The Mourne…Seven Sevens !

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of taking part in the Spartan Red Sox annual Seven Seven’s Challenge. (some would debate whether or not it was a pleasure!)

There were approximately 185 entries this year, with the aim being to climb the seven highest peaks (>700m) in the Mourne Mountains, starting at sea level, in Newcastle.

Being intent…this year…on enjoying the walk, and not minding too much if we didn’t complete them all, a couple of us settled in to a more pleasurable pace, completing 5 of the 7 (plus the long trek back to Newcastle!) in 12½ hrs (which is still a long days walking) and most of the rest of our lads finished in around 13½ hrs, with one of the Kilimanjaro team completing it in 11 hrs 33 minutes! Well done Irwin Adair ! A list of all entries, with times, can be downloaded from the Spartan Red Sox Walking Club site here.

We had a Pasta Party in a caravan at Cranfield the night before, which was great, but, thinking about the day ahead meant there wasn’t much sleep to be had…not in my bunk anyway!

We had a very wet start to the day, as you can see from the cloud behind Stephen above. I quickly realized that it was too warm for what I was wearing (my Páramo jacket, with a base layer) and yet it was too wet, to do without a coat. I took off the base layer, and put the coat back on (next to my bare skin)…and it worked perfectly for the rest of the 12½ hours. It was total comfort…highly recommended!