Ok, so yesterday was nearly the longest day (the summer solstice is actually today, but since I was in work for most of it, I’m not counting it). Yesterday, on the other hand, was damn near perfect. Not a cloud in the sky, temperature in the mid-twenties (celcius) and a great walk ahead of us. As I’ve mentioned before, the Galway Walking Club organize hillwalks every second week and flat walks on the alternative weeks. Yesterday was a flat walk day, so nine of us organized an unofficial hillwalk for the hills overlooking Lettergesh Beach (between Killary Harbour and Letterfrack). There are three hills that make a loop – Altnagaighera (Binn Fhraoigh), Garraun and Benchoona (Binn Chuanna) so we parked on the beach and strolled back up towards Binn Fhraoigh. Since it was an unofficial walk, the pace was nice and easy. In the end, only two of us went to the peak of Garraun, and we all skipped Benchoona (though I must admit it looked inviting). The picture above shows one of the group standing by Loughan, the small pond near the summit of Binn Fhraoigh (about 580 meters above sea level – there was a huge clump of tadpoles wriggling about at one end of the pond)
When we got back down, most of us headed down to the water for a quick dip (it had to be quick – it is the North Atlantic, after all). On the beach, hundreds of dead jellyfish shone like stones on the sand. In the water, there appeared to be millions more. There didn’t seem to be a cubic metre of space free of them. Now, I hadn’t ventured out too far where there were probably less of them, but I didn’t fancy a mouthful of squidgyness either, so I didn’t last long in the sea.
There was one other thing, though. Before we got togged out for our swim, the other walkers called my fiancee and I over to the back of one of the other cars. I wasn’t sure what was going on until I saw the champagne and glasses. The other walkers had brought a bottle of champagne to toast our engagement, leaving it in a cooler to chill while we went on the hike. A great finish to a great day.
A stunning photo!
Sounds Idyllic John, except for the jellyfish: the ones I encountered in Maryland were toxic as I recall…some sort of stinging rash would be caused by contact, so nobody went in the water when they were abundant. What do you suppose killed the ones you saw?
What a sweet touch the champers must have been; very nice of your friends.
Coincidentally I was on that beach on Sunday too – beautiful place – even with the jellyfish. P.S. Congratulations!