A tent shun

We got into camp last night, set up tents, had dinner, then took photos.

Views in every direction.

My favourite:

The group I hike with is called NI Walking and Photography Group. The rest of the members are Good Photographers, unlike myself. I tried to steal one of their shots from Facebook, but I can’t figure out how to do it. Theirs are better.

Anyway, my tent before the storm:

My tent after the storm:

The wind had kicked up pretty good around dinner time. I got into my tent at 8:30 pm to stay warm. I may have slept for 2-3 hours and awoke to really high winds, which continued all night. One of the hikers is a sailor as well and he estimated the winds were in the 45-50 mph range. I have never been in such a noisy tent in my life. I got up twice (2am and 3am), put on a few layers of clothes and my boots and unzipped the tent to get out and readjust my pegs. The tent seemed to be collapsing on me, as the wind buffeted it. It also rained during the night and the rain seeped in, as apparently my fly’s waterproofing is done. I thought my tent site was about half and half flat ground and sloped. Yet I couldn’t manage to stay on my mat all night--slip sliding away. I got next to no sleep--too cold, too hot, too noisy, too slippery. I did smile quite frequently. Camping brings out the sunny side in me, an innate response to adversity. I think that’s why I like it so much.

Sunrise was supposed to be around 6:30 a.m., however a heavy mist had settled on the mountain and there would be no sunrise. We helped each other take down our tents in the continued high winds then hiked into the mist.

The Mourne Wall comes in handy as a navigation aid when in thick mists. It helped us get down Slieve Bearnagh. We had a nice tea at the base, then headed home. I had a wicked headache from lack of sleep and dehydration. I spent the afternoon in bed and ended my day by sending an e-mail to 500 people after resolving the last hiccups. The Monkey is Off My Back!!
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