South East Water - 6 Peaks Blog

Anyone got any mountains we can borrow?

I’ve cleared the minibus!  Yay.  Just needs a bit of TLC and it will be fit for action again!

The general feeling from the walkers is that the world is a little “floaty” today.  Can only be down to the fact that we’ve been constantly moving for the last 6 days and the body’s not used to being still.

No mountains today :(  or tomorrow!  Lost for words.  I’ll update when I can think what’s next.

Thanks for following us and thanks for your support and donations along the way, Paul.

Morning!  It’s amazing that the human body, when pushed to it’s limit of endurance with lack of sleep, proper food and rest always has an emergency reserve when the bar opens.  Ross is working on some statistics of the challenge, but I’m pleased to announce the winners of the late night get to bad award (in reverse  order).

3rd Place = Paul with a time of 03:45
2nd Place - Ross with a time of 04:55
1st Place - No suprises it’s Louise with a time of 05:10

Richard gets a special mention for staying up until about 03:00.

We’re on the bus back to Dublin port and everyone seems fit enough to take on another peak today.  Crazy but true. 

Check back later for some stats from Ross and Steve.

Paul

evening my lovely fans

the team and me might be enjoying a little drink. . .

While we were not the fastest team we did win one award, well richard did. He is now officially the lost sheep!

More stories and pictures tomorrow but a pint of the black stuff has just appeared!

Night

love steve

We made it to the top of Corran Tuathail, the 6th and final peak, with Martin in tow and although we didn’t win the award for the biggest cheer, we did have the best and only team song written by John (lyrics to follow).

This final peak was a fantastic finish with the daunting ‘Devils Ladder’ to negotiate, which is basically a very steep 200 metre waterfall to climb.  The only way is up!

We had a relaxed walk back to the finish line and crossed the challenge finish line with 10 minutes to spare.  Job done.  Followed swiftly by popping a bottle of bubbly and Ross, Louise and myself all learning that you can’t down it from the bottle while it’s still fizzing.  The results were explosive and most entertaining!

Back to the hotel for a shower, party and some of Irelands best alcohol!

Paul

Hi, we’ve done another peak!  The whole team made it this time with various strains pains slips and falls.  I think it’s fair to say we’re all pretty tired now.  Not many photos from Slieve Donard because it was dark, but we reached the base at 4:30am and the sun was up so at least we got to see what we’d been up.

I’m in the co-pilot seat on the bus now and Sat Nav shows us reaching the start of peak 6 at around 11:00am.  We’ve accidentally let Sat Nav take us the “alternative” route to Killarney, but we might not get there last.  We need a lot of luck and good traffic now.  Hey, if it was easy it wouldn’t be called a challenge!

Fingers crossed for us please?  How about sending us some cheery comments for the last peak

Check back later to see how we get on.

Paul.

We met George on the ferry.  Louise needed a hug, so what better than an 8 foot monkey!  Steve looks suitably unimpressed as usual.

Off to Slieve Donard to bag the 5th peak.  The whole team’s up for it and it’s going to be intense!

Paul

Jo here.  Well 4 mountains down and 2 to go and everyone is feeling much more humain again after getting at least some sleep last night in the bunkhouse near Fort William (except Paul who slept in the van). It was a heavy day yesterday with Snowdon am, Scafell Pike pm and then the long drive to scotland and we were all struggling to understand what time of day it was let alone what day of the week.

4 of us cut our bed-time and set off up Ben Nevis at 5.45 this morning but the weather was so atrocious - rain but particularly the wind - in the end they closed the mountain.  Disappointing as we were only an hour or so away from the summit but Louise and I were literally knocked off our feet and that sort of wind and a 1,000 ft drop do not go well together.  Conditions were so bad we couldn’t take any photos and even Steve decided to stay in bed.  We are working on getting him a waterproof coat….

Driving to Stranraer for the ferry to Northern Island - really looking forward to the ferry crossing - and aiming to get some “decent” food on the way.  After 3 days living on service station food we are beginning to dream about vegetables….

Jo

Step back a little.  After Snowdon we walked ScaFell Pike in really perfect weather.  Unfortunately my knee hurt after Snowdon so I was going to go half way, but ended up near the top.  The rest of the team summited with a satisfying cheer which could be heard down the mountain.  Total time for Scafell Pike 5h 50mins which was faster than our previous attempt 6 weeks ago

Onward to Scotland and the journey and my bad knee had knocked me into an emotional wreck so I decided to sit Ben Nevis out and tidy the bus while the drivers got a well earned rest.

Paul

Ok, itsw been a while but i’m back briefly.  Basically this is serious stuff!  In summary, tiredness, hunger, sickness and a couple of injuries.

I’m in the bus at the base of Ben Nevis waiting for the return of Ross, Louise, Jo and Richard.  I’ve got a bad knee, John’s at the bunkhouse with a twisted ankle and the drivers are there too resting.

The fab four on Ben Nevis are coming back down because the weather is too bad and challenge mountain leaders have decided to clear the mountain.  65 MPH winds and hard rain.  These guys are hard core and I love them all.  I’m a bit emotional today so I’ll probably hate them by lunch time

Just boiled them some water so they can get warmed up on their return.

Blog later with some dull grey pictures and news of what happened on Scafell!

Paulus.,