So I had been searching the internet to try and see if I could step up my climbing game and climb something sick. As I started going through all kinds of places there was one that peeked my interested: SLIEVE DONARD! Now this mountain lies in the very deep South East of Northern Ireland and has a summit that is just shy of 900m. As it was a great and sunny day, I figured it was time I’d hop on the bus to Newcastle! I woke up at 7:15 and went to the coach! Which showed up at 8. I guess it must have been about an hour of driving when I got to this spectacular mountain view of Newcastle!
Picture from the bus
I felt already very exciting seeing this view but it just got better and better. I was so happy that I was going to climb this 😀 !! Ow man and for late March the weather was great! 14 degrees is not too bad but especially if you put that into perspective for Belfast! Two weeks prior to this moment we still had snow and night frost! haha
Ow MAN! It was not even 9 o’clock yet but all of a sudden I was awake! We slowly drove into town and were dropped off near the station. I got out and immediately ran towards the beach! Aaaaah, the sea! 🙂 I LOVE the sea and the beach and have always a had a fascination for beaches. I was very socially aware of how awkward it must have been to see a guy in 14 degrees weather run towards a beach, weirdly taking off his shoes and just foot-bathing his feet in the water but I DID. NOT. CARE! It was so nice to have the fresh sea breeze through my hair. The smell of the sea and the drying seaweed on the sand. The sound of the crashing waves! It was so nice! It was so liberating :)! It was BUT the start of a great day!
Beach view!
I walked a bit through the town, it felt rather cozy, and slowly made my way to the starting point of the climb. Before all the climbing, I first had to make a sanitary stop somewhere though! As it was Sunday some places, including the public toilets, were closed! Luckily I found myself in a neat little coffee shop and the owner happily let me use the bathroom. I was refreshed and ready! I started my climb taking the atypical road and at the start of it, found nobody going my way too. I had however studied both the maps and the trails and was sure that I was going the right way. As it turns out there are 3 bridges you have to cross in a Z-like shape before finally getting to an intersection where everybody just heads up and over the rocks!
Newcastle!
The Rocky way up!
I was climbing solo and apparently the only one doing so. So many people were doing the climb as a family day trip or with friends enjoying a beer. Meanwhile, I was the only one going solo! I know it must have been just me, but it felt weird haha.
That does not mean that my climb was not totally beautiful and amazing! It sure was! In the mid-section of the climb you get to this open field, filled with small rocks and not lead by one designated, human-made path but by a small bunch of open spots and grass interchanging. The views that I encountered were so ridiculous that I think I will be posting more photos from here on instead of talking you all through my climb.
Views
SIMPLY WOW!
Slowing making it towards the end of the mid-section! I just looked back for a second.
So I was making steady progress and I had promised myself to not overdo it. So I took my moments, brought 2,5L of water with me and I had made sure to pack plenty of things to picnic with. I had 1 Twix bar, 1 apple, 1 banana, 1 pear, 6 sandwiches with ham+cheese+Cucumber+Tomato and a touch of BBQ sauce. I made it to the end of the mid-section and realised that my body was asking me to take a break. So I sat down somewhere quiet. Now when I do things I always do them randomly and I never go to the “mainstream” spots. Instead, I always follow my intuition and have it take me to the weirdest places without looking them up or thinking much about it. So I climbed over this “under construction” wall and found myself in awe of nature. There were literally 0 climbers sitting there and I could just not understand why they would not! I even called my grandparents with a mini video call to show them where I was!
Brunch with a view
I felt rested and ready for the last section of my climb! ONWARDS! So the last bit was the steepest. It was really steep and slippery and people were taking it very easy. I usually don’t talk about this but: I was so fast :D! There were so many people needing a break to huff and puff and yet I was going so fast! I wasn’t overdoing it because I was really going at my pace but I just kept that going! At first, I felt a bit desperate because I was not able to see the summit nearing it all. You see, you are climbing up with a certain gradient and the steepness of parts was so real that you could not really see what was lying beyond. But slowly I felt the steepness decrease and could see the summit approach! I made it!!!
Woohoooooo! I was so happy. There were only a handful of people on the summit and I just started taking pictures from every angle. I mean: IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE. I started an Instagram live for once to give it a go. I had 4 viewers but at least those 4 saw what I was seeing. Oh wow. I sat down somewhere with no people and lovers in front of me and just stared at the coastline. Believe you me, I was in awe of mother nature.
JUST WOW!
The Backside
A Panorama of the back views
A panorama of the left flank
My SUMMIT LUNCH VIEW
STUNNING PANORAMA
I think I spent about one hour on the summit. I enjoyed my achievement, I enjoyed my own strength for a sec and just felt incredibly happy with the ridiculous view that I had just witnessed. I even took a wee nap. 10-15mins. I think that, whoever saw me lying in the grass, must have witnessed a man sleeping with a MASSIVE GRIN on his face. I shared it with my loved ones and slowly started making my way down. It was slippery all right. And what was even worse: It started to hailstorm! haha if I had been an hour late I would so have not had this sick view!
I got down faster than I got up, of course it makes sense, but it never ceases to amaze me just how much! I was not, however, going to let the day end now! NO NO NO! I was off to another cool place. Allegedly one of the most beautiful woodlands of Northern-Ireland: Tullymore Forest Park. It was quite the walk to get there though. 3KM next to nothing but a road where cars fly by and you have no space to walk. I walked through some hilly area when I got to the last residence before the woods: I asked the man living there if I was at the right place because the gate looked like it was locked. What I was trying to make sure was that I was not trespassing through what could be the man’s private forest.
Lucky I wasn’t and I made it to the right place. I first walked up to the highest point of the forest ( 300m not too bad) and gazed down into the deep valley beneath me.
THAT’S WHERE I WAS HEADED!!!
I walked down and noticed I was nearly through rations. Just a last apple and 300ML of water. Alright. I had downloaded a grid map of the area and slowly walked my way through the longest trail of the forest with my map. I had not had any reception for two hours but I luckily had the map in my file storage :D! I walked and ran into some really nice areas of which I have taken my last few pictures.
A SMALL OUTSIDE BUNGALOW FOR THE RICH. IT WAS BUILT IN THE LATE 18TH CENTURY AND USED BY SOME VERY RICH MEN.
WHAT’S ON THE OTHER END?
IT WAS GETTING DARK AND SOON I NOTICED IT WAS PAST 6 O’CLOCK. Ow boy, my last coach home! I started setting a steady pace into it. I even called my mum and sister to talk me through a part as, you may have already guessed it, my feet were completely dead. I was so happy though. I had such an amazingly beautiful day. I soon made it back to the center and had 15mins to finish my last bit of water right by the sea. I got on my coach home and, when I finally did get home, crashed. I was really hungry so I finished my pasta but fell asleep at 9:45 only to wake up at 5 with an immense feeling of hunger.
WHAT A SATISFYING DAY. The last picture is my step counter. If your Japanese is not as fluent: The above tells you my walking and running distance. Below it, you see the total amount of steps I took that day 🙂 !! WOW :D!
FullJelmerAlchemist 