Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
Information => Introductions => Topic started by: Tim on May 26, 2010
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Hey everybody, just heard about this site yesterday form my cousin and it looks great. I've been up and down the Mournes regularly now for the past year and a half or so, mostly hiking but camping when I get the chance, and I'm starting to dabble a bit in bushcraft as well. Would love to get into a bit of canoeing as well and maybe some climbing. Hopefully I'll see some of you around in the hills some time soon, and maybe from the seat of a canoe with any luck.
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Welcome Tim. What sort of canoe do you have?
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hello and welcome mate
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No canoe as of yet, I'd like to try it out a bit first if I get the chance. Haven't been in years since doing all that sort of teamwork stuff in school at Ardnabanon out at Castlewellan but I loved it back then and I'm sure I'd enjoy it even more now.
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Tollymore Mountain Centre (http://www.tollymore.com/Courses/Canoesports+Courses/) do evening, one day and weekend courses and they supply the boats and kit, could be worth a try. (apparently they even have a fancy new indoor heated rolling pool).
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Hi Tim, very welcome to the site!
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Thanks for the link Chuck. I might take the one day canoeing course on the 13th June if I can get the money together by then.
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Hello and welcome mate.
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Good to see you found it allright, we'll have to get out sometime soon.
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Attempted my first summit camp last Thursday on Binian since the weather was so good. Got the bus up to Annalong with a friend and began walking to Carrick little from Annalong, had never realised what a walk that was btw, 5 minutes in the car yet it took us an hour in blistering heat. All was going well and we stopped to have a quick two minute rest once we got to the car park. Started heading up the track and met a couple of other people on their way down before we'd came to the gate, who happened to be the only people we saw the whole day, which was great. When we got to the Blue Lough we decided to have another quick stop and apply some sun cream, as it must have been around 22°C. After being attacked by hordes of midges we pressed on, turning round every so often to admire the view down Annalong Valley. We started the descent on Binian and made good time thanks to my new walking poles, which were an excellent purchase. Didn't have any cardiovascular pain at all, when normally after climbing Binian my legs would be killing me.
After making it to the top, John decided not to bother with the tent and we'd both sleep under my tarp which was plenty big enough for the two of us and all our bags under it, and still with enough space to cook in the front of it and admire the view over towards Lough Shannagh. At about 7.30 I got my stove out and starting cooking myself some rice and chicken which was the nicest meal I've ever made myself in the Mournes.
(http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz86/orcryst01/Binian%20Summit%20Camp/100_1844.jpg)
At around 8 John started complaining of stomach pains, and having had pancreatitus in February and being hospitalized for a month with it, this was slightly worrying. He figured it was the exercise that brought it on, so he decided the best thing for it was to try and get some sleep and trying to walk down might just make it worse, so without eating or anything, he went to bed. I sat for a while listening to some music and admiring the scenery when an hour later he woke up saying it was much worse, and we had to get off the mountain. I hastily began to pack up, trying to keep him busy to take his mind of the pain, and we began the descent. It was now close to 11, and getting pretty dark although luckily it was a clear night and we could still see the path ok. He started to get worse so by 11.30 I was on the phone to the mountain rescue, explaining the situation and our location. We managed to make it off Binian and back onto the path up to the col between Binian and Lamagan when the mountain rescue rang back saying they were on their way and to stay put. As it was starting to get colder I got John into the sleeping bag and bivvy bag, where he nodded off while I sat and waited for any sign of the mountain rescue. About an hour later, a flare went off near Annalong forest and I got a phone call asking if I'd seen the flare and if possible, to start walking towards it. I woke John up who now seemed in much better form and able to walk, so off we went slowly but surely until we met the rescue team around about Blue Lough. They sat him down, took his pulse rate etc and asked him a couple of questions, and then we set off for the Landrover which they'd managed to get almost up to Percy Bysshe. We got in, had an extremely bumpy ride down to the carpark where we sat waiting for an ambulance, which then took us to Newry hospital, completely the opposite direction from we live, and this was happening at around 3am. Got to the hospital where they did some tests etc while I sat in the waiting room, trying to get some sleep but failing badly. By 7 they said we were free to go, and John was seeming in much better form although both of us were completely shattered. So a phonecall to our parents asking them to come and pick us up, another hour and a half wait for them to get there and we were on our way home, and our dramatic ordeal was over.
Hopefully we'll get up again and conquer the summit camp eventually! Although John has been advised to stay off the mountains for a while which really sucks, but its not worth the risk.
Some more pictures for anyone interested; http://s816.photobucket.com/albums/zz86/orcryst01/Binian%20Summit%20Camp/
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Shame it got cut short but still seems like it was a great trip. An experience if nothing else!
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Sounds like an eventful evening!!
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Glad John made it off the mountain and is ok, times like these it pays off to have a walking partner.
Excellent pics. Great pitch.
Good job using the tin can stove for cooking. What fuel did you use? Wood or tablets? I take it the pot stand you used are four separate 'hoops' rather than being permanently joined together?
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Sound s nasty at least you s got down safely
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Ye I was definitely glad to get home the next morning. The stove was my first attempt at making a hobostove, so I had planned to use it with wood but as we had planned to camp on top of Binian I figured I'd just take some hexiblocks with us to save us walking around Annalong forest on the way and collecting wood and then theres always the risk of not collecting enough, so bought a box of hexiblocks in the camping shop in Newcastle. Surprisingly it brought about a litre to the boil in about 6 minutes which was great. The stand is actually made out of book ends that clip into the top of a shelf thing that sits on top of my desk at home, they're basically just a squared U-shape, so sticking four into the ground works great, just two would work as well but four gives it a lot more stability.
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I thought the pot was just sitting on tent pegs. How many hexi blocks did you use and how long did they burn for?
(http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz86/orcryst01/Binian%20Summit%20Camp/100_1846.jpg)
Ye I was definitely glad to get home the next morning. The stove was my first attempt at making a hobostove, so I had planned to use it with wood but as we had planned to camp on top of Binian I figured I'd just take some hexiblocks with us to save us walking around Annalong forest on the way and collecting wood and then theres always the risk of not collecting enough, so bought a box of hexiblocks in the camping shop in Newcastle. Surprisingly it brought about a litre to the boil in about 6 minutes which was great. The stand is actually made out of book ends that clip into the top of a shelf thing that sits on top of my desk at home, they're basically just a squared U-shape, so sticking four into the ground works great, just two would work as well but four gives it a lot more stability.
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They burned pretty fast so I went through 9 of them, which lasted about 15 minutes. Enough time to bring water to the boil, cook some boil in the bag rice and Marks & Spencer's chicken in white sauce.