Day: |
052 |
Date: |
Sunday, 15 May 2016 |
Start: |
Galway |
Finish: |
Oughterard |
Daily
Kilometres: |
32 |
Total
Kilometres: |
1409 |
Weather: |
Warm and sunny all day with an occasional
cool breeze. |
Accommodation: |
Riverwalk House B&B |
Nutrition: |
Breakfast: Cereal, scrambled eggs,
toast & jam Lunch: Muesli bars and ice-cream (chocolate had
melted!) Dinner: Chicken Szechuan & rice, ice-cream |
Aches: |
Left shoulder aching a bit. |
Highlight: |
The pleasant walk through old Galway on a
beautiful sunny morning with the sidewalk cafés and
pedestrian malls already busy with locals and tourists.
Pottering around in the old town on such a day would have been nice. |
Lowlight: |
Dodging traffic on the busy narrow two-way
road for the last 10km of the day. |
Pictures: |
Here |
GPS Track: |
Here |
Journal: |
The B&B owner was super-impressed with my
journey around Ireland and insisted on a photograph of the two of us
as I left for today's walk. It was again a beautiful sunny
morning and I enjoyed my walk into the centre of Galway and through
the old town. Although relatively early, there were already a
lot of people about looking to make the most of the day.
After crossing the River Corrib that flows through Galway, I
followed suburban roads out of town, first through an old inner
suburb and then some poorer looking areas on the outskirts, at one
point passing a running track in a large park where a number of
joggers were doing laps. Good work!
I had chosen a back
road route for the first half of my journey to Oughterard, despite
it adding a couple of kilometres to my day. As I left the
suburbs, my road choice proved to be inspired, as it turned out to
be a little-used country lane passing through undulating farmland
criss-crossed by old stone fences and shared with large well-to-do
dwellings. The time passed quickly for a couple of hours
before I joined the main road from Galway to Oughterard and all the
weekend traffic.
I took my first break for the day around
12:30pm at the village of Moycullen and sought to replenish some of
my snack supplies in the supermarket there before finding a place to
sit quietly and enjoy my rest. After that, it was back onto
the main road all the way to Oughterard. In some places it was
easy to walk safely, but in others it was very narrow with little
room for me to get off the road. It seemed to me that the
drivers were going faster and tail-gating more than usual, and I
wondered how many had had a few Guinnesses in the pub beer gardens
with their Sunday lunch. I didn't take chances and always
tried to make eye contact with oncoming drivers, though it gets very
tiring after a while. There were a lot of cyclists also using
the road too, and they also seemed very traffic aware.
I
reached the very busy village of Oughterard, the starting point for
the Western Way that I will follow through Connemara, soon after
4:30pm and found my B&B. Later I walked back into the village
along a pretty river path for dinner then returned to the B&B.
It's hard to work out what makes one day hard, and another not
too bad. Today fell into the latter category despite the road
walking, traffic and distance, though my feet are still very tired.
I'm really looking forward to the Western Way and some off-road
hiking in beautiful countryside for the next week or so. As an
added bonus the good weather is supposed to hang around for at least
another two days. |
|
ADVENTURE LIST
Round Ireland
(2016)
Hume & Hovell Walking Track
(2013)
Via Alpina
(2012)
Australian Alps Walking
Track (2011)
Land's End to John O'Groats
(2010)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2009)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2008)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2007)
Australia Tip to Top MTB
(2006)
Adelaide to Darwin MTB
(2005)
Sydney to Melbourne MTB
(2004)
Three Peaks Race
(2004)
Appalachian Trail
(1986)
Alpine Track
(1983)
|