastle, one hour or so south of Belfast.
It is official, there is no border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. At least we did not find it and we only noticed the crossing when the price of petrol changed from Euros to pounds.
At 8am on a Tuesday morning in an empty car park, we did manage to find a dog walker to whom we asked directions and later a couple of climbers. The weather was cloudy but there was a hint of sunrise by the time we started. For the first time rather than rock and treeless hills we started in a forest with a nice river rolling up towards the hills.
As per tradition, we could not see our peak from the bottom, even though we were very close to the sea. We followed the river into a valley bowl with hills on both sides and a saddle in the middle. We climbed to the top and hit a huge stone wall created to act, I believe, as a wind barrier across the pass. This mini version of the Big China Wall continued up both the left and right hills for several hundred metres and disappearing into the clouds.We took the left wall and started following it up. After 30min of steps and clouds a ray of sunshine revealed a little tower indicating the top of Slieve Donard.
It was very windy. We hid behind the tower for a few minutes and then started descending. As in the past climbs, by the time we were going down, most climbers, who had benefitted from a normal night of sleep, were coming up. Shame we could not copy them; we were on a schedule
By the time we hit the car park, the weather had actually turned; a bit of sun was shining, and we did manage to get a glimpse of the peak of Slieve Donard.
The drive to Dublin and then towards Cork and County Kerry was long. The monotony of travel broken by a stop at a Services station, the sandwiches prepared by Sonia and a selection of Marco’s music provided by Jason. But we did manage to get to Killarney, on Lough Leane, by 6pm. Killarney, as the gate to the Ring of Kerry, was quite touristy but in a pretty way, and to our surprise, I had picked up a decent hotel with a decent size room. After a shower and a meal, we did go for a town walk where in between the 10+ Irish pubs and the 10+ stores selling Irish weaved wear, we discovered the funniest store of all, selling a variety of rubber ducks!!
As it was our last day, the next morning we had a lie in. Up at 6.30am; in the car at 7am; we reached Cronins Yard, the start of the Carrauntoohil’s climb, at 07:30am. We were walking by 8am. The hike to the top of Carrauntoohil features what was probably the most technical section we encountered in this climbing trip, the so-called Devil’s Ladder. Advertised in all the media as very dangerous, it was a steep galley which required some good level of bouldering. We demolished the walk in and ladder, and the subsequent scree up the top in 2 hours and completed the whole 13.5km walk in less than 4 hours. On top of the hill, being in Ireland, there was a cross under which we took our final picture – six out of six. Again, the weather was not with us, and we met rain all the way in and fog at the top. Luckily the rain was not as hard as in Snowdon and we made it back almost dry.
Back in the car park, the “tea room with showers” at CroninsYard had opened, and after buying a cup of tea and some cakes, we liked the local lady so much that we even bought the t-shirts announcing we had climbed “Carrauntoohil, the tallest mountain in Ireland”: as a reminder of our 6 peaks expedition.
By 1pm we were ready for the final drive back to Dublin. Though not before stopping in Killarney, in a nice petrol station come cool supermarket where I wanted to go to buy some nice rolls I had seen in the morning; but, in fact, the Aussies ended up spending half an hour and buying half of the shop. And it was there that I came to realise that the Aussies actually like their shopping!!!
Sandwiches in the car for probably the last time. Repeated stops for facilities, including the toilets at Cashel Castle – because there are no castles in Australia or buildings older than 200 years for that matter! They had to see a castle! We reached Dublin by 7pm.
Our last dinner was in a steakhouse on the river. The hotel being next to the Dublin Port, it was easy to make the 8am ferry back to Holyhead the next day. And from there the drive home was only 2 hours. The adventure finished. Except we did have to stop in Chester to show the Aussies another old town and some medieval walls (which again they had never seen).
5 days climbing, 6 days travelling, thousands of miles driven and kilometres walked. Some beautiful sun and a lot of rain. We were still laughing by the time we finished!! It was time to open the cellar at home and find that celebratory bottle/s of wine. Thank God, Rachel, Jason’s wife was joining us for supper that evening, and she drinks!!
PS: The Anzacs biscuits lasted till our 4th peak, the brownies a day longer and we made it a must to finish the jam tart on the last ferry!!
