Walk from Silent Valley - Trassey Track - Newcastle

Today I did the 'Outward Bound Mournes Challenge Walk'. What a day! After all my talk about selling the equipment because of a few bad walk experiences recently... Today I felt total invigorated and I probably did it in the fastest time of my life! There were more than 100 people on the walk, although most of the time I walked alone. We took the route from the Silent Valley car park, along the reservoir road to Ben Crom Dam, along the track to the right of the reservoir, then ascending to the Hare's Gap, down to Trassey Track and joining the Ulster Way into Tollymore forest, Donard Wood and finishing at the Donard car park in Newcastle. Total distance was 26.5 km (16.5 miles), total ascent 545m and I completed the walk in 3 hours 41 minutes. So by the time I got back to the car, I hadn't even touched my lunch yet. That might be the last walk of the summer, so it was great to finish on a high.