I embarked on my first ever summit camp and done so by choosing Slieve Donard. The choice was heavily influenced by where I could park my car overnight in relative safety. The choice is very limited. However with the temptation of a car camp and bar-be-que at Franks it helped me make my decision.
The weather forecast was favourable and so I drove to Newcastle arriving at Bloody Bridge campsite on Friday evening shortly after 7:30PM. I left the campsite at 8:20PM with a clear sky and plenty of midges. Lucky I'd taken time to apply my Avon Soft and Gentle to thwart the little, hateful, annoying, irritating beggers.
On the well trodden path up to the quarry I was faced with some stubborn sheep. I must have disturbed something as they weren't too fussed about moving out of my way. They decided to show me the way and we paraded along the last 1/4 mile to the sound of their baa baa baa. It was like the Olympic torch run without the razzimatazz. On the final appraoch to the quarry they filtered off into the purple heather, full in bloom and enjoying the last strokes of the late sunshine.
The walk to the wall wasn't as boggy as I'd expected, given the amount of rain recently. I made the wall by 9:30PM. Light was reducing and I retreived my headtorch from my ruck as a precaution. I slowly zig-zagged up the hill that stood between me and my quest of a summit camp.
I just plodded on and on, stopping frequently to take breath and quench my thirst. It was during these stops that I was pondering on what exactly was in my rucksack,its importance and absolute neccessity. * note to self to critically review ALL items in rucksack. **second note to shoulders and back-sorry.
At 10:20PM I arrived at the top. The racing snakes amongst you are probably wondering what took me so long? Well I was enjoying the view on the way. At the top the wind albeit gentle had a chilling effect. With the light fading quickly I had a quick look about for a place to pitch up. The amount of stones doesn't leave too many sites to choose from. I settled for a spot on the inward/western side of the wall about 25 metres from the tower.
My fingers were surprisingly getting numbed by the cold. The pegs were awkard to secure in the hard ground. With the aid of headtorch I quickly got the Zephros 2 pitched, sleeping mat unrolled and sleeping bag laid out. On with the Jetboil for some very welcomed hot Mugshot noodle soup conncoction. It hit the right spot. The light continued to fade to give way to the night time show of stars with an occasional shooting star and wispy strings of clouds.
At around 12:45 it was time for bed having consumed some Merlot red wine. It wasn't that heavy to carry, was it? There wasn't a breath of wind though it was cold under the predominately cloudness sky. It was however cosy in the sleeping bag. At 5:15 I was awakened by the intrusion of the new morning sunshine. Seemed appropriate to get up and take some photos. They didn't turnout as good as I had expected and I will post them later via Photoshack. Anyway back to bed for another couple of hours rest.
Breakfast was a quick pot of ready mix porridge and tea. Some lone walkers came and went without any interraction. Some people can't find it in themselves to say "Hello." Not hard to do, is it? On striking camp and tidying up any stones I'd used I headed off towards tha Saddle, joined the Brandy Pad and walked in glorious sunshine to the wall. From there on the downwards section it was as busy as Royal Avenue with many folks out to enjoy the splendour of the mountains.
I was in no rush, or rather my knees wanted to take their time so I let them. On arriving back to BB I had a welcomed cuppa and relieved my feet of boots and socks. Midges didn't take long to make themselves heard.
I had planned to stay but had to return home.
This was a successful trip and I readily accept that the weather was exceptionally mild so this helped greatly. My learning from this trip is to reduce pack weight.
Hopefully photos to follow. I'm not sure how to incorporate photos direct into the message so please try this link to imageshack:-
http://imageshack.us/g/684/donardovernight20july20.jpg/ 
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Topic: Donard Summit Camp 20 July 2012 (Read 9124 times)