fun (???) times in donegal
hello all.
this weekend i set out with lofty ambitions and big plans to go north and be an outdoorsman. specifically, i was off to donegal, to a tiny little town called dunlewey, in hopes of climbing the highest mountain in donegal, mt errigal. this is the mountain:
sadly, as you will soon hear, this is about as close to the mountain as i was able to get, and my affair was far from lofty.
the easy part of the trip included taking the bus to letterkenny. this is about 40 km away from dunlewey, and as far as my plans of the time took me. four hours later i arrived in letterkenny, and inquired about busses to dunlewey. the man at the station informed me that there was a bus at 6:05 (it was currently around 2:30), and it could take me to a junction about 1.5 miles from dunlewey, from there i could walk. unperturbed, and knowing that this was not the only bus company in the area, i headed to the tourist information office, about a mile away. there i was informed that there were more busses, but they would also only take me within 2 miles of the tiny town. still full of gusto, i agreed, and headed back to the bus stop to wait for a bus at 4:15.
i wandered about for a while before realizing i was not in the part of letterkenny with things to do. i settled on getting a convenient store sandwich and started to wait for the bus, reading ulysses. 4:15 came and went, and no bus to be found. then, two busses came out of nowhere, but neither one from the company i was waiting for. at this point, i was thinking that if i left now, i could go back to dublin from letterkenny, and be home by 9 or so. however, i thought i would regret it if i did, and so i persisted. i decided to ask the driver of one of the busses if he went anywhere near dunlewey. the driver (a friendly chap) informed me that he could drop me off right in the middle of the village. delighted, i got on the bus, and settled in for the second leg of my trip.
upon arrival in dunlewey, i was dropped right by the road to the lakeside center, where i was to get information about climbing the mountain, and right next to the backpacker's lakeside hostel, where i planned to stay the night. so far, things are looking up. not for very long, however, as upon further inspection, i found the hostel closed up, completely empty (though still furnished), and shut down. finding a back door open, i stored that info in the back of my mind as a possible location to crash. i then discovered that the lakeside center was closed early, as it is the off-season, and would not open the next morning until i had planned to be back on the road to dublin. a slight problem.
i then went to the pub to inquire about other places to stay. i was informed of another hostel near the service station (the pub and the service station, by the way, basically composed the village in its entirety). i headed to the other hostel, only to find that it was shut down as well. indeed, this was the hostel i had originally tried to book, but found it closed. upon inquiry at the service station, i found that both were being torn down in order to build a new hostel, a better hostel, but for now, nowhere to stay. in my searching aroung the other hostel, i happened upon what appeared to be the path up the mountain. it looked easy enough, and i had climbed harder, and so, spirits lifted, i returned to the service station to buy supplies. you see, i had borrowed a tent and a sleeping bag from a friend, and so i had prepared for the camping contingency. so, freshly prepared with another service station sandwich, and a package of 6 fruit scones, i headed off up the mountain.
i didn't make it very far. as it turns out, there is a reason no one else had come to climb the mountain for a good month. it gets wet. so wet, that i was practically hiking in a stream or a bog the entire time, and not only did my pants get muddy and soaked, but i couldn't even take one step without squishing, much less find a suitable camp site. i went up the mountain just a ways, took a few pictures, and then decided to wise up and go find a place to spend the night. asking again at the service station, i found that there was in fact no place in town to stay at all, and if i wished to sleep in shelter without breaking and entering, i would have to go to the next town over. i conceded my defeat to my hopes of hiking, and was soon getting into a cab, to go to bun beg.
in bun beg, there are no hostels, but there is a hotel that has off-season rates. this is still not nearly as cheap as hostel rates, mind you, but i really wasn't in a position to argue. after being shown my room, i promptly decided to soak in the tub as i consumed my purchased sandwich, and three of the scones. being now clean and having eaten, i found out that the bus to letterkenny the next morning was at 7 am, and the next one being around 11 am. the fun continues. realizing my wallet was getting quite light, i decided to go to an atm, and then settled down at the hotel pub.
the two hours i spent at the pub were by far the most enjoyable of the trip. besides myself and the barman, everyone else was over 50, and that's being generous. luckily, they were also drinking quite heavily, and i was soon accepted as one of their own. although their accent was remarkably hard to understand (the hardest i have found yet in ireland), i managed to hold several conversations with about 70% success. after a few beers, i found i could comprehend quite a bit more, and could even adapt to a semi-colloquial accent myself. our conversation ranged through quite a bit of topics, from sports (i am a hurling fan myself, though most there were gaelic football fans, or hung up on the world cup qualifiers), music (we both liked van morrison and agreed that irish country-western was far superior to american country-western), and education (personality vs. intelligence in a conversation partner). i was soon known as "the american who's going to write a book", and soon after learned not to try and correct the point.
after things died down, i retired, setting my alarm for the alarming hour of 6:30 am. i then read some more ulysses and went to sleep. kind of. i did not sleep well, and soon found myself out in the cold of the morning waiting for a 7 am bus to take me to letterkenny. along the way i saw some pretty scenery, but was really just glad to be sitting down in a warm location. upon arrival in letterkenny, i found that i had missed my connecting bus, and would have to wait another three hours for the next one, or i could stay on my current bus (a private coach, and not my prepaid bus), and go to dublin then. i chose the latter, and was on my way home, but not before i paid up again.
i got home to dublin, collapsed for a while, showered, ate, and resolved to do nothing strenuous for the rest of my life. so far, it's going ok, but i think the weekend is a much more realistic goal.
so that was my trip, it was certainly an adventure, i will give you that. here is one more picture that i took from the foothills, which is ok. i didn't even end up keeping most of the pictures. go figure.
so, as i relax for the rest of the weekend, i leave you with this advice: make sure you have a place to stay before going anywhere, and don't think about camping in northern ireland after september.
cheers,
scott
this weekend i set out with lofty ambitions and big plans to go north and be an outdoorsman. specifically, i was off to donegal, to a tiny little town called dunlewey, in hopes of climbing the highest mountain in donegal, mt errigal. this is the mountain:
sadly, as you will soon hear, this is about as close to the mountain as i was able to get, and my affair was far from lofty.
the easy part of the trip included taking the bus to letterkenny. this is about 40 km away from dunlewey, and as far as my plans of the time took me. four hours later i arrived in letterkenny, and inquired about busses to dunlewey. the man at the station informed me that there was a bus at 6:05 (it was currently around 2:30), and it could take me to a junction about 1.5 miles from dunlewey, from there i could walk. unperturbed, and knowing that this was not the only bus company in the area, i headed to the tourist information office, about a mile away. there i was informed that there were more busses, but they would also only take me within 2 miles of the tiny town. still full of gusto, i agreed, and headed back to the bus stop to wait for a bus at 4:15.
i wandered about for a while before realizing i was not in the part of letterkenny with things to do. i settled on getting a convenient store sandwich and started to wait for the bus, reading ulysses. 4:15 came and went, and no bus to be found. then, two busses came out of nowhere, but neither one from the company i was waiting for. at this point, i was thinking that if i left now, i could go back to dublin from letterkenny, and be home by 9 or so. however, i thought i would regret it if i did, and so i persisted. i decided to ask the driver of one of the busses if he went anywhere near dunlewey. the driver (a friendly chap) informed me that he could drop me off right in the middle of the village. delighted, i got on the bus, and settled in for the second leg of my trip.
upon arrival in dunlewey, i was dropped right by the road to the lakeside center, where i was to get information about climbing the mountain, and right next to the backpacker's lakeside hostel, where i planned to stay the night. so far, things are looking up. not for very long, however, as upon further inspection, i found the hostel closed up, completely empty (though still furnished), and shut down. finding a back door open, i stored that info in the back of my mind as a possible location to crash. i then discovered that the lakeside center was closed early, as it is the off-season, and would not open the next morning until i had planned to be back on the road to dublin. a slight problem.
i then went to the pub to inquire about other places to stay. i was informed of another hostel near the service station (the pub and the service station, by the way, basically composed the village in its entirety). i headed to the other hostel, only to find that it was shut down as well. indeed, this was the hostel i had originally tried to book, but found it closed. upon inquiry at the service station, i found that both were being torn down in order to build a new hostel, a better hostel, but for now, nowhere to stay. in my searching aroung the other hostel, i happened upon what appeared to be the path up the mountain. it looked easy enough, and i had climbed harder, and so, spirits lifted, i returned to the service station to buy supplies. you see, i had borrowed a tent and a sleeping bag from a friend, and so i had prepared for the camping contingency. so, freshly prepared with another service station sandwich, and a package of 6 fruit scones, i headed off up the mountain.
i didn't make it very far. as it turns out, there is a reason no one else had come to climb the mountain for a good month. it gets wet. so wet, that i was practically hiking in a stream or a bog the entire time, and not only did my pants get muddy and soaked, but i couldn't even take one step without squishing, much less find a suitable camp site. i went up the mountain just a ways, took a few pictures, and then decided to wise up and go find a place to spend the night. asking again at the service station, i found that there was in fact no place in town to stay at all, and if i wished to sleep in shelter without breaking and entering, i would have to go to the next town over. i conceded my defeat to my hopes of hiking, and was soon getting into a cab, to go to bun beg.
in bun beg, there are no hostels, but there is a hotel that has off-season rates. this is still not nearly as cheap as hostel rates, mind you, but i really wasn't in a position to argue. after being shown my room, i promptly decided to soak in the tub as i consumed my purchased sandwich, and three of the scones. being now clean and having eaten, i found out that the bus to letterkenny the next morning was at 7 am, and the next one being around 11 am. the fun continues. realizing my wallet was getting quite light, i decided to go to an atm, and then settled down at the hotel pub.
the two hours i spent at the pub were by far the most enjoyable of the trip. besides myself and the barman, everyone else was over 50, and that's being generous. luckily, they were also drinking quite heavily, and i was soon accepted as one of their own. although their accent was remarkably hard to understand (the hardest i have found yet in ireland), i managed to hold several conversations with about 70% success. after a few beers, i found i could comprehend quite a bit more, and could even adapt to a semi-colloquial accent myself. our conversation ranged through quite a bit of topics, from sports (i am a hurling fan myself, though most there were gaelic football fans, or hung up on the world cup qualifiers), music (we both liked van morrison and agreed that irish country-western was far superior to american country-western), and education (personality vs. intelligence in a conversation partner). i was soon known as "the american who's going to write a book", and soon after learned not to try and correct the point.
after things died down, i retired, setting my alarm for the alarming hour of 6:30 am. i then read some more ulysses and went to sleep. kind of. i did not sleep well, and soon found myself out in the cold of the morning waiting for a 7 am bus to take me to letterkenny. along the way i saw some pretty scenery, but was really just glad to be sitting down in a warm location. upon arrival in letterkenny, i found that i had missed my connecting bus, and would have to wait another three hours for the next one, or i could stay on my current bus (a private coach, and not my prepaid bus), and go to dublin then. i chose the latter, and was on my way home, but not before i paid up again.
i got home to dublin, collapsed for a while, showered, ate, and resolved to do nothing strenuous for the rest of my life. so far, it's going ok, but i think the weekend is a much more realistic goal.
so that was my trip, it was certainly an adventure, i will give you that. here is one more picture that i took from the foothills, which is ok. i didn't even end up keeping most of the pictures. go figure.
so, as i relax for the rest of the weekend, i leave you with this advice: make sure you have a place to stay before going anywhere, and don't think about camping in northern ireland after september.
cheers,
scott
posted by Scott | 5:22 AM
2 Comments:
Scott:
I see what you mean. However, I think you drew the right conclusions! Dad
See you tomorrow! :)
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