I got up early-ish to do a trial trip up Mullaghmore, Co Clare today.
I learned: Its a 5k up round trip walking if you stick to the trail. This took me just slightly over the hour, walking at a moderate pace with intermittent periods of crawling.
Its about 35 min car drive to the bottom of the trail walk up Mullaghmore, in the Burren National Park. (you need to put Mullaghmore into google maps, not Burren national park, as I learned to my detriment this morning)
I couldn’t find my knee pads so did some crawling, but not much. Crawling up will be a lot easier than the crawl down which will put a lot of pressure the wrists, shoulders and lower back. this descent will likely be more of a scramble/sprawl/crawl. Taking into consideration the crop circle crawl I had a bit of an achey back and shoulders after and that was on relatively flat ground cushioned by grass. This is extremely bumpy rocky uneven terrain so will take more of a toll. Need to consider training I should be doing to prepare for this as well as what am already doing. Thinking about the sustained endurance aspect of this action, as opposed to short adrenaline based happenings. I will be making it for the experience of making, the sustained action, the ephemeral mark making aspect of the body moving over the topography. thought about the idea of unrolling and collecting as I travel- a piece of string? Red wool? to what end? For what purpose? On a practical level it would certainly make the descent easier as I would know where to go. Kind of like the notion of making a trail drawing with the wool then taking it up again. leave no trace.
The documentation will be from above, where therefore the height of the the space, as in how steep the climb is, will be rendered irrelevant mostly. Thats interesting also. I thought about the why of it all on the way down. I noted that the descent demanded you go up in some parts in order to get down. going up to descend. And in other areas you had to go down for a bit in order to ascend. And the nature of needing to very much focus to stay on the path.
Importantly, the topography of the area really brings to the forefront the notion of how we as humans cling to the planet like insects on a rock. little bugs creeping around. The interesting idea of gravitational force. I thought about making the action into a rehearsal also by talking all the way up and down, in order to stay present in the action and not let my mid wander, and to accompany myself in the action. certainly it would take my mind off the nature of the action as such. like an outward commentary on the action but from myself. multi tasking at its finest :) It would be labelable as a rehearsal by doing this, as it, the action, would then also serve as a preparatory effort for the next time I get an opportunity (make an opportunity) to perform an endurance talking work.
stuff to organise;
red outfit that doesnt rub or chafe.
video camera i can use with my headcam strap- that will record for 3 hours?
knee pads and gloves – possibly pad gloves at heel of hand.
all for now..
