daytrippin’ – the mournes
June 4th, 2008
Sun, sand, sea… and mountains!
Of course I would love to get away to a country far far away for a few weeks over the Summer. To enjoy a a different culture, the sights, the photos opportunities, cheaper goods and so on. This year, unlike the last I will not be jetting off to the US of A or any place of such distance and value for money – not necessarily to live up to my consciousness of the environment’s poor health; foot prints, carbon, warming on a global scale and so forth; I may go farther next year – but due to the smaller, closer-to-home holiday plans I have been scheming, 264 miles could be the farthest this year distance traveled this year. With weather such as this, who needs to venture too far (I keep telling myself).
I have many daytrips, weekend-trips and general holidaying periods, to relax and not work, planned for the Summer, across all of Ireland, and possibly Scotland.
This weekend was no different than recent weeks, and hopefully many weeks to come.
Early on Saturday afternoon myself, Ronan (cousin) and Chris (brother) headed to Newcastle, Co. Down. Destination: The Mourne Mountains.
I had never walked up the Mournes before, barely seen them in fact. The last time I was in Newcastle was probably with school and remember it being a very crap little town with an outdoor swimming pool which is nothing but ridiculous in our climate.
Having said that, I was very surprised at how nice this town is now. Modernised and tourist friendly, and with amazing weather, though I guess they couldn’t help that.
After touching the sand, climbing on the rocks and taking in the superb view we headed on our hike up the mountain. It didn’t take long for the sweat to start dripping as we walked on a trail of excitement and colour, following the stream, complete with miniature waterfalls, for two and a half hours. It was beautiful.
Much to Ronan’s annoyance Chris and I stopped every few steps along the way to get the greatest shot of the water and the best view as we made our slow ascent and much the same on the way back down.
It was a very good day.
More photos on flickr.
