roevalleyramblers go to lenanne

On Friday April 27^th a motley crew of five headed down to Lenanne,near Galway. Well to be honest between Westport and Clifden. Rather than hire a car James Agnew kindly offered to use his car-so a BIG thank you to James. On the way down Anthony pointed out that his stick was in his own car,and his wife was on the way back from Derry so we had to watch out for his car to flag her down-it worked.

We were staying in the same hotel as last year-so we knew to expect good service and a good deal. We had glorious weather all the way down-we had our lunch break just outside Sligo (I think)  off the road. There was a local man working on a vegetable plot-well at least we thought it was a vegetable plot-he could have been burying things/stuff for all we knew. He came over to chat to us and our Polish member Klaudius  said that he could not understand a word that he was saying.

My horoscope that morning said that a decision to travel would prove fortuitous and that I should buy a lottery ticket in the country I was going to. So when I got down there I got 2 scratch cards and a 2 lucky dips in that nights lottery.

Due to the glorious weather on the way down we got glorious views of the stunningly beautiful Delphi Valley and Ashleigh Falls. I envy people who see this for the first time.I know what is coming but the first time you see it your mouth drops open in amazement. We got to the hotel in time for a round of drinks and the last ordering time for dinner.

The next morning the weather was just as great as the previous day. Our goal was the Glencoughen Horseshoe –or the 12 pins. I have seen these in the distance as I cycled from Lenanne to Clifden a few times-and now I was for climbing them. The drive  there also had stunning scenery and was a great appetizer for what was to come.

We started the walk around 10:00 am and as we got out of the car I jokingly told Anthony not to forget his stick-and yes 3 minutes after starting he realized he did.

It was an hour later I realized that I left MY stick in the car-too late for me to go back.

The favourable weather enhanced the stunning views. We hit the first peak-Derry-Clare (677 m) at about 12:45,then Benn Corr (711) at 2:00pm. We met another walker and Klaudius went over to talk to him. He remarked on having an international meeting as he was German-to which I told Klaudius that him talking  to US was international.

Then things started to get tough, the descents were pretty steep and were nothing but shale/screens and we were just sliding down trying not to fall over-it was pretty scary.

I actually fell a couple of times and staved a finger. I managed to hit the wall as the saying goes and almost devoured a packet of jelly babies in one mouthful for a much needed sugar boost.

We met a group of other walkers coming towards us-one of them-who looked as shattered as I was said "Why do we do this?" and I said "You're asking the wrong person here mucker."

Two other members were as shattered as I was and were fed up with the precarious descents. They looked at the map and discovered and easier route-the 3 of us went for this one.And the next climb was almost like a wall. The  ground was pretty dry but Anthony managed to find the only wet patch in Connemara and tripped in it.

The walk ended around 8:30 pm and we got back just in time for last orders in restaurant-in fact the chef stayed on a bit longer for us. And we were ready for it.

To be honest if I had known what was a head of me I would have been better prepared-taking a bigger breakfast to start with and would have brought my energy gels. Despite the scary bits-it was an enjoyable trip. The experience/craic was great-wish I could say the same about the company (ok Brendan?).

Incidentally-I did not win the lottery or anything on the scratch cards. For those of you on Face Book some photos are on the club’s page there.They’re also on the club's flickr page-none of mine in there yet though.

Link to the club page   http://www.flickr.com/photos/roe_valley_ramblers/

hope that works Marni!