If you are reading this, the chances are that you didn’t head out on the Maumturk Challenge this morning.
Yesterday, a bunch of us from the Galway Walking Club had plans to complete the Glencoaghan Loop of the Twelve Bens. Alas, though there was perfect weather for the hike on Thursday, heavy rain overnight and poor visibility meant that plan was too ambitious for the Good Friday.
Instead, we decided to hike as far as Ben Corr and back. However, one of our party was feeling unwell, so some of us only got as far as Derryclare mountain itself before returning. We might have been less sympathetic had we known at the time that ‘unwell’ meant ‘hung over’. As usual, it was a magical trip – rain gave way to snow above 500 metres and though we ascended in thick cloud, the skies cleared as we descended to the usual breathtaking and dramatic panoramas.
The picture above shows our walk leader and another member of the club, Aine, at the summit of Derryclare yesterday. Áine won’t get much time to relax this weekend. Today, she, along with the husband, planned to do the first half of the Maumturk Challenge and tomorrow, she will go on the official Club walk around Mount Gable [between the lakes of Mask and Corrib].
I recorded a little bit of video on the hike yesterday [I brought a Canon 7D] to give a flavour of what is was like.
