Ireland day 0774. Saturday 11 November 2023- Maulin Loop DWC *

Ireland day 0774. Saturday 11 November 2023- Maulin Loop DWC

Today’s summary	Went out with the Saturday group of the Walking Club for the first time in a couple of months today. A loop round Maulin from Curtlestown, which I first did almost exactly two years ago. Excellent day out and great weather. Val was working in the evening so decided to stay at home and have a day off relaxing while I was out.
Today’s weather	Dry and bright with some light cloud. Almost no wind at lower levels, light westerly wind higher up. Appx 10c

Today’s overview location (The red mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Maulin Loop Walk DWC

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

Life, as they say, comes along – and the various major expeditions we have been on over the last few weeks meant that it was almost two months since I had last been able to get out with the Saturday group of the Walking Club. So it felt good to be back in the Wicklow Hills today, catching up with all the news from my friends in the Club. Sadly, I was on my own as Val was working up at the castle this evening so wisely decided to have the rest of the day off to catch up on a bit of R&R.

I remembered that I had actually done this walk before – it was one of the first walks we did with Club when we first came to Ireland two years ago. Conditions were perfect for us today. Dry and bright with very little wind, so for once it didn’t feel too cold or two wet. The skies were clear so we had excellent views – though sadly not quite as far as Wales, which we had spied two years ago. The autumn colours were spectacular – and I was surprised just how many trees still had all their leaves. A symptom of the much milder weather we are having nowadays.

We had finished by about 4pm, which was perfect timing as it was just starting to get dark by this stage. A “fairly” straightforward drive home got me back to the flat well before six. The only slight complication was that I stopped off to fill up with petrol, and top up the (empty) screen wash on the way back. But after opening the bonnet to fill up the washer, I discovered that it wouldn’t shut properly. Try as I might I couldn’t get it to lock shut. So, as I was only a couple of km from the flat, I drove back with it just held shut by the safety latch. Once safely back in the Casino garage, I sprayed the latch mechanism liberally with WD40 and – miraculously – it closed perfectly immediately afterwards. Engineers tell me that WD40, duct tape and a heavy hammer can solve most mechanical problems, and I suspect they are right.

Now just time to finish off watching “Clarkson’s Farm” (which I am actually quite enjoying) before Val comes home. Another good day.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Hurrah! Next year’s daffodils are on their way!	Descending down the Wicklow Way into Lackandarragh woods at the start of the walk. The only slightly dispiriting feature of this walk is that you set off going downhill, which means you finish at the end going back uphill.

Looking north up the coast with Howth head and Lambay (beyond) on the horizon	On the top of Maulin, with the Sugarloaf behind. Quite a few people out and about today, taking advantage of the good weather

Powerscourt waterfall. It has been very full lately – though today it was only modestly so	Towards the end of the walk, descending through Crone Woods towards the Glencree river (the newly rebuilt bridge over the river is in the banner image at the top of this blog)

*Masses of amazing fungi were in evidence today. Google’s best guess is that this was Lepista irina, or Flowery Blewit. It’s supposedly edible, but I wouldn’t chance it*