Couple caught in the bushes...

Gasherbraun

An interesting story in the news today that just shows you need to be prepared for anything. They obviously should have had a machete on their pack....;)

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/hillwalking-couple-rescued-from-rhododendron-mountain-forest-after-five-hours-30360849.html

Joking aside and looking at the second photo it looks like a serious ammount of growth on the hillside above the lough and having been in similar terrain (not in Ireland) armed with a machete I can imagine the problems they faced.

BarryD

Can't say I envied those mountain rescue lads & lassies - it was pretty warm over the weekend and with the amount of gear they lug around, getting through vegetation like this would be hard going. Kinda surprised though that the people who needed help couldn't extricate themselves - usually if you can get into a place like this, tough and all as it might be, you can backtrack your way out.

I was caught a few months back, trying to take a shortcut up through some forest which had been thinned a few years ago, the brambles that could initially be skirted, were soon knee high and then chest high as I ploughed uphill. Difficulties were compounded by storm damage and half fallen timber. In fact, it was a dangerous spot to be in on your tod. You get sucked into places like this, thinking it's only a few more metres to the forest road or edge. However painful and all as it was to retreat and kinda impossible looking, that's what you gotta do sometimes. The old legs though took about a week to recover from all the scratches and tears.

Now, you wouldn't find the OSI boys out in places like that, suffering to bring you the best quality map detail

Alun

I've been in similar situations myself, and it's not so much the rhododendrons themselves (or the gorse, bracken, brambles, whatever) but the fact that the undergrowth obscures the sometimes rough and rocky ground underneath, which makes progress very slow and sometimes dangerous.

I have to say, the thread title promised a much, much more interesting story than what it turned out to be :

josip

Until I saw the second photo I was wondering how they could get stuck in rhodedendrons. Lucky they had coverage where they were. Probably easy to get disorientated, but it said they were experianced so I would have thought they could map and compass out.

hmmm

I'm not familiar with the area, but I imagine if you're on steep craggy ground in thick vegetation where you can't quite see the lay of the land and get tired/lose confidence, the safest thing to do is to ring for help.

Thargor

Sorry but if this happens to you in Ireland you need to take a long hard look at yourself

a148pro

I'm trying to be sympathetic but unless the weather came in I can't see how they could have gotten into this much trouble. I mean if they got in could they not get out the way they got in? And if not then why did they get in in the first place?

dogmatix

I drove up the "Vee" on my way to Lismore two Saturday's ago - the sight of an entire mountain swathed in pink-purple on a glorious sunny day was amazing. The whole area is thickly covered in Rododenhrons and the plants themselves are very tall in most places so i'm not really surprised someone got caught in them. They could have followed a small trail in then got lost or trapped.

Potatoeman

I hope they make a good donation to these guys that give up their free time to help eejits like this.

Gasherbraun

Alun wrote: »

I have to say, the thread title promised a much, much more interesting story than what it turned out to be :

Sorry to disappoint Alun. The title was deliberately misleading...

However I have to say that when I googled 'couple caught in bushes' to get the Indo link the search did throw up some far more interesting stories

I get annoyed with the clueless types who do stupid things, unfit, go off in runners and jeans, with no map or compass etc. But there will be cases when even the experienced will be in trouble and to be honest I think they deserve a break. Can't say that I've been caught out like this, but have done things like descended very steep slopes into thick forests assuming that I'd push through them and been wrong and spending ages trying to get out and ending up like a pin cushion. And when you realise that no matter how hard you keep pushing, you may be making it worse and worse...I think asking for help can be fair enough.

The Dagda

The BBC explain the story much better. I know the area well and my first reaction was "what kind of idiots could get lost like that?"

But when you read the BBC report and hear that the rescue team got into difficulty too, and everyone had to get out by boat, it's soon obvious that this was not a simple case of "clueless tourists".

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27882358

duckysauce

Potatoeman wrote: »

I hope they make a good donation to these guys that give up their free time to help eejits like this.

You should read the BCC article posted .

Cork boy 55

Coillte should be cutting these things down when they not busy planting Sitka spruce et all all over the countryside in an act of industrial environmental vandalism.

The Dagda

Cork boy 55 wrote: »

Coillte should be cutting these things down when they not busy planting Sitka spruce et all all over the countryside in an act of industrial environmental vandalism.

"Industrial Environmental Vandalism" is a bit over the top!?! :rolleyes:

For sure it would be nice if there was some more "natural" forests around but the Sitka Spruce plantations are a necessary part of the commercial aspect of Coillte, and at least these days they are more proactive in making the forests more user friendly with more access for recreational activities (Walking and biking trails, playgrounds etc.)

And it relation to Bay Lough, where the incident took place, the Rhododendron coverage makes a rather bare mountain side look beautiful in the Summer. The pictures in the BBC article are from this week.

I do agree that it needs to be controlled/managed, especially in woodland where it can kill off pretty much everything else.