Getting Lost - We've All Done It

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 UKH Articles 22 Sep 2014
getting lost montage, 3 kbDan Bailey makes an embarrassing navigational slip-up, then proves that he's not the only muppet on UKH by inviting site users to admit mistakes of their own.

Read more at http://www.ukhillwalking.com/articles/page.php?id=6077
 Steve Perry 23 Sep 2014
In reply to UKH Articles:

Oops
Blackhill 24 Sep 2014
In reply to UKH Articles:
I have luckily only made one fairly serious error navigationally and it was more to do unrealistic ambition far outstripping actual ability very early on in my exploration of the Wicklow Mountains.

My target for the day would be Lugnaquillia, the highest point in Wicklow and topped by a huge flat summit plateau that is often swathed in cloud and fog and as such navigationally problematic; It is one of the most common callout locations for the local MR teams. Lug’ is also unusual since it is bordered on one side by an army artillery range. Indeed one of the most popular routes on Lug goes right through the range but is only usable on non firing days. People regularly stray into the range and there have been fatalities over the years.

Anyway on this day I set of to climb the mountain from the opposite side to the range and to cut a long story short I got to the top but the cloud dropped and I was lost wandering around in peat hags for hours until I eventually dropped lower out of the cloud to see a vast and unfamiliar valley in front of me. At this point with failing light -I also picked November for this adventure - I decided the only thing was to go down and descended into this bog saturated valley and started following the course of a river but soon realized (from the map…..thankfully not from the sound of explosions) with a growing sense of alarm that I was in the range and called MR for advice. They in turn called the army who eventually extricated me and drove me 20 odd miles back to my car now on the opposite side of the mountain.

The army sergeant gleefully told me that if they had known there was an Englishmen in the range they would have got the forty pounders out! On a more serious note he also said that where I had walked had years of unexploded ordnance buried in the bog and they rarely ventured in on foot.

It was a sobering experience that that made me get better prepared for the hills.
Post edited at 14:44

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