One very steep photowalk..

I really need to bin my spectacles. Not my day to day ones – just my rose tinted ones.

You see, after shooting a wedding in Newport on Saturday I thought I might as well stay overnight and go surfing the next day as I was on the surf friendly side of the country. The surf report was good. Nice swells and fairly frequent. Rated 4 stars out of 5. Excellent.

The surf report was wrong. The beach at Louisbourgh was completely flat. That’s that then. No surfing today.
I wasn’t quite ready to turn the car around and head back to Dublin just yet. It was a beautiful day and spending the best part of it in a car was not my idea of fun.

I looked across to Croagh Patrick. My mind instantly brought me back to last year when I climbed it to meet a friend at the top who was taking part in the Gale Force West race. Blogged about it previously here. “Ahh, Croaghpatrick…What a great sight.” I thought. “It wasn’t all that tough really. Great walk. I must do it again sometime.”

It wasn’t long before I found myself in the car park at the base of the mountain putting on my hiking boots. The last time I climbed the mountain I only had my little small camera so as I was on my own and I wasn’t going to be holding anyone up I thought I’d bring my proper camera and all my lenses. With all that and after adding water and some goodies into the front pouch for the top the bag was now pretty heavy – but sure, it’s only a bit of a walk – it wouldn’t be that bad.

Where’s that bin?

From around half way and the top looks as far away as ever.

I don’t know why but I found the walk so much tougher than the last time. I’m going to blame it on the weight of the bag and the walk being a bit stop-start with all the photo opportunities. I was sweating buckets! “Will I turn back? Sure I’ve already been to the top before, what do I need to prove? I’m here really just to take photos and sure I’ve taken plenty, I could go back down now” – All thoughts that went through my head on the way up. I carried on.

Every so often you meet people on the way down – they’d smile and say “Lovely day” – “Yeah, it is indeed”. A minute or so later, another chirpy walker “hello there, how’re you doing?” – “Good thanks, far to go? (knowing fine rightly I was a long way from the top)” – “no, no, you’re doing well, not far”. One and one they’d come down the mountain, with their big red sweaty heads, looking proud as punch, greeting you with beaming smiles and words of encouragement.

This is the path. Seriously.

After a while you soon discover that everyone is lying to you. All this talk of it ‘not being far’ and ‘you’re over the worst of it’ were rubbish. At one point I met a fella on his way down (one of those chirpy ones with the big red sweaty heads and beaming smiles). We exchanged the same pleasantries and then I asked him “much further?”. “Ahh, not far now, about 5 minutes or so, it’s just around the bend there”. He seemed genuine. Maybe he was different. Maybe he wasn’t like all the others. I liked him.

Five minutes later I got around ‘the bend’. I hated him. He lied to me.

It was around there that I overheard a lady telling a couple “You’re doing great! – Just 10 minutes to go!” she said in a big strong enthusiastic voice. I chipped in – “Oh, really? because the last guy I met said it was just 5 minutes to the top, and that was 5 minutes ago!”. She laughed. I hated her too.

Eventually however, I made it and all was forgiven. Those people were just trying to keep me motivated. I understood now.

At the top the views were incredible and the camaraderie was great. Evereyone is smiling as they looked at others arriving at the top. People were tucking into sandwiches and pouring coffee from their flasks. One fella even walked around and offered everyone he could see a home made bun from his tupperware box.

The highest loo’s in Ireland?

As I stood there drinking my water and eating every last item I brought to the top with me I spotted Kevin and Tina approach. The couple I passed around 10 minutes ago. “She was right – the only one the whole mountain telling the truth” I said to them. They knew exactly what I was on about and laughed. We got chatting and before long we’d become ‘mountain buddies’. Tina picked me some shamrocks that she’d found growing around the back of the church and I fixed Kevin’s camera. We walked back down together and we became those people we used to hate. “You’re doing great”, “You’re over the worst of it”, “Not far to go”. I was a natural. I nearly even threw in “It’s all downhill from here on” but caught my tongue just in time.

As we approached the bottom of the mountain we came across a pair of shoes by the stream. Just a pair of a shoes, all on their own. “Maybe they belonged to that girl who was doing the walk in her socks?” we thought.

5 seconds later…..

Sticks can really help. Sticks with shoes are incredible.

Ohh how we laughed

It was a beautiful day, I met two lovely people and regardless of all my moaning, it’s really wasn’t all that bad. I’d do it again in a flash.

Now… where did I put those spectacles?

To see the rest of the shots from the day click here on on any of the images above.

Dave

Post Update – March 30th 2010
I took some video on my way up and made a little video. You can either watch it here or follow the link and watch the big version on Youtube. Watch out for the cutest little dog at the end – ‘Skittles’ who I thought was a pup but was actually 8 years old! I could have taken him home.
Music by Grandaddy.

View in Youtube here