After a relatively early hearty breakfast, the girls and I got out for a quick loop of the forest.

It was a brisk morning but most of the ice had burned off in the wintry sunshine by the time we got up to the top. There is still quite a bit in the more shaded parts of forest though.

Further on at one of the wall crossings, a rotten branch with rather fabulous bracket fungii had come down in the last few days. I guess Thursday’s storm must have weakened it somewhat.

We had a grand walk with relatively little moaning. All-in-all not a bad weekend’s walking for everybody although I will need to pick up the pace a little bit next weekend if I am to make my 85 km target for the month.

66.5km

Since the previous walk, we had a thaw, a storm and then more snow to replace the previous lot. Although there wasn’t much, we have a forecast for cold weather and more snow over the next couple of days. So it was a nice crisp day for a walk.

I was on my own and ended up taking the shorter of the two routes due to being a bit lazy. Still I got out for the third time this week which isn’t too bad.

56km

We actually got some decent levels of snow overnight and it held out until lunchtime. By decent levels, I mean about 3 cm but it was enough to make for a very different walk.

It was quite refreshing to see the place under a blanket of white and very unusual. I think that this is the heaviest covering of snow I’ve ever walked through up the mountain.

Everything looks very different. The wind was beginning to pick up for the approaching storm Rachel which is shaping up to be a good blow. So it made for quite a severe wind-chill factor.

The poor old gorse bushes got a bit of a shock.

It was quite bleak up the top but not half as bleak as it will be tonight I should think. There is more snow expected over the next few days so I might get some better shots then.

52km

It was an nice sunny morning so straight after dinner we nipped out to do a quick loop while the weather lasted.

Amazingly none of the children were moaning about the walk so we had a nice peaceful if uneventful walk

47.5 km

Despite the state of the weather, I decided to go out at lunchtime today. It was pretty horrible out there but my gear was dry starting out so it wasn’t too bad. I barely managed to take any photographs as it was too wet for the camera.

I made the short loop in good time but didn’t really stop for a look around. Still, it is good to get out despite the conditions.

43km

I didn’t manage to get out on New Year’s day due to the general awfulness of the weather so it was a nice surprise to wake up to a fine morning today and get out for a walk. I’ve decided to to repeat my 100 walks goal this year as it was getting a bit tedious having to walk the same place at weekends. So instead I’m going to go for an even thousand kilometres this year. I reckon I walked about 750 last year so that’s a good improvement if I can manage it.

Anyway, this morning was a very nice way to start and we all went for a family walk to kick the year off. The low winter sun gives long shadows even at 11 o’clock.

There is so little colour in the woods at the moment that even the bit of red in these ivy leaves catches the eye. Of course the gorse is still flowering away and the holly still inexplicably has berries. There must be plenty  else for the birds to eat that they are leaving the holly berries alone.

This is the wildest part of the walk and it is looking quite bare at the moment. You can barely see the path at this point in the summer but right now it is getting quite muddy.

We had a grand walk in the forest to try and get rid of a few Christmas calories and I fear there will be quite a few to go yet. So for the first steps on a long road for the year, I reckon on the longer of the loops that we did to day as being about 4.5 km, so that leaves me with 995.5 to for the year.

4.5km

Day 101

It was another icy day and I didn’t get out until the afternoon but even then it hadn’t thawed much. It is a nice change to get up the forest in icy conditions but in places the path was very treacherous due to the ice.

It remained fairly frozen on any open ground the whole way round although it was beginning to thaw on the lower part of the forest.

As we trudged down the path through the lower part of the forest, it was lovely to see the white landscape which we get for such a short part of the year.

Day 100

Well, I finally made my hundred days with 4 to spare. We left in mid-afternoon so as to be back before dusk. While walking up the main road towards the hill, we noticed that there had been an accident on the main road a few hundred metres away. As there were plenty of people there already, we just kept walking.

The evening flight was fabulous and it was a nice clear evening – it is looking like we’ll have quite a severe frost tonight. As we continued on, it appeared that the accident was quite a bit more serious than it looking as a helicopter appeared on the scene.

We continued on with the walk anyway, and all had a nice time.

We did the round in record time with the children as one of them had an urgent need to get back to await the birth of some sea dragons that were due to hatch at exactly 3:30. So she sprinted around and the rest of us tried to keep up.

When we got back the helicopter was just leaving. So all-in-all a pretty eventful hundredth walk.

Day 99

After going through the entire year without a walk among proper snow, we had a flurry of snow for an hour this morning and it started to settle. So I grabbed my chance and my stick and set off for a quick walk.

Of course it being Ireland, the snow quickly turned to rain so I had to be quick with my camera. By the time I got into the second, less-exposed, half of the walk it had started melting.

It is always a fantastic experience to fine oneself walking a familiar route in snow as it is incredibly different. Even the thin covering here was refreshing in its variety.

As usual there wasn’t anyone to be seen on my walk and as I got towards the top, a fairly thick mist started gathering so that I was walking among ice, water and mist.

Little of the snow had made through to the ground in the second half of the loop but there were so traces to be seen.

By the time I got out of the forest, most of the snow had gone. A couple of hours later, the rain has settled in properly and there is no trace whatsoever.

Day 98

We had a bit of company on the walk today for a change so it was a nice trek in the woods. The unseasonal full bloom of the gorse still carries on during these short days. It was a fine sunny day for a walk and not even particularly cold.

There was a fabulous clear view from up the top with a lot of standing water about.

There is a quite a lot of heather in bloom at the moment.

We had a nice walk as I’m getting so close to the end of this project and there isn’t  a lot more to say about it.