 And here we are for a Wednesday afternoon. Now Swilly Hiking Club, which is the base here in Nettokennie, was formed back in 2012. And Nettokennie is a great location because central to a big area of uplands and coastal areas suited to hiking and hill walking and thinking the Derry Vey Mountains, the Blue Stacks, Snokala, Sleeve League, Aerygill and the mountains in the Nishon. That's not to mention all the coastal areas and the offshore islands. Well, I'm joined by a couple of members of the group, Noel McGuhan and Grace Mulligan now to tell us a wee bit more about hill walking. And if you want to join the group, you're both welcome to the show. Thank you, delighted to be here. Well, thanks for coming in. I'm just chatting off air there about how it's great to see that, you know, the day's getting longer now and we've got a sunshine and hopefully some drier weather. But you never let the weather put you off, do you? No, there's no such thing as bad weather as bad clothing. And you have to stick to that principle. When you have a walking club, if you were to cancel every day there was a wee breeze or a bit of rain then she'd never get out. We sometimes have to cancel if the weather is really bad, if roads are bad or if it's dangerous, we're very careful around safety and the hill as well or if there's mist. But most of the time we try to fulfill our needs. And how's it working, Noel, if there's a, you know, if the forecast is not great and you've planned to say, you know, go up into the Derivé mountains, do you then, can you adapt it and say, I'll tell you what, we'll do a bit more on the roads and we'll come down a wee bit? We do that. Actually, last weekend we changed the walk from Saturday until Sunday because the weather forecast was very bad for Saturday and it wasn't good for Sunday either. But as it turned out, Sunday was a great day. We were down in Tivolihead, which is down Bredor area, up behind the Angkorch hotel up there and we had a lovely walk up on Sunday. Grace, the walks are always led by an experience guide and I'm just looking down through the list of some of them here that Noel's given me, Danaph and Truskmore and Urus and Scalp and Staples and Northern and stuff. All sorts of great areas and I would, you know, there's a lot of them areas that I would have seen mentioned and kind of go, where exactly is that? But the beauty of it is that a lot of them are and the best or the best parts of them only accessible by foot. Yes, and for us getting round the county, our county is... We're blessed. We are more than blessed. We have, we possibly have the best county and that's a very biased view, the best county in Ireland to walk in. But we walk near the coast, we walk on the hills, we walk, none of the walks are terribly far from where we start off and we do have experienced leaders. We're very big into safety on the hill. Okay, but Noel, it's not just in Donegal that you walk, you go further afield? We have, yeah. We have been, we were down in Mayo, we spent a week down in Clare Island and we were at Eichel and last year we were down in Wicklow and we do the Anthem Coast and all around whatever's convenient and whatever's sound good at the time, you know, we just... Variate. Yeah, not varied about you, I tend to mix, you know, have a, we don't always go along journey every second of the weekend, so maybe along this weekend and the next weekend maybe somewhere closer to home, but a good mix, yeah. But Grace, the beauty of being in Donegal is you could walk 52 weeks of the year and not repeat the walk. Yes, we, you know, a lot of people know the names of the places we walk, but they've never actually been there. They're passing it and they're saying, gosh, I'd love to, I'd love to try that ridge and with us you see views that are magic and with an experienced leader, everybody's, everybody's happy to be on the walk and if any weather changes, the walk changes. Yeah, yeah. That's wonderful. You trust the guide or you trust the leader? We have, we have a lot of experienced leaders and we have a lot of new people taking up the challenge of leading with the help of a more experienced person. Okay, okay. And the beauty is as well that you get to see, you could pass an area, you know, the whole year or your whole lifetime and you'd be looking at it from one direction and you'd be thinking, I wonder what it's like beyond that ridge or over the top of the hill there. And the beauty of it is when you go out hell walking, then you get to see areas from an entirely different perspective and most of them have the wow factor. And we have some great photographers in the, in the groups. There's a number of people who take great photographs and then we post them on our, our club WhatsApp. And after the walk, then you relive it. It's wonderful. If you take Ors there, for example, now Ors is kind of a small enough area, that parish really, but there's at least six walks there and they're totally different. There you go. That's just one, that's just one area. Yeah. Yeah. How often do you, at this time of the year, how often would you go out walking? We walk every Sunday, every Sunday and the first Saturday, first Saturday of the month instead of Sunday. And the others are all Sunday. We meet at nine o'clock at the ATU back car park. And if anybody is interested in giving us a test, see how you get on, they're welcome to join. We go on a wedding this evening then during the summer, during the summertime. So it's twice a week then during the summer? Twice a week during the summer. Yeah. Well, the weather's a bit better and the evening's obviously a lot longer and stuff. It's more of an appetite. But there's, there's, there's something as well about walking. I often like, as long as you have the right clothes on, the right boots on, you're dry and warm. There's something about walking in, you know, in, in cold and even wet conditions that you just, you go out and you're breathing the elements and you're getting, you just feel like you're properly in the outdoors. I'm not out in a pair of shorts and t-shirt on you. Oh, good boots. Good boots are essential. Yeah. And you never come back, sorry, good. You never come back and say, I didn't enjoy that. No matter what the day is like. No, you always feel good when you return from. Even when we get soaked, we still, it's still a good walk. I know because some, some days you'll be heading out and it's pretty hairy and, you know, and you get out of the car thinking, oh, what am I doing here? But when you come back, it's a bit like, whether you're going out for a jog or a sea swim or something. When you come back, then you go, uh, I'm glad I did that. Well, it's the exercise and it's also the social contact. We actually have great fun. How many members? 75 at the moment. Wow. Okay. Obviously, not, not all members on all the walks that you can vary. You know, there could be a handful, maybe. Well, normally at the minute we're getting around 20 any day because people, people can't come out every week and they choose their walks and choose their weather or two. But around between 20 and 25. Yeah, about that now, this area. What's up group? It's great, isn't it? Very handy. It's great for giving information. Yes, it is, it is. It's good. So anybody can join. What, what level of fitness would you need? Just be able, if you're able, to go out and walk a 5K. Oh yeah, maybe 10K, you know. You know, you'd probably want that, you know. But, um, we encourage people to come on a taster walk and to pick an easier walk rather than a harder one. And, uh, Or the Wednesday. Pardon? Or the Wednesday. Or the Wednesday evening. The Wednesday evening's are ideal for always much easier than the weekend walks. Okay. But we had them, we had them strenuous, um, easy and medium, sort of. Right. But there's nothing, there's nothing technical about any of these walks. It's not like you're going up cliffs or anything. It's, it's hell walking or some of it will be on roads, I imagine. Mostly rambling, I suppose. Mostly, yes. Bog roads. Asks off like that. Bog roads and up hills, yeah, coasts. You said earlier on that the coasts, some, and the islands are brilliant. Some of the islands. And bog, and bog holes as well. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Well, they're hard to avoid in certain areas. And, and what about, um, what about, like, landowners and, and, and farmers? Do you come into conflict or, you know, or do they understand that once you're a part of a group and you're respectful and you have no dogs with you, that you're, you're just passing through and you're, you're not out, out of the heart? There's no conflict. No, we never have any, no. There's no, there's no, no problems really. We've never encountered problems. And I suppose if there is, wow. Somebody maybe just doesn't get the idea. Maybe you're not wanting an area, you don't go. Look, I don't think all is vast, man. You have plenty of air, you have all the open areas, all the open hills, you know, and look, we never had, we never had conflict now, you know. And haven't even mentioned places like, um, Ards and Glen Bay, uh, you know, where it's, where it's more organized. But the beauty of being part of a hill walking group is that you, you, you, like, any of us really can go to those areas and there's clearly defined walks. But when you're part of a hill walking group, you go into places that you, you know, you might have heard about, but you wouldn't be, wouldn't be familiar with. And yet the, the, the walk leader will be, and you'll head off and see areas that you, you'd never have seen before. Well, there are a few key things. We're affiliated to, to, um, Mount Nearing Ireland. And that gives us our insurance. We have our insurance policies. So everybody's insured? Everybody's insured. And that's, you know, if we're going on anybody's land, that they know that we're insured. And we adhere to the principles of leave no trace. Leave no traces. It's, um, I don't know how you describe it really. It's, it's a kind of a company, but they have seven principles. And the clue is really in the title. You don't leave anything behind. You don't leave anything behind. You don't bring anything with you. One thing you take is a photograph. One thing you leave behind is your footprint. You know, that sort of thing. That's, that's their principles. And we adhere strictly to that. Yes. And no dogs, definitely no dogs. Okay. What about people listening in there and thinking, you know, I'd like to give that a try. Do they, do they need their own transport? No, no, we might be able to pull. We can't, we can't pull. Yeah, we recommend, we recommend carpooling. We recommend carpooling. We recommend carpooling. That's why we meet up with the IT. And usually if we're going a certain area, maybe allocate another point where we meet up again and pick up people. And how long on average with the walks last? Last walks are normally at least four hours. At least four hours. You bring your lunch. You have a stop. Possibly after two, two and a half hours. If it's longer, it's maybe two and a half. And then in the summertime, the walks can be five and five and a half hours. But on, we do have them graded and we give an indication of time. So if you're going to do something for five, five and a half hours, it'll be flagged in advance and people will know just roughly speaking how long it's going to take. Yeah. Right. And what about the pace? I mean, you know, if somebody walks five or 10K and you do it through, you know, they used to do a nice leisurely pace. Did he, he's pushing on all the time? Or no, we stay, our club, different clubs in different rooms, we stay as a group and we go at the pace of the slowest person there really. You know, nobody's left behind yet. Okay. It's the principle. You haven't left anything behind in the mountains yet. We try not to. It's the principle of club. You walk at the pace of the slowest walker and you encourage people towards more fitness. Yeah. Okay. And I mean, I'm chatting about here about the beautiful landscapes and, you know, we see some great scenery and out in the fresh air. So there's the health benefits but also benefits for the mind as well and that you're part of a social group and, you know, you'll be just chatting to people along the way and people that you might be familiar with or if you're new to the club then, you know, others that you're just getting to know. So that's not to be underestimated. Indeed. We're a motley crew. We started off before the club as a motley crew and that has continued. You meet people with all sorts of interests, all sorts of different views. We talk about film. We talk about books. We talk about the state of the world and we go for coffee and forget it all afterwards. Great. And there are people from different areas. People from different counties have joined that are living locally and there are some people who are members of other clubs that are being doubled or something like that. They have to go to associate membership with our club and when they're in holidays, they join in with us, you know. We have people from Ukraine who have joined the club. So the best place to get information, I suppose, and to connect would be on Facebook? Yeah, there's a website there. Well, there's a website as well. There's a website there and there's a forum an online forum. People can fill in if they want to give their details. And there's a phone number that if anybody wants information, they can send a message. All right, well, continued success. I mean, it's a big and thriving club by the sound of things and you'll be out again this weekend. On Sunday, where are we on Sunday? Where are we on Sunday? Do you need to fend town? Where? Clean the thing, yeah. We can do hurry and fend town on Sunday. Okay, all right, that's as good a scenery, I suppose, as anywhere and plenty of hills there for sure. Yeah, yeah. Oh, listen, thank you very much for coming in. Thank you so much. You're going to Grace Mulligan office.