The Sweat was definitely pumping today! We headed to Kerry after Coderdojo, annoyingly got held up in some rally traffic around Killarney. Johnny left his car at Cronin’s Yard, where we picked him up before heading to “The Head Of The Gap” on The Black Road. By 3:30 we had set off up the boulder-sprawled slopes of Drishana. From Drishana, we headed towards our first mountain that was worth points in the championships: Cnoc na dTarbh. From there, we headed on in the same direction to Cnoc an Bhráca.
Our 3rd mountain of the day was Cruach Mhór, which has a distinctive square grotto marking it’s top. We were then faced with to most challenging task of the day. Logging, and more importantly, getting safely across The Big Gun, widely regarded as the most difficult to reach of Ireland’s major mountaintops.
With a lot of scrambling and over and backs, we managed it! From there it was plain sailing, logging Cnoc na Péiste, Maolán Buí, Cnoc an Chuillin & Cnoc na Toinne as we headed for Cronin’s Yard. We had planned to descend via the Zig-Zags, but seeing as it was such a nice day we opted for The Devil’s Ladder instead.
We arrived in Cronin’s Yard by 22:00, concluding round 1 of The All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships, earning a final 75 points on the Eastern Reeks Ridge securing top place on the leaderboard. We had racked up a total of 631 Points In Round 1!
When we were returning to collect the car later on we had to explain “our movements” to “An Garda Síochána” at Kate Kearneys Cottage as they were restricting traffic to the Black Road as a result of some “messing” up there earlier by so called Rally Fans!
