Donegal SUAS 2001 - De La Salle Scout Group Expeditions Series

Donegal SUAS
19th-21st October 2001

Above (L-R): Maurice Kavanagh, Barry Kelly and Brian Walsh of the 7th DLS on the Donegal SUAS.

According to the AA website it is 248 miles from Waterford to Letterkenny if you drive via Dublin and 245 if you go through the midlands. They helpfully but incorrectly add that the journey will take you 5 hours and 30 minutes. There is nothing quite like a good long road trip to make an MPC/Sionnach/Suas that bit more challenging so for the extra 3 miles we opted for the Dublin route. We met at Billy Collins's house at about half past twelve and it was bucketing down. This prompted Billy to make a final check on our sanity, although he would quite happily have jumped into the car and come with us. After a last minute dash into the den for some compasses we were on the road by one. It was agreed by Thomastown that Colm's CD collection is actually far worse than was initially feared and while moving at 0.3 miles per hour along the M50 we also decided that we may as well have been driving behind a lorry load of silage in Sligo as at least the drivers there wouldn't blow you off the road. By the time we got to Letterkenny it was 9.00pm and the KFC sign looked very inviting. Having used their toilet, Brian Walsh declared "But they only do chicken". So we awarded him most ridiculous remark of the weekend and went to McDonalds instead.

Above: PL Maurice Kavanagh holds soup for a member of staff at Loch an Tairbh Mhor.

The drive out into the wilds of Donegal was definitely exciting and added anither few dints to the rear of the car but we managed to find Dun Luiche without any difficulty. As we pulled into the car park, Tom O'Neill and the team from Tramore were just behind us and we were glad we weren't the only Waterford and South Kilkenny troop to make the trip. Thomastown were also on their way but had only left Kilkenny at 7.00pm and were coming up via Killybegs! The hike into basecamp was handy enough and as we were early we managed to find some dryish spots for the tents. The overall bogginess of the Donegal mountains was however very impressive. We reckoned they were definitely ahead of Wicklow and even the Comeraghs and would have drawn with the Maamturks.

Above: The view of Errigal from the top of spot height 595.

Saturday had a rainy and slightly misty start and it was definitely a morning for full wetgear on and breakfast eaten before you'd venture out of the tent. At the check in we were given the letter "M" for mother / Mandy / upside down Waterford and we were on our way up the Poisoned Glen by about quarter past ten with us taking turns as head bog avoiders. There was a serious fence to cross by means of an impressively high Donegal engineered stile. Just ahead of us as we crossed the stile were the team from Muff. We had never heard of Muff before and when we asked them where Muff was, we wouldn't have been surprised if they had said Muff, County Muff. It is actually in Co. Derry and a check on our road map confirmed that they hadn't just made the name up. There was a bit of a scramble up to the next checkpoint before we had lunch below the 485 spot height. Barry Kelly proved that he was definitely the nephew of Billy Collins by producing a whole cooked chicken and Maurice Kavanagh unwisely swapped a Special K bar for a revolting tasting Apricot Fruesli bar. Only Mars bars are allowed from now on. We didn't hang around there for two long as the team behind us kept singing "Tomorrow" from Annie and it was driving us mad.

Above: Cider and the gang from Thomastown at Loch an Mhama Beag.

Fortunately the weather had now cleared up and we took a quick break in the sun at Loch an Tairbh Mor which we were sure had something to do with a Big Bull. From there we ascended to 595 metres where we had fantastic views across to Errigal and the whole Glenveagh National Park. In the distance we could also see a number of windfarms. From Loch Sliabh Sneachta, we started to descend back in the direction of basecamp. It was going to be a long boggy slog but we spiced it up by being one of the 5 teams to go down the wrong gully into Loch an Mhama (The lake of the Mammy?).

Above: The 7th team takes a break while ascending to spot height 485.

We had all now fallen down our fair share of sneaky bogholes and as it got darker we actually got better at finding them. Billy's advice to always carry a head torch on a day hike paid off as even though it was a clear night, the moon wasn't much help at all. It was a quarter to eight before we were all down at the last river crossing - the latest we had ever arrived back to base on an MPC. We had certainly earned our pound of sausages, assorted pot noodles, another cooked chicken and a mysterious Cappucino.

Above: Barry Kelly in boghole finding mode.

We didn't rush out of bed on Sunday morning and were only just up in time for the Scouts Own. Maurice collected the MPC badges (and one Sionnach badge) while Colm made himself feel really old by admitting that it had been 10 years since his first MPC badge in the Mournes in 1991. We were almost tempted to try out the trampoline and to climb Errigal on the way back up the road to the car. However we resisted. It had been an excellent and challenging weekend in a fantastic part of the country and who knows, maybe we would back.

Above: Basecamp with Errigal in the background.

Entrance | Group News | Guestbook | Scouting

Outdoors | Questions | Programme