Camping in Tollymore Forest, Day 2: Exploring the forest.

Hi Steemians,

Today was the second day of our camping adventure.

Yesterday we set up our tent had an awesome BBQ and a terrible nights sleep but today was the start of our proper adventure and what a morning it turned out to be.. If you want to read about our first day here's a link.
https://steemit.com/blog/@g4gold/camping-in-tollymore-forest-first-night-in-the-tent

Waking up so early after a terrible nights sleep we needed something to lift the spirits. The view we were welcomed with at 6 am as we opened the tent, filled me with happiness and excitement. So now the night before was forgotten and the first thing on the agenda was breakfast... We came well prepared, and nothing will get you started like a good old Northern Irish breakfast... a FRY!

We had the usual sausage, bacon, eggs, pancake and the final ingredient to any proper fry.. .soda bread which if you've never had the pleasure of trying I feel bad for you but as far as I know you can only get it in Northern Ireland.
Look up a recipe, make it yourself you will become addicted.

Now with tummies full it was time to get ready for our first walk into the forest. So we got washed and dressed packed a bag with drinks and snacks then set off to find the start of the forest trail.

We walked across the field where we were camping and then two carparks which were practically empty, after all it was still only 7:30 am . We then encountered this Gothic style bridge with a tunnel carved through it, that would lead us to the start of the forest trail.

One steep hill and a few flights of stairs later we were at the start of the forest trail, almost immediately we encountered this beautiful stream that ran along the path we were about to walk.

After following the path for about half a mile we came to this stone Hermitage, the little leaflet we had informed us that: The Hermitage was designed by a James Hamilton (2nd Earl of Clanbrassil) in 1770, in memory to his friend the Marquis of Monthermer. It is built into the rock above the river and was used as a shelter for ladies while the men fished. There is an inscription in Greek inside the Hermitage which translates as "Clanbrassil, to his very dear friend Monthermer 1770".

We walked on through after taking amount to admire the view, then we walked another little while stopping at a shallow part of the river so Stewart could throw a few stones and have a little rest.

()

Shortly after we resumed our travels we came across some stepping stones that would take us to the other side of the river and to the start of our journey back to the tent. We crossed the stepping stones and climbed a flight of stairs that took us up high above the river.

At this point Stewart was feeling tired and wanted carried a minute which is pretty normal when we go for big walks but after about 100 metres he was KO'd, fast asleep in my arms, and it was only ten in the morning . OH dear! we still had a good mile and a half back to the the tent and Stewart is not a wee baby anymore, he's a big boy and weighs a ton especially when hes not clinging on.

We took turns carrying him but what was a peaceful relaxing walked had turned into some sort of strength and endurance test. We finally a reached this bridge that we had past at the start of the walk and it was a welcome sight. Now just for the seemingly vertical hill and the flights of stairs at the start of the trail.

They were steep coming down but now with Stewart in my arms and having to ascend, said hill. This was now a survival mission. I made it to the top of the hill and found the first bench to sit on, then politely asked Sarah to go get the car that would take us the last 300 metres of the mission, across flat carparks :).
Thankfully she felt sympathy and understood how tough it was after carrying him herself for a good part of journey back.
We all piled in the car and drove across the carparks and back to our tent for a well deserved rest and some food.

While Sarah and Stewart were chilling in the tent I decided to take a walk around the immediate area to see if I could jump off anything cool. As Tollymore Forest is covered in old monuments it was not hard to find something that captured my attention.

The first thing I came too was this really cool tree. Which i felt should be back-flipped off, after setting up the camera on a wooden post I preceded to check it out, everything looked good and safe enough so I went for it.

Fortunately I landed on my feet and wondered off to find something else to play on.

I jumped up on a wall and followed it the whole way up to one of the famous buildings in the area. The Clanbrassil barn.
I set up my camera once again and managed to capture this picture of me jumping over one of the entrances.

Feeling good I was walking back to the tent but I had passed this amazing arch way at the other side of the barn. I kept walking back and forward getting closer to the tent then going back to the arch. I couldn't think of a way to get a picture of me climbing it and I didn't want to leave without getting the picture so I stood around until these two guys walked up towards
me and I figured it was worth a shot. I asked them if they would mind taking a quick picture of me. They happily agreed, so I handed one of them my phone and ran off behind the archway. They probably wondered what was happening until I jumped up on the wall and started to climb one side of the arch. As I started to climb, one of the bollards I was using as a foot hold moved which seemed like a lot. The stability of the arch way came into question quite quickly and I'm sure it was quite sometime since a person was standing at the top of the arch stress testing the nearly 300 year old building (1757). I made it to the top and it felt good. I put my arms out wide to celebrate and had almost forgot about the two guys standing watching me, probably wondering which one of them was gonna have to call the ambulance. The guy with the phone moved closer and shouted, "Wait! I'll take one more for you". So I stood there hoping that the two bollards would hold for just a couple more seconds. I heard "that's it mate" and as quick as the words left his mouth I preceded to climb carefully back down the archway feeling a lot better that I was, on a lot more sturdy part of the structure. I finally jumped down off the wall and thanked the two gentlemen that had waited and took the pictures for me. Then briskly walked out of sight of the park rangers office and over to the tent with my head somewhat down just in case I'd been spotted.

After looking at my pictures I released they had quite a religious symbolism about them but after all the barn and archway had been designed to look like a church by James Hamilton (1st Earl of Clanbrassil). For a moment I felt all most apart of the places history.

When I eventually walked backed to the tent Stewart was awake and it was time for some lunch and then some Ice cream, we walked down to the play park that was not to far from the tree I'd back-flipped off recently, played for half an hour before then we all got Ice-cream. It had turned out to be a spectacular day so far. We mainly stayed around the tent playing games and eating dinner and quite a lot of snacks but I'd say we deserved it after the day we had.

That night we all slept like logs and didn't wake up until 10 o'clock in the morning. Best nights sleep ever!

Just like the day before we woke up to see another beautiful morning and I started to wonder if we were really still in Northern Ireland. The plan for today was to go into the local seaside town, Newcastle. It turned out a lovely day and we got some more cool pictures and I jump off some more interesting things!

Come check it out tomorrow.

Thanks for reading this post!

@g4gold