On Saturday 8^th February, twelve walkers set out from Bohernabreena (near Tallaght in Dublin) to walk 45 kilometres over the mountains to Glenmalure Lodge in Wicklow. I started to write a long piece about the Continuity Art O’Neill Challenge to accompany the article in the Wicklow Times. After four hundred words, I hadn’t reached us actually coming up with the idea, let alone the organisation and walk itself. So, instead, here are some of the highlights:

While in the taxi towards the rendezvous point, one of our walkers got lost on a straight road, panicked and called me. It was not an auspicious start.

We started walking at 6.30am. It was windy, raining and pretty horrible. The lady in the taxi depot thought we were taking the piss.

The first leg included a diversion from the official Art O’Neill route. When I had checked the detour out the week before, my path had been blocked by a dead horse. It was Friday 31^st January, the first day of the Chinese year of the horse. Let’s hope that wasn’t an omen.

Approaching Checkpoint 1, we had to manoeuvre around various groups of wild looking cattle which were blocking the roads. They had big horns and looked angry. We shouted and waved our hands. We won.

Despite the weather and the cattle, we covered the first 16km leg about 45 minutes quicker than expected. This meant we had to wait in the cold to rendezvous with our guide. While waiting we watched another cow who was looking nervous after being cut off from the herd by our presence.

Crossing one of the muddy streams on Billy Byrne’s Gap, one of the lads got his boot stuck in the mud. When he tried to pull it out, the boot stayed put so his sock landed in the wet and get soaked. Rather than changing into dry socks then, he immediately plunged the wet sock into the dry boot to ensure discomfort for the rest of the day. Ha ha.

I had a drop box waiting at Checkpoint 2 with a few goodies for everybody. I had brought enough water, jellies, chocolate and tissues for fifteen people. The first thing everybody grabbed for was the little packets of tissues. All the chocolate and jellies were eaten. Nobody bothered with the water. I still have 13 litres of Lidl Spring Water in my car if anyone is thirsty?

The emergency drop box also contained two Christmas puddings which had been going cheap in the January sales. The cold weather had made them shrivel and shrink into a sort of hard frozen lump. I still liked them, but I have one of those left over too.

After walking with us the first 25km, one of the lads took one for the team. He sacrificed himself and his walk to make sure we got a good table in the pub and hitchhiked the rest of the way. He was picked up by a man with a jeep and two rifles in the back seat.
“Are you a hunter or a killer?” asked our hero, meekly.
“You’re not one of the damn Art O’Neill bastards who is ruining the countryside, are you?” responded the armed man in an angry voice.
“Oh bugger”, said our hero to himself, as quietly as he could.

The last leg of the trek took longer than expected, so that it was approaching nightfall when we reached the track system which leads to the pub. I found the discarded leg of a deer on the path, which is an odd thing to find when there is no three-legged deer nearby.

Some of us hitched the final few kilometres to the lodge, rather than walk along the winding road in the dark and rain. I took a lift with some more deer hunters. They had no more space in the front, so I sat in the trailer, with two beheaded deer staring at me and blood sloshing about it on the bottom of the trailer.

As I got out of the truck at the pub, the man who had beheaded the two deer and had a truck dripping with blood, told me he might join me for a multi-day mountain climb in the near future. That should be fun.

We were met in the pub by a representative of the Glen of Imaal Mountain Rescue team to accept the small donation that our walkers had put together to thank our guide for preventing us from having to call the Glen of Imaal Mountain Rescue team.

Thank you and well done to everyone who took part!