Brom sees red

Coocoo

The day after we had arrived in the cottage, we went for a hike in the Mourne Mountains which were just behind our cottage. We drove for a few minutes and parked in the Silent Valley car park. Now, Mara would normally have been okay with the longer hike, but as she has a gammy knee right now... a short walk it was.

Which was still quite tough, as we were in the mountains. The Mourne Mountains may not be as high as the Alps or the Pyrenees, but they do go up and down. The area we were in was called Silent Valley and just have a look at the video and you will hear nearly nothing! So nice. 

The Silent Valley Reservoir provides the water for most of county Down and the city of Belfast and was created in the twenties and thirties of the 20th century. We saw the houses they would have lived in and the one in the photo was actually a home to somebody until 2006. Not in the park itself, because after the reservoir was completed the houses were sold to people in the area. When the lady who lived in this house had passed away, it was bought and brought back to the park.

This was a home for a family with three children!

There was also a school for the children of the workers and several other large buildings still on site. There was one larger corrugated iron structure that was now used as a tea room, but was probably for some overseer or perhaps a workshop.

Mara's squirrel

We did want to get some hot chocolate, but while Mara was waiting for Gera and me to come back with a face mask (mandatory, yet forgotten), she spotted a red squirrel. She took some photos from afar. Once we had come back she told us about the squirrel and even saw another one pass behind Gera. 

Our squirrel!

Then as Mara went to the toilet, we saw one ourselves. Sitting right on the next table! Gera took a few photos before it shot off again. Bad luck Mara!!

There was one other thing that was really interesting and that was the Wall of Mourne. It was created during the depression to make sure people wouldn't go idle and they recently have renovated large parts of it. You still can't see it from the moon though or so Gera said.

Mara conquered the steps up to the top of the wall!

You can actually do a hike following this wall and it is really challenging. Perhaps when the gammy knee is sorted?