Sights of Killarney

Ross Castle on the shores of the lake

After our awesome day walk up Carrauntoohil we had the whole next day to spend checking out the sights of Killarney.  I have to say I do like Ireland, there are some nice spots.  They certainly like golf a lot, at least in this part of the country, but I'm not sure I even really saw a golf course.  Just an awful lot of golf memorabilia.

There were quite a few tourist sites around the place, excluding the national park (which was what we were really there for).  We saw Ross castle (didn't go inside - you could only do that with a tour guide).  It's this old ruined castle on the shores of a lake, I think it was actually built on an island, though it's not an island anymore.  There's not a lot of history to it, was built in the 15th century and at some point there was a siege of it, that's about it.  It looks very romantic though, this crumbling castle on the shores of the lake, surrounded by greenery.

The view towards Killarney National Park

Muckross Abbey

There was also the Muckross Abbey, again not a massive amount of history.  Built in the 1400's by Franciscan monks, then plundered by Cromwell's forces.  Again it's this romantic ruin, in the middle of a forest (I sense some trend here).  It's really very well preserved, for how long it has been abandoned.

Muckross House

Along with the abbey, there were also the Muckross House and gardens.  This seemed to be the main attraction of the area, the car park was massive.  Stonehenge car park had nothing on this place.  And yet the house itself wasn't particularly large.  Nice gardens though.  We couldn't see inside this place either as you could only go in with a tour group (again some sort of trend here with their tourist sites).

It's not particularly old, being built in 1843, it's meant to have something like 65 rooms, but I'm not sure they are all that big, given the size of the exterior.  Again not much to report about the house, it's been owned by a succession of really wealthy people, before eventually being gifted to the state.  It's definitely popular though, the cafe was maaasive.  And the gardens are nice and big, with lots of dogs running around.

Since we couldn't go inside the house we went to this working farm they have on site as well.  The farm is meant to be run using whatever would have been available in the 1930's, so there's these little houses, with no electricity or ovens or anything.  It's basically a chance to walk around and pat some animals.  It was a lot bigger than what you might have thought, it definitely wasn't just a petting zoo, but a proper farm.  Still a slightly odd tourist attraction.

Views across the lakes of Killarney

All around this area there were all these people with horse and carts.  It seemed that the traditional way for tourists to be transported was in a buggy.  I didn't see a lot of people partaking, some of the buggy drivers looked a little scary, and some of the horses looked a little mistreated.  It seemed like a lot of the jobs in this area were tied up with the tourist industry.  We were admiring the view across one of the lakes, and a really old guy came up to us and tried to get us to take a boat ride.  I wasn't so keen, I thought he was more likely to dump our bodies on some abandoned island.  I know Ireland has been going through some tough times lately, and it must be a pretty hard life at the moment, but if you want tourist dollars, perhaps tone down the crazy.

It's not to say I wouldn't be back, it's a really pretty area, and I would like to explore further in the hills.  I just don't think I'll be doing any pony trap rides anytime soon.

Swan Lake - Matthew Bourne

Rather than our usual Nutcracker, this Christmas we saw Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at Sadler's Wells.  There were no new productions of the Nutcracker, at least without spending a lot of money on tickets.  So it was Swan Lake instead, and I have to say I was not disappointed.  It's not like this is a new production either, having been around since 1995, but I hadn't seen it before.

The music was great, as always, and Matthew Bourne never goes in for the full ballet experience.  I think it's ballet inspired contemporary dance.  Perhaps he's a gateway to the stricter ballet, since after seeing this one I am keen to see the full ballet.  He's changed the story around too, so it feels a bit more modern than the usual love story that most ballets/operas seem to have.

I knew the original story of Swam Lake (it's not particularly complex) and so was wondering how they were going to fit that in with the male swan, but it was done really well.  If you haven't seen it in the 18 years it's been running, I would make time for it, it's definitely worth it.

Killarney and the Top of Ireland

Dave at the start of the walk

After our week walking in Switzerland we were enthused for something a little harder.  The whole walking between hotels and not carrying any backpacks was nice, but we felt we could go a little harder.

The highest mountain in Ireland is in Killarney national park, in the south west of the country, near Cork.  It's Carrauntoohil, at 1038m high, and that is the relative height as well, since it's so close to the sea.

We planned a weekend adventure to Killarney to climb the might Carrauntoohil (don't ask me how that is pronounced).  We had the idea that we should try and climb the highest mountain in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England.  Not that any of them are very high, the one in Scotland, Ben Nevis, is the highest, and that's only 1344m.  Basically if you are over 1000m you'll make it on to the wiki page of mountains in the British Isles.

Looking towards Carrauntoohil from Beenkeragh with the scary Beenkeragh ridge in front

The usual ascent is along Hag's Glen and then straight up Devil's Ladder (the name should give you some idea as to how steep that is).  But that sounded a little unpleasant, and short, to us.  It's weird that so many people walk that way, as an out and back, since this mountain lends itself to a great loop of a day walk.  In the first photo Carrauntoohil is hiding off to the back left.  But if you look to the right of that you see the ridge carries on.  What you have is this amazing ridge walk in a horseshoe above the lake behind Dave.  It's 15km long and you get to climb Ireland's three highest peaks in one go.  And you never have to retrace your steps.  Perfect.

About to climb Beenkeragh, our route so far was along the ridge in front of us

We started in bright sunshine, there wasn't much of a path for the first part of the horseshoe, it's just scrambling up a fairly rocky slope, gaining a lot of elevation pretty quickly.  About 30 minutes in we got caught in a torrential downpour.  The rain was literally coming in sideways, it was that windy.  The storm only lasted about 15 minutes but it was enough to be completely drenched.  Lucky this was back in summer, so we weren't going to freeze to death, we did have our raincoats on, it was just our boots and pants that were soaked.  It was quite incredible.  I only had one leg get wet because the rain was so horizontal.  It did mean our map was destroyed though.  Lucky the walk is incredibly easy navigationally wise.  Though it would have been pretty tricky in mist or cloud.  Only because there were sheer cliffs which could be easily missed.  And that would have ended badly.

The lake we were walking around the whole day - this is after we had summitted Carrauntoohil

This first section was probably the most unpleasant section of the whole walk, there was no track, the wind was incredible, at some points I had to crouch down to stop being blown over, and the rain had made the rocks like ice.  But the sun soon came out again and started to dry up the rocks.  In hindsight we were lucky that the rain hit us then, and not later in the day, since the route got seriously dicey in an hour or so.

Looking back at Beenkeragh ridge, we came over the ridge in the middle - and there is no path.

Once we had reached the top of the ridge, it's then a simple matter of keeping upwards in a gentle curve.  We reached the top of Beenkeragh, at 1010m it's the second highest mountain in Ireland. The route from the top of Beenkeragh to the base of the climb up Carrauntoohil was pretty scary. I think the snow walking in Switzerland was scarier, but I think if it had been windy, icy or wet then this section would have won that contest.  There was no path to speak of, just a knife edge of a ridge, covered in boulders, and sheer drops to either side.  Because there were so many rocks it actually made it easier though, since the whole way along you are just clinging to the rocks, so it's not so much walking, as crawling.  I wouldn't recommend that route unless you had a good head for heights and were a confident scrambler.  But it was definitely fun!  Though it did mean there were less photos from this section, since I needed both hands wrapped around rocks at all times.  If the storm and wind had hit us whilst we were crossing this section, I'm not sure what would have happened.  I think we would have ended up taking a lot longer, and there may have been a few tears shed.

Climbing Carrauntoohil - looking back at Beenkeragh mountain and the scary ridge

After traversing Beenkeragh ridge the rest of the walk was actually really easy.  I'm guessing the last half of the walk is what everyone else does.  On the first half we literally saw nobody, it was just us and the mountains.  Then you hit the main track and suddenly there were heaps of people.  The climb up Carrauntoohil was easy, though I have to say the route most other people took looked pretty unpleasant, the Devil's Ladder really did look vertical.  I much preferred our route, even with the scrambling.

Carrauntoohil and the ridge we came along to the left

 After Carrauntoohil the walk just keeps getting easier, we had one more climb up Caher, at 1001m it's the third highest mountain in Ireland, and then it's all downhill along the other side of the lake, back to our starting point.

I can't recommend this walk highly enough, it has everything you want from a great day walk, no back tracking, great views, easy navigation and a touch of danger.

Back at the lake, with the horseshoe in front, we walked from left to right.

Kandersteg

The sun rising over the valley

Kandersteg was a nice village to spend our last few days.  And it was lucky that there was the horse jumping carnival on, since there was daily free entertainment.  I watched the most horse jumping I have ever watched in my life.  It was a strange carnival, as I was expecting the standard to get better as the jumping progressed, I thought they would have different classes of jumper, you know beginners, children, masters that sort of thing.  But it actually seemed that everyone would just jump in all the events they could and since we watched so much of it, we got to recognise all the different jumpers.

I think the best event was a relay race, with horse rider and mountain biker.  The horse would go first and do a round of jumps and then they had to hand off to a biker, who had to cycle around and do their own version of mountain bike skills, so riding over see-saws and between poles that sort of thing.  That was their Friday night entertainment.

Horse jumping in Kandersteg

More impressive Swiss infrastructure

We also caught a bus up into the mountains, it was a pretty scary bus ride.  It was a single lane road, and when I say single lane, I mean if there were any walkers or cyclists on the road as well, they literally had to climb over the barriers so the bus could get past.  On one side you would have the cliff face, and on the other side was just a straight drop to the valley floor.  And this road was by no means straight, we are talking winding through tunnels and the like.  Scary stuff.

And that was our Swiss holiday, just a train ride back to Zurich and the plane home.  It was a great week, and has certainly inspired me to try a mountaineering course over the winter, to perhaps allow for some more winter walking.

Kandersteg - Walk to Frudenhutte

Dave over Oeschinensee

We spent a few days in Kandersteg, this was another very touristy town, almost as bad as Grindelwald, but they got extra points because there was a horse carnival the whole time we were there.  So that felt more local and less touristy.  I was glad for a few days rest in Kandersteg in the end.  It had been a tough week of walking, and I was definitely feeling it in my legs.  Our final real walk was up to an alpine hut and back, past Oeschinensee, which was an alpine lake that Kandersteg was famous for.

After all the walking we had done, this actually felt like quite an easy walk, though it was still 1000m up and down to the hut.  There was another great cable car ride to the start of the walk.  Almost from the centre of town to the lake, I was starting to see why Kandersteg is such a tourist town.

The shores of Oeschinensee and more mountains above

Approaching the lake

Walking up one side of Oeschinensee we could see the path we would have come down if we have gone over the pass on the previous day.  Since the pass was still covered in cloud, it was hard to see how difficult that route would have been.  I was almost tempted to try it to see whether we had made the correct decision in skipping that section, but then perhaps it's better not to know sometimes.

This was one of the better paths of the week, though it did get pretty scree-y up near the top.  Hardly any snow either, even though the hut was at 2500m.  It just goes to show what a difference the shape of the mountains and the direction they are facing make to how late the snow gathers.  Once we reached the hut we saw that the other side was just snow and ice all around.  But the side we had climbed up there was nothing, just bare rock.

A bull enjoying the views

Waterfall with snow

There were a lot of mountaineers we passed, going both up and down the mountain.  You could always tell them, they had unusual boots, much bigger than just hiking ones, and they looked like real blister formers.  There was also the permanent coils of rope and ice axes attached to their bags.  One set who were heading down as we were going up had blood on their faces, so I think the mountain had one in that encounter.

There was a bit of snow heading up, not much, and there were hardly any patches where we were actually walking through it.  But it was here that you really understood that you would want a good feel for snow before heading off.  There were patches where it looked really rotten.  The whole underside had melted away, but there was still a covering on top.  And if you had walked on it without realising you would have been plunged into a ravine with added river.

More flowers and the lake in the distance

Bridge crossing with Oeschinensee in the distance

This was probably the most popular walk we went on in the week.  There were quite a few people heading both up and down.  And when we got to the top there were quite a few groups around.  This was the first hut we had gone to that was actually properly open.  It was unbelievably luxurious.  Such a change from the huts in Australia and New Zealand.  The hut had a proper kitchen, where there were a couple of people on hand to cook you what you wanted.  Yes, there was a proper menu at 2500m.  Unbelievable.  So it was hot soup and rosti before the walk back down.  I don't think we ever went into calorie deficit the whole week.  You could even buy chocolate bars and iced tea.  And the thing was they weren't even that expensive, for where the food was.  You would think transport costs would have to be factored into the price, but it seems like that wasn't an issue.

The view from the hut. The tiny specks in the front left are people 

A rough section here.  There is a path somewhere in there

We sat out the back of the hut in the full sun watching the mountaineers come down off this massive mountain to the left.  You can see our view in the photo above.  The mountain everyone was coming down was the one on the left.  And you have to remember we are already at 2500m where this photo was taken, and that mountain was a lot higher than where we were.  The people were completely dwarfed by the landscape.  It looked pretty full-on what they were attempting, but it seemed that's just a weekend's walking for the Swiss.

As we were walking down after stuffing ourselves with rosti, we realised how these huts were stocked with food.  There was a helicopter buzzing around for the rest of the afternoon, it must have been visiting all the huts in the vicinity.  You would want to be a good pilot, as I don't think they even land, there certainly didn't look like enough room for that.  It looked like they would just lower a cable and the people on the ground would hook up the rubbish and get the new deliveries.  That's got to be an inefficient way to stock the huts, but if it meant that I can eat chocolate bars at 2500m I'm not complaining.  I wonder what a hut like that would have been like to sleep in, I didn't see the sleeping quarters, it looked a little snug, but then I trust the Swiss to be able to do mountain huts well.

The luxurious hut

Even the toilets were amazing, full on flushing toilets with electric lights.  You wouldn't even know you were halfway up a mountain.  There were no signs of composting toilets here.  I wonder what Swiss campers think of the facilities made available to them in Australia, that's got to be a bit of a shock.

It was coolish at the hut, but as we dropped back down into the valley and the lake, things started to heat up again, all that bare, dark rock.  Once down at the lake, Dave even braved the water.  It looked a little too bracing for me.  But the water was lovely and clear.  You can't beat an alpine lake for clarity.

Best toilets in such a remote location, electric lights and flushing.

A long way above the lake here

Dave near the top, with more scree

Dave and the lake