Adventure Tourism in Ireland

 And so, a most outstanding two weeks of taking people on journeys with the sole purpose of realising their potential and inner goals.

 Ran the mountain leg of Coastal Cancer Challenge, Donegal's and the North West's most demanding adventure race. I spent the day before the race flagging out the course up the steep gully on the south east face of Muckish Mountain, carrying and placing 40 marker posts in 100m intervals from the roadside quarry up the gully and onto the south east shoulder to a turn around station high on the mountain.

Race Course

Course Flagged

 The day of the race and all marshaling troops were dispatched to their designated manning stations on the course as the first of the cyclists arrived. For the next 5 hours 200+ participants romped past us and headed up the mountain, from our position over a KM away from the steepest section of the course we could clearly heard the runners opinions of the near vertical mountain shenanigans they were involved in. :-)    

Runners on the course

 After the bulk of the runners had passed through this section of the course the last but one participant got a wee bit overwhelmed/over heated/exhausted and assisting the Donegal Mountain Rescue Team with a quick crocodile belay, we got the troopers airborne with R118 and a paraffin budgie trip to Letterkenny General for a spot of re-hydration. 

Paraffin Budgie in attendance 

 As soon as the race was over made a late night dash to Dublin to pick up a mini bus and 10 international visitors for a nine day tour of Ireland's high places. A most excellent group of travelers and uber psyched for a tour of the Irish great outdoors. We worked our way up the west coast of Ireland to arrive at a sun kissed An Port. I had advertised this as Ireland's most beautiful place and considering the outstanding places we had already visited, the bar was set very high! An Port was as always in prime condition and more than lived up to my hype. We walked along the clifftops via Cnoc na Mara and down into Glenlough Bay, Ireland's most remote location. The troops concurred, they were now standing in a truly magical location and this walk was the highlight of their trip to Ireland.  

Killary Harbour

Diamond Hill summit

Irish Beaches

An Port, Donegal

An Port, Donegal

Descent into Glenlough Bay

The Most remote place in Ireland

The most remote house on mainland Ireland

The summit of Ireland's highest sea stack.

 Arrived back in Dublin and left the troops at their hotels on the Monday night, I had planned to stay for a few schoops but alas I had to race back to Donegal for a 30 minute radio interview on the Shaun Doherty Show on Highland Radio on the Monday, a wee bit surreal! :-)

 Working over the next few weeks with a very prominent local Donegal business man to fulfill his quest to stand on top of the Planets highest summit, Mount Everest, he is off course, super psyched and we will indeed play out and visit a few less well known summits MUCH closer to home but equally mind blowing! :-)