Day 62
Saved by a barn
We started the day with a great chat with a fellow camper, Andy Campbell, shame we were leaving!
The route took us slightly inland from Strandhill and gradually around the Knocknarea mountain. The weather and time meant we didn’t hike up to the summit to see one of Ireland's largest cairns. It is known as Queen Maeve's Cairn, and is believed to contain a Neolithic passage tomb. Tradition has it that to remove a stone will bring you bad luck but to take a stone from the bottom up to the cairn will bring you good look. The weather we were to experience later this day makes me think we should have taken a hike up with as many stones as we could carry and ask for a dry day!
Lunch was eaten by a river, under a dense canopy of trees that kept us dry. The rain seemed to ease and we carried on, eager to ride as much of the hills in the Ox mountain range as possible. The route would have been a joy on a dry day but the higher we got the worst the weather became. We both screamed with shock at the lightning followed by the loudest clap of thunder I have ever heard. Then the rain got serious, so fierce and heavy that there was virtually no visibility. Then the hailstones started. We had planned to wild camp but there seemed nowhere safe, the woodland either fenced off or too steep, or the open ground too exposed to the elements. We hoped there might be a shelter of some kind at Lough Easkey, but no. For 10 miles we battled on, occasionally the rain eased a little then grew heavier. We were getting cold. We had not seen a building since the rain had started in earnest. I spotted some smoke coming from the chimney of a small cottage and thought about asking for shelter. However we whizzed by as we could see the owners hard at work moving sheep. Shortly after, the roof of a red barn came into view. We stopped; the adjacent farm house was all boarded up. Though the barn was open-sided the inside was dry. The floor was covered in what I will call earth, but in reality, was dried cow and sheep poo! Needs must. A quick hop over the metal gates, we were soon in dry clothes, chairs set up and the inner part of the tent up. For some reason the stove wouldn’t work so it was crackers for tea! Fortunately, we had a flask of hot water so could have a warm cuppa before bed! We got a wave from the farmer we had seen earlier, he was moving sheep down the mountain, we guessed to somewhere safer, yep the weather was that bad!
