Day 31:
A sneak peak at the terrain we had to deal with today. Nothing better than a good bog!
I can't believe we have made it to day 31! Seems insane that we have now been here for over a month and the end really is in sight (finally). Today was very very wet! The rain was so heavy that by 11:30 we were soaked through. The water had made its way through our waterproofs and soaked everything we were wearing. We put our phones and the car keys into Catherine's dry bag and pushed through a few more outcrops but we didn't last long before heading home to dry off and warm up.
Once we got home for lunch, we managed to turn the afternoon into a pretty productive one. Another neat office map was drawn up and I began to do the boring task of putting all our photos into a spreadsheet matched to the relevant outcrop numbers. A brief half an hour break to call my boyfriend was taken in the middle but other than that I worked for pretty much the whole afternoon so I would say it was a success.
Exhausted, we then put on 10 Things I Hate About You (an incredible movie) and sat around watching it before the main event of the evening - the Love Island Final! Not to be dramatic but our lives here are really going to be altered after love island finishes. Its been a staple each evening, really adding something to look forward to each night and its going to be hard to replace!
Day 32:
A bit of Lough Mask Breccia, our favourite pink rock. When we first saw this we had no idea what it was but 5 weeks later we have figured it out :)
Today was probably my worst day in the field, and we were only there for 4 hours. I'm aware that was a dramatic introduction when in actual fact I just didn't sleep well last night and was tired and lacking motivation. For the first 2 hours it was raining and we were sad, then for the next 2 hours it stopped raining but we got covered in midges and midge bites.
This being said, it was a day we set aside to collect samples of our rocks that can be made into thin sections later for microscope analysis. We were successful in doing this and got some great samples, hence the short day.
We then came home for lunch and a nap. At this point in the project we are all very tired, just over a week left and I am so ready to come home. Especially now we have very little left to do in the field.
I do try to keep the blog positive but if I am being realistic not everyday here has been easy, overall the project has gone well and we have had a good time but its been very long and tiring. I'm very happy to say that despite warnings from people in the years above us we haven't had any arguments or fallings out on the trip. Living and working together for this long is not an easy task but everyone has been very good at being patient with one another and giving each other space where needed. We've had a lot of fun together in the evenings and on the days off which has been brilliant and made the trip much more enjoyable.
Day 33:
A pretty standard day off BeReal of Catherine and I doing map work in front Gilmore Girls
Another day off today involved our last big shop of the project! I know it doesn't sound like much but that's a big milestone for us. At this point we are all so ready to go home.
I spent the day plotting points onto a map (no surprise there) and I am now 3/4 of the way through making my neat maps. It is a laborious process but with Gilmore girls in the background I am slowly getting through it.
Tomorrow is a long field day for Catherine and I but should be our last big one, potentially the last field day all together. We then have the task of finalising our maps and inking in all our contacts that we haven't yet (bit intimidating). Inking them in refers to the fact that we initially plot our contacts on our maps in pencil and go over them in pen (ink them in) later when we are happy with them. This seems like making a big decision but its nice we can do it while we are here and together.
Day 34:
Looking very happy at lunch on our last day in the field after having a morning filled with confusing rocks
We are now officially done in the field! Today Catherine and I climbed up and over one of our hills to map the final part of our area and have now successfully finished our work in the field. The day was not too bad, just a few drizzles of rain here and there. The rocks were as confusing as ever but the fact that neither of us had any desire to have to climb this hill ever again kept us in the field until we were sure we were done. I can't say we exactly know how the geology has formed to look like it does but figuring that out is an issue for the rest of the week.
Realising we were finished was actually a bit anticlimactic, we just sat on a rock, looked at our maps and agreed there was nothing left to do we could finally go home. It then started to rain.
The way down the hill was cute as we reminisced about the last 5 weeks in the field but I am so happy to be done and finally get some actual rest! Safe to say I won't be going on more hikes any time soon!
We still have just under a week left here in Ireland which plan to spend finishing off/finalising our maps and starting to input data into spreadsheets as well as hopefully enjoying the area a bit.
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