GC27T93: 360°

Found on 2010-06-22
Placed by: cham-69
Size: Small (Difficulty: 1 / Terrain: 3.5)
Location: Munster, Ireland
Geocaching.com: GC27T93

Another cacher once asked the question on one of our caches, "Are _TeamFitz_ mad?" well now I guess we have the answer.

We had decided to stay in Killarney one more night to sample the area, and so I floated the idea to Mrs Fitz of attempting this one again. She was not so enthusiastic, but on seeing my enthusiasm, she was persuaded.

Not to be outdone by a mere mountain, _TeamFitz_ parked at the bottom car park where we had done before and made our way up to the fork where we had been before and chosen the red (closed) route. Instead we went on ahead to the blue and was greeted by a slow and friendly elevation.

Finally we found ourselves out in a valley and soon came upon a railway sleeper and a familiar looking sheep trail. Thankfully the sheep trail turned out to be the correct footpath, as evidenced by roamers coming down, and by the presence of more railway sleepers, which took much of the hard climb out.

Another hour later and we were at the top with the magnificent, yet cloudy view of Killarney, we could even see Ross Castle which we had been at earlier that morning. The cache was soon found - hidden quite well, though the contents are a little damp.

We sat down and ate some snacks, an old Irish fellow who had been up here many times before offered to take our photo, and then we sat and talked to him for half an hour about Ireland, tabloids and politics.

When I finally stood up I was hit immediately by the wind, which reminded me we were on a mountain. A rain cloud was on it's way so we decided to quickly make our way down. We caught a little bit of the rain but we were soon in the warmer climate and making our way back towards the falls.

We have now seen and hiked on both sides of Torc Mountain and have the photos and stories to prove it.

Thanks for the experience!