Dampness

I’d overestimated the length of the journey and parked outside an abandoned church at the foot of the Maumturk mountains shrouded in pitch darkness and absolute silence. As my eyes adjusted I saw the light of farm houses dotted around the landscape. Dawn wasn’t long in coming and I set off along a muddy track towards the shore of Lehanagh Lough. My way got progressively more waterlogged until I could go no further and all I managed to do was get my feet wet (I later read that Maumturk Mountains are one of the two wettest places in Ireland).

I had intended to climb up a mountain to Maumeen church next but I hadn’t had my camera pack on my back since the spring and I was really feeling the weight of it, so I decided to get back in the car and head on up the road, which is where I came across the view across Lough Inagh in the first picture.

I carried on along the Inagh Valley where I stopped at Kylemore to take a walk along a mountain track along which my way had been barred by the Kylemore river on a previous visit. My extra high boots still proved inadequate for the river crossing, and it was on heading back that I stopped to take this 2nd shot. I met a hiker coming towards me and as he read my map it started to rain, so we said good luck and went our separate ways. In no time at all I was walking along an exposed space in a hail storm and while pulling on my camera bag’s rain cover I got so comprehensively soaked that I stood no chance of drying off. Even my pants were wet, so I had no choice but to head for home.