The Mountains Of Mourne

Hello to whoever actually reads this besides myself, many things are different since the last time I wrote; I've spent the last 11 months in Carlingford, Ireland, new job, new people, new places, new relationships. After a difficult winter period I wanted a fresh start, it was definitely not a "New Year, New Me" cry out but I needed to blow away the cob webs of my old life and shake things up again.

The actual subject of my writing today is our recent trip to the Mourne Mountains which lie North east of us here in Carlingford, well more east than north; they are the fantastic setting for much of the Game off Thrones filming and are rooted in many Irish tales. They are also pretty fantastic to go walking in. So of course that's what we did after several months of work, a break was well needed.
We got to Newcastle (the Irish Newcastle, confusing I know) by bus and wandered up the main path cutting up through the valley that most people use to transport themselves away from the hustle and bustle below. This led up to a saddle between Slieve Donard and Slieve Commedagh where we met the infamous Mourne Wall. The wall was originally built to mark the catchment area for the two reservoirs built in the Silent Valley somewhere below us. Why they felt the need to built a 22 mile wall in the mountains to mark this area I'm not entirely sure but it makes an interesting guide through the peaks. This wall was due to be our friend for the next few days as we were due to mosy along it up and down the various peaks squeezed into the 1,300 acres of land that are the Mournes. So off we went again, buffeted by the wind up Slieve Commedagh and over where we began to spy out a camping place.
Wild camping have many benefits; freedom, solitude, a cracking view. Downsides; on the side of a mountain, wet, boggy and most of all- WINDY! The wind kept gusting all night keeping us up, it was so incredibly windy even when we moved at 1am to try and squeeze a bit more protection from the wall, the wind blew round in every direction harassing our tent all night. It's safe to say we did not really sleep.



Morning time!
The area we were in was a little plateau and the first section of the day was to head to a cutely named Hare's Gap, now it was so steep and so slippy that we might have well have just sat down and slid down if it wasn't for the rocks popping up everywhere and the drop off at the bottom which we didn't see until further down. We approached and thought that looks a little steep. It was. Traversing around that we got down to the gap and there was an almost immediate uphill struggle, the first of many for the day.

Now after having walked around in the Mournes I found they have a very definite character in that they may not be the tallest or covering the biggest area but they have massive personality. To make up for lack of height whatever geological forces created them made them as unpleasantly steep as you can imagine, this is emphasised by the fact that the wall follows the ridges which undulate up and down. Steeply up and steeply down. Another defining character of the Mournes is their stunning atmospheric scenery for example Slieve Binnian has these incredible 'back castles' which are pretty much what they sound like. Huge towering stacks of rock that are lumped down its ridge, Slieve Bearnagh also had some fantastic ones.

Anyway after Hare's Gap, up, up, up we went to Slieve Bearnagh then down, down, down and up, up, up again to Meelmore, Slieve Meelbeg, Slieve Loughshannagh and then Carn Mountain. Now to the seasoned walker that is a good list of ascents for the day but we were super tired at this point as you have to bear in mind that the ridges went down a lot before going back up again to the tops. So you needed to lose and the regain so much height for each peak you did which for me who tries to be quite efficient with their energy (Aka walking slow most of the time) this constant loss and gain was incredibly exhausting. Not to mention the fact I've never really done a big walk on so little sleep before, it all culminated in us being a little fed up so as we got down into the valley. We decided to break away from the relentless wall for a while as it went up and over another peak at the base of the valley. So we just skirted around that and made our way down into the Silent Valley, where the reservoirs are.
By this point it was late afternoon and we decided on spending a little longer finding a good place to camp. Think smarter, not harder. So along the course of our route for the next day was Moolieve and nicely placed on top of that was a cross intersection of the wall. We knew the wind had been blowing westerly all afternoon and weather forecasts said it was due to stay the same throughout the night. This intersection in the wall would be perfect for creating a bit more cover than the night. So we made the last ascent of the day straight up from the valley floor and climbed up and over the wall and began our search for cover.
Now we wanted to stay in Ben's bivi bag as we thought it was the ridiculous shaking of the tent itself as an effect of the wind that kept us up so we wanted to eliminate that but sadly we didn't both fit in the bag and I didn't like the idea of just lying out in my sleeping just in case it got rainy or really cold throughout the night. In the end we squeezed our tent in a little ditch behind the line of the ridge and behind two walls and settled down. Absolutely pointless. Sleepless night, blustery swirling wind, early morning, but toasty warm though.

Click on me to take you to a collection of photos

Have you had enough yet? No? Good, here's an album of photos to interest you again

For our last day and for the sake of the boredom we decided to sack off the wall altogether as from that point it took a completely pointless route, basically too long and boring for us to be able to catch our afternoon bus. So we planned our own little route which ended up being my favourite day. Off we went up Wee Binian which looked like a wart on the side of Slieve Binnian, the next section up Binnian was almost a scramble, lots of rock steps and climby parts which was good to engage the mind off the fact I have a rather large rugsack and that I hadn't slept for two nights. Up at the top I had a wonderful poo with a view. I know in previous writings I have always detailed my loo with a view which you probably don't like to hear about but it is so freeing to just go where you are and sit and enjoy the view for a few minutes, really take it in. This time I was alongside the back castles I mentioned in front of a huge stone sticking straight up out of the ground, it looked almost like a neolithic monument stone put there on purpose. Expanding out in front of me I could the lowlands that quickly turned into the sea and to to the side of me was the Silent Valley and all the mountains arching round that we had done the day before. Weak autumnal morning sunshine was cast over it all and it just created such a beautiful scene that was I lost for a moment as was Ben who was sat a little distance away waiting for me to finish. We then walked down and around the back castles till we got down to the saddle between Binnian and Slievelamagan. We also avoided this mountain because Ben said it was an absolute slog. We did not fancy that so down we went to Ben Cromm reservoir and traversed the edge of it till the we got to the top. Then we went off road following a little path for most of the way or at least it looked like a little sheep path through the heather and the grass towards a track that cut a straight line across the top of the valley and would lead us back to our starting point. This path was awesome it was really level and cut across the top of one valley and continued along into the next valley then up to the saddle where we had started. Now I was quite paranoid about missing the bus so I took advantage of the flat and got a march on, putting on steam to make up some time.

Then after basically running back down the valley into Newcastle we actually made the bus with minutes to spare; we were so pooped when we got back that we got takeaway and went to bed. We had talked all day about crawling into bed, cuddling up and having the best sleep of our lives but as we woke up in the morning we hadn't even slept that well. How disappointing.


Despite the lack of sleep and the ups and down the Mournes are an incredible challenge for any level of walker, a beautiful place that reminds me slightly of areas of Snowdonia where you can look down from your lofty perch and see the sea spreading out. It might sound strange that our idea of relaxing and recuperating from work was to go on a three day hike but for us being out in the fresh air with just ourselves and the path in front refreshed our minds and reset our hearts to a new rhythm. Walking and being in the mountains is an incredible therapy which I would prescribe for anyone no matter how far you go. The simple pleasure of walking with the people you love is an experience not to be missed.

‘Nyika’ The Source of Springs

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As evidenced by the title, Nyika (neeka) national park means the source of springs. Probably because it is one of the highest point in Malawi, the highest point being on Nganda mountain which apparently lies at 8552ft above sea level which is rather spectacular. The plateau is in itself a remarkable place driving along bumpy potholed tracks you see an ever changing landscape of rolling hills and grasslands not too dissimilar from the Yorkshire moors at first glance. On second glance eland, bush buck (or Nyika impala) are seen, pine forests appear and rock outcrops pop out. One hill gives way to another until as far as the high eye can see are ranges that disappear north east and south into the park and west into Zambia, the park being on the border of Malawi and Zambia. Eruptions of small birds burst out of the grasses as our Izuzu blunders past and resettle again before we have a chance to see anything apart from a brown rump. I believe birds have a sixth sense for these things, evolution seems to have given them the ability to know when a camera is pointed their way. For the bird lovers a few we have seen both are; Denham’s Bustard, Francolin, Spotted Eagle Owl, Common Quail and an Ogre Buzzard. We also saw an unnamed black eagle and some sort of falcon in the morning. Other wildlife we spotted include; eland, roan antelope, bush buck, zebra, warthog (who are also very adept at running away from the camera), hares. And finally the jewel in the crown, during the night drive a pair of red reflective eyes amongst the long grass revealed a serval cat, an absolute joy to see. I have only ever seen them on television and to see one sat their yawning in the grass ready to start its night time hunting I was certainly chuffed.

We have been able to see a variety of areas on our drives through the park, setting off early we headed for Chisanga Falls this led us to some rough track and down into forested valleys which probably hid the few elephants that are around this time of year. This area had a hidden gem feel to it and it did reveal some wonderful views as well as a temptation to continue along the road to one of the most northerly of Malawi, Chitipa. We have also done one of the small northerly loops (still about 20km long) and we were immediately graced by more spectacular views, even more so that we had seen already. The area had such character, the blossom of colour and flora in the valley bottoms created mini oasis’ in the folds of the hills and surrounding the springs. A very familiar plant also lurks around which is a pest here, fern! Here thanks to the peculiar grey colour, it takes on a beautiful quality as its spattered around the contours of the hills making the landscape seem like an old man’s unshaven beard.

By this point I had taken over the reins of the car and was lead navigator of the tracks, bumps and grooves with success and even traversed my first rickety bridge, I was thoroughly enjoying myself bouncing along in charge of a huge 4x4 absorbing all the views (of which I will not stop going on about, it is amazing!). We headed round our loop and were rumbling toward our temporary home in the pine trees. Pine trees may seem an odd thing to find in an African national park however they were brought over by of the British (along with the fern) and are grown and cut down in certain areas of the park.

On the afternoon/evening drive we saw much of what we’d already seen but in slightly greater numbers and we were able to put names to the game which we had currently only been able to call antelope or deer thingy ma bobs. We parked up on a rocky outcrop to fully enjoy the sun set with biscuit and tea in hands, it did not disappoint. There peeking through the cloud was the unmistakeable African red sun, I think it is so red because of the dust here which gets everywhere!

Setting off again it was on to the spotlight and scanning the surrounding for any eyes reflecting the light, we saw more zebra and bush buck there was also a Denham bustard we scared away and a spotted eagle owl which was rather cool, a good moment but the great moment as I’ve said was the serval cat sitting posing for us. An absolutely stunning creature, we could see the spots and stripes and the big radar ears which blended it perfectly into the grass as well as equipping it for night time hunting. We didn’t see much more of note on the way back but I did stand up to poke my head out of the sun roof and properly admire the heavens laid out above us and the crescent moon casting its eerie unnatural light, spec-tac-u-lar!!!!!

The ultimate serenity of this place is brilliant and I want to come back in the rainy season when it is transformed into a rainbow of colours and lushness and the elephants come back up. The comfort and luxury of the lodge makes it an ideal holiday spot, even the campsite is in a great little spot if you do it on the cheap. The only challenge is to get your 4x4 up and down the dodgy track and from there it's plain sailing!

A Flavour of Malawi

So for you curious bunnies I thought I would try to give an essence of what it is like over here in the world of the Rift Valley. Well for starters, the geography of Malawi, it is a rather small eastern African country nestled quite snugly between Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania (little fact they pronounce Tanzania Tan-zay-nia) and is mostly dominated by the natural beauty which is Lake Malawi  or Lake Nyasa to locals. Lake Malawi is the worlds 9th largest lake and Africa's 3rd largest. It is also renowned for it's vast array of Cichlids, cute little colourful fish which occur in a greater variety of species here than anywhere else in the world. So it already sounds pretty great right?

Another fact I like about Malawi is that where we're situated in Mzuzu, is 4183 feet above sea level (around the height of Ben Nevis :O ) whereas the lake lies around 1500 feet. SO when we go for trips down to the shore we have a lot of downhill to cover!

Other than the bare facts about the place which already make it a naturally and ecologically varied place, is the incredible human element to the country. I have found that many Malawians speak English which makes travelling around and buying things relatively easy, they love to laugh and most definitely quick to get a good bargain for things. The general backward ways of Africa are of course present along with some amusing characteristics such as never appearing to fix cars so if you're daring enough to drive at night (and barely any cars have fully functioning headlights) the way to be seen is to put your indicator on so oncoming traffic can see you, mad right! The overladen lorries also make me chuckle trucks filled with god knows what piled high with people perched on top crawling its way up the hill and taking up the entire narrow roads blowing smoke and making a racket. Bumpy dirt roads, waving children, clay brick houses and fishermen in dug outs all go a small way to give picture of what it is like here.

What I like most is the incredible diversity of this place, the lushness of the lakeside with the easy supply of water and fish, the extensive forests and the rolling hills, the high plateaus and low valley bottoms, the beautiful lodges and traditional food. It is a place of many differences there are rich and poor areas, the rich live in brick house with tin roofs with walls surrounding and the poor live in small brick huts in little road side villages selling things like bananas, reed fencing and charcoal. You can buy so much here (last time I was here I was convinced I put on weight we got through so much food), people even come to the window if you're sitting in the car and offer you bananas, tomatoes, carrots anything.

So far we have been to places like Vwaza and Liwonde parks (oh the elephants!!!) Salima, Karonga, Nkhata Bay (this is where to get touristy items such as carved elephant, necklaces, figurines etc), Chinteche and Lilongwe but there are still many more places to go and so much I could say about this small but characteristic place. So many many more things to see about the weird, wonderful and downright barmy things that make up Malawi, but the only way to truly know what I am on about is to come here for yourselves.

Keep a look out for a bit more as we are going to Nyika next week a national park set high up on a plateau and is well known for birds (as is most of Malawi) grazing animals and the flora.


I highly recommend Malawi and it has made me eager to see the rest of Africa and learn their characters and taste their flavours now that this Msungu (foreigner, white person) knows her way around this little part of the continent, the rest becomes ever more enticing.

Click on this picture to see a selection of photographs from Malawi to see just how beautiful it is here

I KEYED YOU... I KEYED YOU NOT

The above title is an example of the wonderful humour I must endure from my other half, Mike. Although you kind of had to be there to find it funny. Be where you ask? In France of course what else does a girl do with a week of paid holiday, so to the Ardeche I went and I am bitterly regretting stepping on that plane to leave.

 

Mike and I have had an amazing week with our usual adventurous and slightly mad exploits from walking down pitch black caves in a gorge to swimming the rivers and jumping from strange little holes worn through the rock to plunge into the water below. I’ll confess I regretted that too because our ears were painful all night!

So it was to Nimes first after my rather interesting and extended journey to the land of the frogs and I swear I had landed in Rome; we visited a colosseum, a temple and gardens teeming with statues, pools and canals. The sun gloriously beat down all day and we had a jolly old framing the rock. It was a like a rock jungle for climbers! Then we had a journey down the gorge road ogling the sights from the viewpoints, before retiring to bed for a long sleep definitely for me and hopefully to wake up with repaired ears.

time. Back to the Segries PGL centre and I was introduced to many of Mike’s staff friends most of which referred to me as Mrs Hood which is quite unsettling but still a little amusing. The little liar that he was had booked us into one of the chalets for a week instead of bumming around in hammocks like I thought so we set up our little fort for the week and went off down to a mysterious place called Pont d’ Arc. And at first glance it was truly magical, an enormous natural arch framing the river beneath and on closer inspection from the water we found little holes we could jump from and a sort of chasm you could swim into that quite reminded me of a natural cathedral. Mike then took me up river hopping barefoot across the rocks to show me another of his treasures, (the name eludes me), but just up the river was a great little climbing venue with huge stalagtites and tufas (that's what Mike called them anyway).

Mike took me to the Cascades the next day, he said there were lots of crazy underwater tunnels, waterfalls and rock jumps and there most definitely were! We went for a swim, explored the tunnels although I didn’t go through a few of them as you had to dive down into a hole swim along and pop up somewhere else which didn’t fill me with confidence but it was quite funny watching Mike disappear and pop up a few metres away. Our tunnel exploration was put on hold however when I spotted a little scorpion on a wall so we swiftly escaped and clambered around some more before chilling out on the rocks

Not liking my accessorising 

Wednesday brought a new adventure, this time Cirque De Gens, the upper part of the Ardeche which has created an amazing horse shoe shaped gorge with some good climbing. We walked the circuit through the gorge and out and around Ruoms, we found a cave as well which of course we had a wander into. It was so cool, sitting next to the river I felt like we were in another world, it didn’t seem like France it was like an undiscovered land that we had to ourselves as all we could hear was the birds, the water and all we could see was trees, rock and ourselves. Once back at the car we had lunch and walked up to the climbing spot and we did a few routes which were pretty cool. When we got, well I got tired we headed back and planned the next day. 

We debated what to do with my last day and the obvious answer was paddle the river, do what people actually come to the area to do. So we grabbed some boats in the morning and pushed off in the flow. Now I haven’t paddled in forever! So it was definitely strange being in a boat again especially going down rapids solo which I have not done much of so Mike and his friends who we bumped into later must have had a good little chuckle at me squealing my way down a river they do every day, oh well. Mike played around in the rapids while I snapped piccies then we carried on through Pont d’ Arc to the rock jump they do with the kids. Then it was another short stretch to the get out where it was the start of our trudge back up the river (with a short stop off in a restaurant sharing a HUGE slab of beef) to the car. What do you need straight after a paddle? A climb! How right you are. So off we went to Salavas to do some climbing. Although to me the walk up to the place was steep enough to be a climb itself phew! I doubted the route Mike put me in front of at first, it looked a little blank for the 4 he was telling me it was however upon watching him go up and clambering up myself it had so many hidden jugs and brilliant handholds that were near invisible from below but from above it was like Leerdammer cheese. We did another few and I let Mike try a few harder ones I wasn’t bother about following him up before heading off to Vallon to see if the river photographers had captured us at Peaches B where they take tourists’ pictures (and also to eat pizza mmmmm). They hadn’t got us or we couldn’t find them but oh well so we went to the restaurant before heading back to the quiet little car park at Salavas to spend the night. Mike hadn’t booked us the chalet the last night thinking we could do something cool so we had a little camp out and watched the sky grow dark. Well we actually watched Bolt but that isn't very romantic!

Not much to tell of the journey home other than multiple naps, many loud children and heaves of people in London before alas back at Newland I found myself, longing to be back in France. I never thought I’d say that but I suppose when your heart is not with you but off somewhere else you will always desire to follow it.  

One week full of relief and relaxation

So with a determination to celebrate finishing all of our assignments and getting the hell out of Preston Izzy and I have jetted off to Tenerife for a week to soak in some sun and have a well-earned rest before the summer work season kicks off.

Sooooo, to start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start; we got trains from Izzy’s to Gatwick airport, excitement increasing especially as those jet engines revved and blasted us into the air!!! On landing we were greeted by a warm night and a dubious set of faces as we headed into the arrivals bit, we soon found our hostel pick up and we were off to Los Amigos Backpackers Hostel; go there it’s great. Acquisition of the free ear plugs was a definite though as in the silence of writing my journal I heard it, snoring.

Our adventure properly started! Me being me I got up early to be ready for the day and what an interesting one it was, we ended up with a Brummy who gave us a lift into the big city along the coast after saying he would take us to see the turtles we ended up jet skiing, oh well.

Oh yeah how cool are we, Paul the Brummy ended up on the back of my jet ski so I swiftly swapped to go behind Izzy as he get said I should stand up to go faster but I already felt like falling off so my bum was staying firmly planted on the seat. After getting left behind for being a granny driver I swapped to sit behind Izzy and actually enjoyed flying up over the waves and getting spray in our faces. We then went to a restaurant and had the first pint of the holiday and after Paul showed us a cool little cove we had a swim in before going back to the hostel.

Next day menu looked like this; a hike, sun, sea, spit roasting and sandcastles. We headed along the coast towards La Tejita heading for Montana Roja (Red Mountain) which was a volcanic lump sticking up from the coastline. Which has some great views, we didn’t realise just how mountainous the central part of the island was and it looked absolutely fabulous from the top. At the top the water at the bottom looked glorious so we contemplated jumping off which amused some tourists nearby, so suicide missions aside we meandered back down when Calamity Cora struck! I slipped and grazed my shin, it’s so shallow but actually looks really gross. We walked to bottom where El Medano sat which is infamous for kite surfing so of course when we were there the wind was not very strong so alas no kite surfers.

Then it was onto the beach to spit roast ourselves as we have dubbed the common activity known as ‘sun bathing’. We swam, made sandcastles with two others we bumped into from the hostel, had a wander around and got a lift back with them.

Another random day to come

It struck me the night before what odd places hostels are; I found myself between a Frenchie and an Italian while watching a Latvian and Hungarian laugh and joke in English whilst also trying to teach each other their own language. So odd.

Back to the day, it was a trip to the capital city in which we explored most of the day, thankfully it wasn’t very sunny as we had a few burnt bits from the day before, anyway the city was quite beautiful especially all the little plazas and gardens we found. On top of this, looking at it from the coast it spread out up the hillsides nearby creating a hilly sprawling metropolis of Spanish houses and buildings. And of course there was an ice cream slotted in there too, mmmmmm.

The jewel of the week happened on day 5 oh yes it was amazing. So Jordie a Brit at the hostel found a guy in English bar who was selling tickets for his boat The Must Cat a huge catamaran. So we managed to get ourselves booked onto a 4 ½ hour boat trip to go whale and dolphin watching!! Snorkelling with turtles, lunch and a free bar was also thrown in whuhooooo!!!

So we were picked up and taken to Las Galletas to meet the boat and off we went. Due to the unusual wind, we couldn’t get up to the spot where the turtles were as it was very strong and we were heading straight into it however we searched and searched and found some short fin Pilot whales which were apparently sleeping. They were amazing creatures, they were right next to the boat and we could see them under the water, even the baby they had with them who playfully (we hoped) slapped his tale on the water which drew some laughs from the boat. One of the crew likened him to a little kitten when I asked whether it was an aggressive action. I could have watched them all day with a big smile on my face but after a while we left them in peace. We saw another pod further on, which were much harder to keep track of as they were awake, the dolphins also proved elusive. They popped up every now and then I saw one right next to the boat but they kept disappearing the little tikes. We left them behind and they served lunch, so we ate and drank, I mentioned the free bar right?

We then went for a little snorkel just off a beach, it was a lot deeper than I thought it would be. One of the crew said there are very deep waters around the islands, one of the world’s deepest trenches I think he said which is why some of the whales stay all year around as there giant squid down in the depths which is what the Pilot whales ate. Apparently the males dive down for them and bring them up the surface where the squid turn into jelly which the whales eats, sounds edible right.

Anyway after snorkelling we were on the hunt again for whales, we were actually followed by another larger cruise boat and we must have been getting similar reports in as we went in the same direction searching for the whales. We went chasing after some blasts of water that were the unmistakeable sign of a large whale; at one point we were next to the cruise boat racing each other, the crew told us to get our oars out and paddle as their boat was much bigger!

We continually scanned the surface as we would see signs and go towards it only to have to go in a different direction the crew said they can stay underwater for more than 20 minutes so it was hard to find them. However our patience was rewarded when we saw the grey back and little dorsal fin of a Brides whale!!!! We were informed that there are only 90’000 left in the wild so it was a really great find. After this delight the whale disappeared again and it was time for us to go home too.

As a great end to our awesome day we went to Los Abrigos and went to a nice restaurant to eat fish freshly caught from the sea. It is literally so fresh that you’re sitting next to the harbour in the restaurant and you can see their boat moored in the harbour. Izzy and I went for a mixed fish grill which was huge there were about 3 or 4 whole fish on it and we did not manage to eat it all. Good fish good wine and good company ended a great day. We even got free shots of Limoncello which went down a treat, the waitress saw us sip them and said no no no, got us some more and had us down it in one!! It was good Limoncello, yummy.

Our last day L

What a day to end on! We were determined to get to El Puertito to where you can see the turtles, so we got a roundabout lift to Los Cristianos and then a bus to Playa Paraiso. We then wondered around as Paul’s directions to the beach was pretty vague so after asking a few people we finally found someone who knew what we were talking about and after walking through a gypsy camp and a nice little walk we saw the cutest little cove!!! It was full of swimmers and divers so we trotted down and walked along the rocks to set up our base camp. After sun creaming up it was time for the much anticipate dip. And we were well rewarded well not with turtles but the water was clean clear and fresh and there were some really pretty fish of several different varieties.

After a long snorkel around we got out and sunned ourselves before having a little dawdle around the tiny village which struck Izzy as Grecian in style. After some more swimming and sunbathing we headed back up for the bus. Then after food, a shower and a bag repack we headed off to the airport for 12 hours worth of travelling back to the UK.

 I will update this with piccies but I can't be bothered right now, shoot me for being lazy.