We forcefully lifted our ruc sacs onto our backs and once we checked out (and made sure we had flint) we headed off for low camp. At the start of the trail we came across one of those thingies that give you info on the mountains. Pat thought that it would be nice to put some of that info into this log; unfortunately I seem to have “forgotten” it; sorry Pat. After climbing a few hills we reached a saddle and I got smacked by a stupid thorny bush that to this day (Monday) is still sore. The rest of the hike was all literally downhill and soon we reached the campsite and to my delight I had to go shovelling. After ten minutes of that joyful task we could finally put the tent up. Then the fun started in the tent. Brian and Sean decided to talk about scary movies and gave me “delightful” dreams of Freddie Kruger slicing things up all over the place. Brian and Sean as creative as they were with their stories slept in what looked like plastic sleeping bags! I didn’t use a plastic sleeping bag instead I didn’t use one at all (note to self - get into the sleeping bag before I fall asleep).
We woke up early on Saturday morning and got up after ten minutes of “waking up”. We got out of the tent and went for a bit of a walkabout around the site. A scout who had a black and yellow neckerchief was fixing his tent next to us and started talking about the weather. He said that we were going to get light rain for the day. Boy- was he wrong, it poured. Out of the corner of my eye a lovely green tent shone in the distance and a familiar head popped out, yep it was..... Pasta guy (I thought the' guy with the unhealthy obsession with pasta' name was a bit too long) and yes, he still calls me Cashman - don’t know why though? He’s probably as bad as me with remembering names. We were told that we would be climbing an “appropriately named “mountain that had a strangely similar name to my earlier injury. If you can’t think back it's Cock mountain. It was a hard stretch up the mountain, well, not for Sean and Brian! The next task was “simple navigation”. We took a slight detour past a cow and onto a mound that Brian thought was the Mourne wall. Once we corrected him we kept heading in that general direction and soon made it to the real Mourne wall. It was some sight stretching out across the mountains.
It was simple from there on, all we had to do was navigate using the wall as a handrail. After hiking for a bit along a stream we came across an amazing waterfall that was so cool. When we reached the top we saw Liam Lawton who sent us in the right direction (following the Mourne wall). It wasn’t far now to high camp and after hiking through some wet marshy disgusting grassy stuff we passed through a fence and then on to high camp. After following the advice of one of the leaders we reached a decision to pitch our tent on watery grass as the whole area was saturated. After the tent was up people around us questioned what was going on in our tent – answer – Brian felt the need to express himself vocally as to how painful the cramps were in his legs . All you could hear was “ oww get the first aid kit my legs are killing me”. Yes, he was making a meal of it and the more we laughed the louder he got. I nearly passed out with all the laughing. Once Sean was comfortably settled in the tent and Brian was amm, crying himself to sleep so to speak I boiled up some water to cook our food. Yum yum. After dinner and peeling off the wet socks that had clung to our feet, we got into our sleeping bags (that were not made of plastic and invisibility) and soon fell asleep.
A long while later.....
Sunday morning, we got up packed away the gear, put away the tent and headed for the scout’s own. We stood next to Wellington scouts (who have the same colour neckerchief as us but worn reversed). After some prayers I noticed that some scouts were wearing SHORTS! SHORTS, how you could wear shorts in this cold weather! Then all the main leaders of the MPC got portraits and flaggy thingy’s and each scout was given the Ulster badge AND 20 years of MPCs badge as well. That one will take pride of place. Take that Eolann, ha, I’ve got a badge you don’t. After checking out, it was a simple walk back to the car park, although first we decided to race another team who were quickly following behind us and gaining (sorry, I don’t know yer name) we quickly rushed past Liam and John and we reached the car park first! We waited a few minutes and to Sean and Brain's disappointment there were no blue t–shirts. On our way back home in the car we stopped at Blanchardstown in Dublin. I was forced to go to Burger King after Brian and Sean went to all you can eat Pizza Hut (I think you may realise I was waiting a while) but when they finished we headed to the car park and headed home.
As I write this the memories of all the MPC’s we’ve been on come flooding back to me. We have met some weird, whacky and wonderful people on the side of mountains in the four Provinces. I have sat and wondered at the natural beauty of the landscape and thought for a minute that this was how Livingstone must have felt. I have been exhausted and thought that I could not continue yet somehow I found the strenght to go on. I have laughed till I cried as we had so much fun in your company. For all of that we thank you MPC team, as the memories will stay with us forever. Good luck with the next 20 years.
