Ireland day 1096. Saturday 28 September 2024- Djouce Summit
Today’s summary | Drove down to Enniskerry to meet the Walking Club then on up to Ballinastoe woods to do the “Circuit of Djouce” walk. We were all feeling good so we added on an ascent of the summit as well. Very enjoyable though lots of fell-runners coming the other way were taking up the narrow boardwalk. Coffee in the bikers’ café at the end then fish and chips for tea in the flat when we got back | ||||
Today’s weather | Cool but bright and dry with plenty of sun. Light westerly wind. Appx 13c | ||||
Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route) |
Close-up location (The red 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): Djouce circuit and summit DWC |
Commentary
(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).
Today was my first “long” Club walk since shingles – and both Val and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Me, especially, considering the state I was in only a couple of weeks ago.
We met up with the rest of the walkers in the Kingfisher Kitchen café in Enniskerry at 10am, which meant leaving the flat before 9 and so getting up at 7:30 – never ideal, as far as I am concerned, and especially not at the weekend. Anyway, we did it and it was definitely worth the effort.
After we’d had coffees at the Kingfisher, we lift-shared and drove on up to Ballinastoe woods to start out on what we thought was going to be the club’s “Circuit of Djouce” walk. We’d last done this walk in February this year and although it was enjoyable, the weather was poor so it was quite hard work. Today, though, was much better and, as a result, even more enjoyable.
Our route traversed the south western flanks of Djouce then joined the Wicklow Way and headed back south east, higher up on the slopes. Last time, we elected to dodge the summit as nobody had the appetite to get battered and soaked on the top. But today we unanimously decided to go up, and the steep climb was rewarded with epic views all round, including the Cooleys and Mournes to the north, and the Welsh mountains away in the distance to the east.
We paused for lunch in the shelter of the rocky outcrop on the top, then tracked back towards the JB Malone memorial along the boardwalk. Slightly unfortunately, there was a big fell race going on today, and they were coming up the boardwalk as we were coming down. They seemed to be caught up in their own little bubbles of misery and quite oblivious to their surroundings. So we had to keep jumping off to avoid getting knocked down as they bulldozed their way up to the summit. Very curious.
We stopped briefly near the JB Malone monument, to admire the paraglider soaring over the slopes of Luggala, but once we got going from there, we were soon back down in the forests, where the fellrunner hazard was replaced by the flying mountainbiker hazard. It really was a case of needing eyes in the back of your head today! Once safely at the end of the Ballinastoe trails, we dropped in at the “Trails” cyclists’ café and rounded off an excellent day with coffees at a woodland table, where we stayed until the midges put in an unwelcome appearance and forced us to seek refuge in the car.
After dropping off lift-shares in Enniskerry, we whizzed round a surprisingly quiet M50 and were back in Malahide well before 7pm. Val went straight down to Beshoff’s while I parked the car and got our things back up to the flat. So the evening was rounded off with fish and chips, TV and beer, which seemed like a suitably appropriate conclusion to an altogether satisfactory day.
Today’s photos (click to enlarge)
Interactive map
(Elevations corrected at GPS Visualizer: Assign DEM elevation data to coordinates )
Max elevation: 721 m
Min elevation: 318 m
Total climbing: 621 m
Total descent: -609 m
Total time: 05:24:33