#8: [14-Jul-24]

#7: [24-Sep-19]

#6: [05-Sep-17]

#5: [31-Mar-17]

#4: [04-Aug-08]

#2: [11-Oct-04]

#1: [09-Sep-01]

28-Feb-2008 --

2008 Ireland Tour

Careful preparations get rewards

Continued from 53N-08W

In my research before I left I noted that both the previous visitors to this point talked about long and time consuming walks in. I used Google Earth and MultiMap and my SatNav to see just how close you could get by car. It appeared that if you could get onto the "road" BALLARD then that was the closest.

The early morning starts are fast becoming a habit. Some 63 miles of winding twisty cross country roads later and I am in the area called The Burren roughly 250 sq km of ancient rock formations. Pretty much as it was when the last ice age melted.

I've read as stated the previous reports, and it would appear that they parked on the R460 and headed North to the CP. I reckoned that if it was possible to get onto Ballard then the car could be left about 900 yards from the spot.

The key phrase there being "if it was possible", this area is so remote that none of the roads have any signs on them! I spent a good 30-40 minutes trying out various likely candidates. At one point heading out on a single track road through what I would describe as glacial lakes, bearing in mind how they were formed.

Eventually I realised that a tiny narrow (even for a) single track road was what I was after. After a few hundred yards this petered out in a farm yard. I found the farmer hand feeding milk to new born calves.

We had a chat about things, including the magnitude 5 earthquake in England the day before. I explained my quest, got permission and some tips on the best way to get there.

About 15 minutes or so later, I have crossed what look just like rows of giant molars 3 feet across in a large jaw bone (good imagination helps sometimes) and I am on the spot.

This area is very desolate and I had excellent gps reception. I put my Garmin into averaging mode, set it down and got on with enjoying and documenting the scenery. The cardinal shots were taken with my ultra-wide 10mm lens to try and give a sense of how barren this is.

When I came back to the gps some twenty minutes and over 1200 samples later I am delighted to see an accuracy reported of just 3.9 feet!!!. Now this point has been truly done.

It is a long drive to the next point so I head off back to the car. One thing did puzzle me though. A previous report said to set a waypoint. I didn't see the need, if you can manage to keep the 1000 FOOT high hill behind you, then you are going the right way. Nearly impossible to get lost.

Continued at 54N-10W