Lough Dan

This is your Scenic Sunday image.

And they can't get much more scenic that The Wicklow Mountains and Lough Dan.
It's funny how things turn out. The reason I say this it's because I should be down in Connemara this weekend for my 40th birthday. Yes I'm 40 today (Saturday 28th). But due to reasons beyond my control I was unable to go. However with Friday off work I drove down to the Wicklow Mountains for a few hours walk. It's a wonderful walk down to Lough Dan. And I mean down because you park your car at he side of the road which happens to be on top of the mountains, which means that it's a very steep walk to finish with back up to the car. According to the weather we were going to get wet all day long with showers and high winds. Well guess what they were wrong, kind off. It was windy and cold up on top as we started our walk, but as we started to descend into the valley between the mountains with had no wind and a wonderful sunny, cloudy sky as you can see from the image above.

Lough Dan is one place I love to go for a walk with the family as it's safe and easy on the legs apart from the final bit back up to the car. I have been here many times before and have bucket loads of photo's but still I was not happy with them as I knew that I could do better. As I have said already it's funny as I should not been there on the day. This day turned out to be the best day for photography in all the years I have walked here.

What you see here is the river that flows into Lough Dan and it's the place we stop to have lunch and a cup of tea. As we got down to the lake the clouds came along and put a stop to the photography for a while. I waited and waited, but was enjoying the peace and quite. Looking up at the sky, a got the camera out and ready on the tripod for the moment the sun came out from behind the clouds and lit the scene before me. Still I waited for the clouds to move into the correct position for the image I was looking for. So after a 1 hour walk, lunch and a cup of tea, the image I have been looking for. Boy was I happy and it gets better as I have about 7 more photos form this day that I am very happy with. 39 years and 364 day's I had to wait but I think it was worth it.


Google Maps Link to see Lough Dan

From this link you can see Lough Dan in all its glory. If you look to the right of the name Lough Dan you can see the 's' shape the river makes before it flows into the lake. The small bit of sand you see it the sand bank in my image above. You can also make out the cottage and tree.