Lough Graney Walk with Buster, 6th October 2009

It was a wet and mizzly morning today so Jim and I chatted, had breakfast then did some inside jobs. Jim carried on with tiling the bathroom and I did a shamefully large pile of ironing. By the afternoon, the rain had stopped although the skies were dark and the light wasn't good.

I decided to take Buster for a Lough Graney walk as he'd been in all morning. I noticed this cow hair stuck to the barbed wire:
I walked down to Kevin's where the fishing stand is and chatted to a couple of fishermen who said they had been there most of the day and had caught 100 fish, mostly perch. They also said that last Tuesday, a much better day, they had a haul of 200!! You'd think the lake would be empty, although I think they put them back for another day. I didn't want Buster to go onto the stand as the fishing gear was still there and he'd no doubt find something to eat that he shouldn't have. As the water has receded because of the lack of rain in October, we were able to walk along the side of the lake.

I have never walked along the shore before and decided to see how far I could get. Buster thought it was most exciting. The water was really choppy, more like the sea than a lake.

I turned around and took this photo of the fishing stand with one of the fishermen packing up his things, you can see his red coat.


Buster was fascinated by the sound the water was making, sloshing and slapping against the dark rocks. The photos should come with sound recordings.

The sun made a feeble attempt to shine, but its watery rays did little to warm us up.

A strange looking fallen branch, bleached by the water and the sun.

Along the side of the lake are a series of bays with rocky outcrops at each side. I managed to make my way round these without too much trouble. I am always afraid of losing my footing and dropping the camera. Buster went ahead and I followed his path. He kept stopping to make sure I was still there.

Buster reflecting.

I reached the other side of the next bay where these rocks were covered in thick moss.

This shot is rather dark but can you see the fence posts sticking up? It's rather amusing that many of the fences go right out into the water. Most of the wire on them has been pulled down by intrepid walkers like me!

Suddenly there was a huge bright green patch of forget-me-nots. There were also quite a few swathes of watercress.

This was the next outcrop I had to negotiate. Look at that fence post right out in the water!
I ducked under an overhanging tree, covered in lichen. How beautiful it is.

From this point on there were some interesting rock formations. They looked for all the world like miniature mountain ranges. It's hard to see from the photograph, but the rocks are in long rows with gaps in between.
This was one of the larger formations, many of them were quite small.
I turned round here and took a photo of where I had started. You can just see the white of the bungalow next to Kevin's house in amongst the trees.

From here, our way became much more difficult. The grassy lakeside gave way to rough ground covered with brambles and gnarled old moss covered trees. Buster clearly found something up this tree to interest him. I was a bit slow with the shot and cut his nose off!

Then he moved his head in this one! The waters were swirling around very close to our feet and I wondered what to do. I didn't really want to turn back.

The churning water below us. Our way ahead was impassable so I thought we would try and cut inland across a field, which I hoped was on the other side. Buster managed ok, but I had to try and move brambles and roses out of my way and they clawed at the back of my jacket as I squeezed through to the field on the other side.

I realised at once where I was, just at the bottom of one of Francy's fields full of cows and sometimes a large bull. This part of the lake has a sort of harbour and we were right next to it. It was really wet and boggy and my short wellingtons soon filled with water. Buster sank up to his thighs and didn't like it one bit. We really had no choice but to plough through the boggy section to get to the track which led up to the road.
This is where we came out!
There is Buster wondering how he was going to negotiate that water!
I turned round to face the lake and took this joiner to show the enclosed area I'm trying to describe. Please click on it to see it properly.
Luckily there was no sign of the bull and we reached the path you can see on the left, much relieved. You can see the outcrop of trees to the centre right of the photo and that is where we had to squeeze through from the lake side to the field! We carried on up the hill.
You can still see the little enclosed area to the left.
I had to undo the chain on this gate to get up onto the road. 'Beware of the Bull' the sign reads. It was good to be back on solid ground and I was tired and wet so I headed home.

Buster, too, was tired and muddy.
As we walked along the lane, we disturbed a large flock of curlew. They circled around several times, then landed down by the lake.
A little further up the lane and our barn comes into view, the one with the green roof. I was pleased to get home and take off my wet clothes. However, after a brief rest I went and shifted rocks for an hour in the back yard!!

Hopefully tomorrow the plumber will come and plumb in our shower over the bath, fix the toilet in the new bathroom which doesn't flush and finish his part of the job. I won't hold my breath though....