and an eerie cycle last evening with a tick onboard my nose
Indeed eerie was my yesterday’s evening cycle to Disert Graveyard. It’s not a surprise that the visit at graveyard of any type, in the late hours of sun setting, might be considered eerie, but the whole cycle indeed was having this vibe.
I promised that I will write a bit more about my ride and what place I visited, and provide some details about the site itself. There’s a lot of information circulating about Disert Graveyard, both from heritage research point of view, as well as stricte archeological interest and point of view, so I will skip that and express my view of how it was, and what my experience consisted of.
Last evening, after work I decided to take opportunity of my wife taking care about the dinner, and use the last hours of daylight to take a spin. Initially I didn’t know where I will go, I just wanted to get on a saddle and breathe fresh air – it was all I needed. While checking the maps I found a nice circular route that I could take of about 50 kilometres, but when I was ready with the bike, I knew it is too long of a route to safely cover it before night comes. Besides it was expected to rain a bit in some areas, so I decided to get to one point of interest that was saved on my map, close to this loop, but instead of completing the circle, I’d just reach that destination and return the same way.
On my way towards Letterbarrow FC grounds, which are close to the point of interest that I was about to go to – Disert Graveyard, I extended the ride via the riverbank walk and stopped at the Circle K gas station to take a sip of a hot coffee. I was expecting. tough ride, but man, I was about to learn it is going to be much harder. Once the coffee landed in my stomach, I took on a brave approach to Bluestacks Centre and Letterbarrow. Little I knew that I missed one important element. I was heading towards Bluestack Mountains. One thing that completely passed my assessment was the fact that I will be gaining elevation all the way to Disert. The number and length of uphills got me good, and while I was surprised and exhausted, I kind of felt good about it – I wanted fresh air and exercise, hell, it was exactly what I asked for.
I lost route for a moment and started heading towards Frosses, which I only realised after stopping by and petting some horses. Yeah, I mentioned them yesterday and called them carnivorous, which isn’t technically wrong. If I allowed them to go further in their pursuit in sniffing, then tasting my shirt, they wouldn’t probably stop until they ate me alive. Alright, jokes aside, but it was funny and slightly painful when one of the horses bit into my shoulder in an attempt of testing the softness of my flesh, while the other was exploring if my forearm is good to eat too.
After couple of nice photos and a short video, I took back and returned to the track. Couple of minutes away, something started being itchy on my nose. I stopped the bike and checked it just to find a small, mustard seed like black ball, thinking that something fell on my nose off the tree. After closer inspection I realised that this seed had microscopic legs, which could only mean one thing – well fed, nymph stage of a black legged tick. The only reasonable explanation was that it crawled, while I was petting the horses, from them onto my clothes and traveled for couple of minutes across me just to reach my nose. It was full of horses blood likely, so I had to be careful to ensure no pathogen is transferred to me, in case there was any in horse’s blood. Lyme disease or TBE, are nasty illnesses and no joke, so I decided to be on the safe side, even though plenty of ticks I encountered on me, across my entire life. This thing is a lottery, and no one is safe, ever.
I reached Letterbarrow FC pitch when it was already quite late. On the way I had a chat with a very kind older fellow that was preparing for a long ride across Ireland. When I reached Disert gate (first one) I knew it will require more than just riding a bike. I had to do some lifting of the bike and carry it across this and another gate later on. The path is only for walkers/pilgrims, and I didn’t want to leave my bike on the road.
The signage is there and it is all pretty well marked, but if you consider late hours of sunset and cloudy area in the mountains, my sight wasn’t the best in those circumstances. I found the second gate and the bridge fairly quickly though and managed to reach the main altar mound. I recommend couple of resources here to explore it for yourselves. I’ll add couple of pictures as well, but this place feels magical. It remembers pagan days, as well as was used by the church. The fascinating things are that still in XX century, there were unbaptised infants buried there.
There’s a lot of material about the heritage project of Disert Graveyard if you look it up on Google, if you’re interested. Main feature for me though, was the overlooking shadow of Bluestack Mountains, and amazing silent and calm area where this place is located. I am certainly returning there in future, and not once but regularly. If not for Carnaween (the peak majestically standing in the background), then for a meditation in this area.
While the way in was tough and uphill all the time, naturally the way back was almost a breeze, once I started descending towards Donegal Town. It was already dark, and despite me having proper lights at the front and back, as well as being in high visibility clothing, it still wasn’t a comfortable ride. Once it gets dark, my sight is not the same, so I prefer daylight voyages, just for that reason. If I’m not rushed and have a tent or so, I don’t mind night hike and to spend a night somewhere remote, but I wasn’t equipped for any of it.
Time to wrap up and record the podcast. It becomes slightly random here recently. Sometimes I record the podcast first and then write, but today definitely I switched the tasks, like in the good old days. I plan on changing a bit the format to let’s say 5-6 short form posts-updates and quick videos, and then one full length update with weekly blog post, longer than the daily ones. Not sure yet, but happy to hear suggestions. Stay tuned for tomorrow, today was gloomy and busy as expected. Rain is lashing Ireland seriously, so not sure if I will have anything to write about tomorrow, but I’ll make sure to do something worth a write up.
Blunt Force Healing 
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