I do a spot of mountain hiking every once in a while and during the middle of June a few fellow hiking friends and I decided to tackle two mountains on the west coast of Ireland; Croagh Patrick in Co. Mayo and Ben Bulben in Co. Sligo. I say mountain but they are only 764 and 526 meters high respectively, Ireland is pretty flat compared to the rest of the world! Anyway, number one on this list was Croagh Patrick. The view from its summit is supposedly spectacular; composed of Clew bay, the Neiphin Beg mountain range and Achill and Clare island. It sounded like a great opportunity for some valuable photography time so I packed my camera and hoped for some good weather. Every year on the last Sunday of July (Reek Sunday) over 25000 pilgrims climb Croagh Patrick as an act of penance. Many of them do it carrying crosses and go barefoot!, some Irish don’t fell like they’re doing any good unless they’re in pain! I however would not advise doing this since most of Croagh Patrick is basically just a big pile of scree. There’s also a church on the summit, apparently built by St. Patrick, if you want to pray for an easy way down once you make it up there!
Our trek began in the car park at the base of the mountain….
Click for higher quality 3488×2616 image. (about 1.6MB)
In my eagerness I bought a high tech (if that’s possible) telescopic walking stick for a criminally priced €40 - as it turned out proper sticks, possibly cut from Sequoia Giant Redwoods, were being sold in the car park for a bargain €3. I felt cheated but I had to grit my teeth and accept it. From the car park our journey led up some steps and progressed to a rocky path that was really just too long, steep and winding for my liking. My mind soon wandered from taking scenic photographs onto my heart beating like a yo-yo - it actually felt as though it was going to explode on more than one occasion! To give you some idea of the path, check out the image below; we can see the carpark where we started in the background. This photo was only taken near the start of the first path that makes up the first leg of the climb! The second more difficult path soon followed!
Click for iger quality 3488×2616 image. (about 3.3MB)
Once overcoming the first, treacherous part of the walk it started raining in buckets and we took shelter beside a bank that gave us protection against the wind and to a lesser extent the rain also. The middle stage of the climb is generally flatter than the rest and gives you a much needed break to recuperate for the final stretch, which is made up of a 40° inclined struggle upwards while dodging falling scree and other pilgrims who lacked the willpower to keep going.
If you do manage to overcome this (and you should), you’ll be treated to a great panoramic scene of Clew Bay to the West. I’ve stitched together three images I took to the the photo below. Noise becomes very apparent as you move closer to the sides of the picture but the made focus (the Bay itself) is reasonably clear to see.
Click for higher quality 17346×2789 image. (about 9MB)
Despite my grumbles earlier about my walking stick I would thoroughly recommend bringing one along for this climb; the scree means that every step forwards is potentially followed by three steps back. The walking stick allows for greater balance and has a great swinging motion to it if you’re in the mood for a bit of a swagger. While it’s handy for the ascent, it’s practically essential for the descent - getting down Croagh Patrick is akin to rock surfing - sneeze while jumping down from rock to rock and you’re likely to have a scree avalanche in close pursuit!
As you can see from the next image I attempted to create a 360° panoramic shot from Croagh Patrick’s summit. It worked to a certain extent but the manner in which the summit is shaped (oval is the best way to describe it), the ground appears to ebb like a wave as it moves closer in and farther away. In spite of this I decided to post it here for your own judgments.
Click for higher quality 16492×2101 image. (about 3.3MB)
It’s one of the more difficult climb I’ve done in Ireland but the satisfaction at the end, combined with the great view to be seen makes it well worth it.
Just a quick update on my latest trip away - I spent 5 days in Vienna at the end of May as part of a college trip I had to take part in. The college part (also the boring part) was over by the 30th, leaving the 31t for me to wander the streets of Vienna to see what all this fuss I was hearing about. You see, Vienna has got the reputation of being the “Cultural Capital of Europe” and I wanted to find out why. I was staying in the Golden Tulip Hotel on Wallgasse, near the city center. It’s a four star hotel and my room was on the top floor, with a small but open roof terrace to boot! The brochure stated that there’s a wonderful view of Vienna from these terraces; that might have been true if all the other ugly buildings weren’t in the way! Anyway, leaving at 9am, my first stop of the day was to be St Stephens Cathedral (also called Stephansdom) in the Innere Stadt (Inner Town). A quick trip on the subway from West Bahnhof brought me there. I should mention that even though the temperature that day was a sweltering 31 degrees celsius, and I was literally running from shadow to shadow so to avoid catching fire, St Stephens Cathedral still managed to impress. For those statistically inclined, it was built in 1147 and is a whopping 136.7m high at its peak. The immediate area is a tourist magnet, with plenty of photographers making the most of the busy streets. Stephansdom provides a spectacular view from the roof and I’ll be putting up some pictures from there as soon as I go through them properly, keep an eye out for an Austria entry at Pictures Around The World. Nearby in Neumarkt is the Donnerbrunnen, the most extravagant fountain in Vienna and well worth a view. A trip to the Hofburg followed but pathetically I surrendered to the sun and ran back to my air conditioned hotel room 
Once the sun had subsided a little I headed out again for a few more hours. I tried to checked out the Schloss Belvedere but it was closed for some unknown reason. I did manage to get out to the Schonnbrun before the sun went down - I’ll be putting up photos of that also at Pictures Around The World.
It’s a pity but I didn’t make it out to Danube Island (Donauinsel), which I hear is a great way to spend a day in Vienna. Maybe next time!
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