Our ferry was at 11.30, so we got up in the morning and drove back to Belfast port. After waiting to board for a while we got on without a problem and sailed on time.
We arrive at Cairnryan on time about 2pm, and disembarked fairly quickly. We set off on the road home, stopping at a beach on the way for Oscar to get a walk. There were seals on the rocks and a view out to Ailsa Craig.
We arrive home without incident about 5pm.
This was our last full day. We left Annalong and drove south down the coast to Cranfield beach for a walk. There's an unusual lighthouse just off the coast, in Carlingford Lough.
The tide was in so the beach wasn't big enough to let Oscar off lead. We carried on into Newry and parked near the centre. We bought some lunch from Lidl, then went for a walk along Carlingford Lough Greenway, a narrow strip of land next to the shipping canal there.
There were a lot of birds feeding as the tide went out.
After Newry we drove back to Strangford Lough, as we knew there was a good wild camping spot at Whiterock Bay near Sketrick Island. The sun was still out when we got there and it was spectacular.
After parking up we went for a walk round Sketrick Island, passing the castle on the way.
We went back to the van and left Oscar, and returned to Daft Eddys bar and restaurant on the island for a drink. We passed a field of sunflowers on the way.
Back at the van we made tuna pasta with tomato sauce for dinner.
From the Annalong car park we drove towards the south side of the Mourne Mountains and managed to get a space in the small free Carrick Little car park. We then walked into the Annalong valley, which was a very nice track to start with.
They have very distinctive walls around there, built with large granite boulders.
We then started climbing steeply up to the summit of Slievelamangan (702 metres). From the top we had good views, we could see the reservoir we'd been to yesterday.
From there we walked over two more peaks, Cove Mountain and Slieve Beg.
The descent from Slieve Beg wasn't very nice, quite a steep rocky slope. We had good views of Slieve Donard though.
We had some reasonable walking for a while, on a famous trail called the Brandy Pad. Views of all the peaks around were great.
Unfortunately the nice path came to an end when we had to follow the Mourne Wall for a couple of miles through the Bog of Donard, a peat bog with a very indistinct path. Lots of squelchy bits and big ups and downs made it very hard.
Eventually we came to a drier bit, and further on onto the road. We still had about a mile of road walking to do. The whole walk was about 17 km with 850 metres of ascent.
We got back to the same car park in Annalong village for an overnight stay. Despite it having been very busy on Saturday night, it turned out we were the only ones in it tonight.
It was a lovely evening. For dinner we had vegetebal Bolognese with pasta.
After yesterday's big walk we decided on something a little gentler today. We left the site at Newcastle and drove to Silent Valley Mountain Park. We walked along the side of the main reservoir and up to Ben Crom reservoir.
We went for a coffee and cake in the park's café. Then we left and headed for our camping spot for the night, a car park at the coastal village of Annalong.
It's a great spot, right next to the beach and a short walk from the harbour. We walked round the harbour past an old mill to the Harbour Inn for a pint.
For dinner we went to the local chippy for fish and chips, which we took back to the van. It turned out that about 16 vans stayed in the car park overnight.
We walked up Slieve Donard today, starting from the site.
First into Newcastle and all the way down the main street.
The path up the hill starts at the south end of town. First following the river through forest, then it becomes more open. It's a very popular route and a well made path.
We passed a few wild ponies.
We eventually reach the Mourne Wall, a 22 mile long wall built in the early 20th century which encloses the water catchment area of the Silent Valley reservoir.
The last stretch of the path to the top parallel to the wall was very steep, but eventually we made it to the summit of Slieve Donard (850 metres). It was clear so we had good views.
We walked back down to the coll and up the other side, to the summit of Slieve Commedagh (765 metres).
We walked off this hill to the east, and found the path wasn't as good as our upward one, being a steep grassy slope. We made it back to town though, and went for a welcome drink in the Tap Room. The walk was a total of 16 km with 1100 metres of ascent.
Back at the van we made burgers with fried potatoes and beans for dinner.
