The birds are still singing

The governments of the world are at their wits end, employers are dismissing staff, many shops are closed, there are limited transport options, food shortages and general instability. We are daily bombarded with coronavirus news casts. Conspiracy theories abound and it is sometimes hard to know what or who to believe.  Although on the plus side there are encouraging stories of altruism like Donegal chefs providing free meals for the elderly.

And yet I look up and see birds still flying. The sun is still shining. The mountains are still beckoning me. And life goes on, albeit restricted in certain areas. So far we are still healthy. I'm still barefoot running.  And so I did - my first foray this year to Church Mountain

My track: 15 miles, 822m height gain

I met a number of groups and a few single folk - more that I would normally expect even for a sunny Sunday afternoon. Lots of traffic on the Wicklow gap road. You'll see in my photos three groups in the cairn on the top. And the Gardai had to close Glendalough because there were two many tourists flouting the distance rule.

And the future... who knows?  Some say the world will never be the same. And we have to believe that God is in control.

Looking back on the way up

Almost at the top - our lake in the distance

Two groups on the cairn

A third group on the right

View from the top

More views

Our lake

Scalp aka Slievecorragh

My path turned into a stream

More cars parked at base than usual

St Kevin's Way, Hollywood

He departed again into a mountain himself alone.

Mountains feature often in the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus. Like him I go to them to get away from the crowd. To be alone. And a bit of praying too. Yesterday I had the urge to get away again. I didn't think about the destination too much for fear of becoming chicken but, at the various decision points along the route where I might have turned back, I took the long way, and so made it to Church Mountain again.  Barefoot of course. I followed the same route up but this time I took a shorter route down.  One the way back, on the road between Hollywood and home, a driver stopped to ask me the usual "are you OK?". After answering in the usual affirmative he was interested enough to go on to ask me what and why and was duly impressed. "Fair play to you!"

Complete track just shy of 15 miles

Church Mountain detail

As usual you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

The farm track to the gap

Along the way, our lake in the distance

Church Mt on the left, Scalp straight ahead

The church ruins on the top, looking North

Looking North-West

Sunset in the making

Starting the descent

Steep descent to Drunreagh, rather overgrown

Here I joined the Drumreagh forest track

St Kevin (is it?) on the skyline dead centre

St Kevin's way, towards Hollywood

Sunday afternoon

It was raining when I started. My son tried to entice me from going with offers of tea and bakewell tarts but I resisted (just) and set off. Apparently my GPS was not so eager. Total distance a little over 10 miles.

The end of the storm

Part of Kevin's way, behind SlieveCorragh
the power lines go to Turlough Hill

Looking west

Descending towards Hollywood

St Kevin's way near Hollywood

Forest moss

Almost home again via Lugnagroagh