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| The mountain part highlighted in orange |
Today's challenge was to go beyond Lobawn. The path that I transversed
last time will take you from the village of Donard all the way to Lugnaquilla, the highest of the Wicklows. I didn't get that far, I turned off the beaten track at the summit of Table Mountain, thence to Three Lakes (actually there are only two), Arts Cross, a small segment of St Kevin's way and then back via the lane behind Knockalt.
Statistics: 24.2 miles, 3.7mph, elevation gain 1266m. My longest trek barefoot yet. Not that I was jogging all the time.
The mountain part was awesome and definitely worth the toil, even if the return road work was hard going. I took with me a small lump of cheese (Ali's idea), two eggs (Cadburys) and 600ml of water. I asked a householder for a refill on the way back and was glad that I had. It was a hot day.
If you are not too bored to check my photos (remember this is my blog and I do what I want, and I want these photos as a record and aide memoire of my ordeal) you'll see that the War Dept pillar on
Lobawn is not the only one. In fact they turn up at other Wicklow summits apparently. They must have had a lot of them to get rid of after the war. And that mud (boggy peat) is hard to avoid and in any case is sort of irresistible and I reckon helps combat sunburn. Numerous dips on the descent helped to remove the evidence (in case any fellow-hiker might think I was mad - but I met not a soul on the mountains, all of them to myself). But I still needed a long shower when I got home.
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| Looking back to a Very Muddy Spot |
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| Lobawn ahead |
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| Looking back at Lobawn, another granite marker |
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| Another granite column |
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| Table Mountain in the distance |
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| Yettanother granite column |
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| Summit cairn, Table Mountain |
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| Lugnaquilla in the distance |
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| Our lake, from Table Mountain |
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| Three Lakes from Table Mountain |
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| Green goo in the "dike" from Table Mountain |
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| More of the "dike" |
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| The larger of the two Three Lakes |
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| It was shallow and stony - I declined to swim |
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| 5 minute break for lunch in a sheltered spot |
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| Art's Cross in the distance |
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| Art O'Neill's Cross |
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| Starting the steep descent from Art's Cross |
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| The memorial at the base of the steep descent |
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| Looking back at the steep descent |
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| I took a dip in the Glenreemore book |
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| Same |
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| St Kevin's Way |
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| Another dip, this time in the Kings river |
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