Knockmealdown Crossing 2009

Knockmealdowns 2009

Knockmealdown Crossing 2009

Well in honest eagerness I wore the shorts again this year....... and guess what......? .......it rained.......again! .....Still - I had the presence of mind to at least wear a pair of leggings over a pair of legs with a similar colour to boiled chicken so perhaps things were for the best.

Alas the second Knockmealdown Crossing 2009 was to suffer a battering of weather untill well into the afternoon. But Ireland being Ireland, a totally different day would eventually win over so as all could be guided down with at least good visibility, which is so deserving of this lovely part of the world.

The Lonliness of the Long Distance Hillwalker

Doing a spot of homework afterwords I curiously noted how the area of Sugarloaf Hill and Knockshane is a natural funnel which helps to explain what I thought might be hallucinogenic visions of rain driving upwards! The trek to the summit of Knockmealdown was truely savage with roaring winds, battering rain and no visibility. Later travelling home and passing some local dentist - I would find myself wondering would he be willing to extract all of my teeth without anaesthetic........ the reason for this being that my lifetime's most painful memory would not be of something mountainous!

Atrocious weather continuing........and being a discerning breed of gobshoite I would spend a good twenty minutes looking for the next checkpoint at Knocknafallia (absolute whiteout at this stage!) to later discover that this checkpoint had to be pulled.......the weather was that bad. Of course I no doubt had been informed of this, but most probably wasn't paying attention.......reminds me of school really......somethings never change. Wasn't sure if it was appropriate to cry or not when around an hour or so later whilst looking back upwards - all the summits would find themselves part of a lovely day.

Having Fun Yet?
The day did thankfully change and a "grand potter" would dictate the rest of the day.

Ever friendly and helpful stewards continued to encourage and guide all of the days walkers, (there were three variations) down from a great days challenge which was most certainly both full and varied.

At this stage the now famous Newcastle Stew is part of the "hillwalking hall of fame"........up there with that looper who did the Lug Walk ten times or something in the one day.......(promise you Tom I'm only joking .......really.......ish) and that like the stew everything presented and organised by the Peaks Mountaineering Club was executed to perfection allowing all a memorable and very enjoyable day. Many Thanks.

Jim Holmes.