Dave Byrnes

Round Ireland - 2016

Overview Planned Schedule Map Diary Pictures

Day:	008
Date:	Friday, 1 April 2016
Start:	Inistioge
Finish:	Mullinavat
Daily Kilometres:	29
Total Kilometres:	247
Weather:	Cold all day with strong winds and increasing rain
Accommodation:	Rising Sun Guesthouse
Nutrition:	Breakfast: Full Irish Breakfast Lunch: Muesli bars and chocolate Dinner: Toasted ham & cheese ciabatta, salad and chips, and apple crumble and custard.
Aches:	Nothing new
Highlight:	The first few kilometres of the day along the River Nore and through the old forests of the Woodstock Estate where it was protected from the wind, the scenery was good, and the rain was light.
Lowlight:	The trickle of water, masquerading as a shower, in my guest bathroom at the end of a long cold and wet day when I was dreaming of a nice hot shower.
Pictures:	Here
GPS Track:	Here
Journal:	It was raining steadily when I got up and looked like it had been raining all night, but when I left the B&B at 8:45am it was just sprinkling and I didn't even need my hood. I became even more optimistic about the weather, despite the forecast, as the old trail followed the scenic River Nore and then climbed through the historic and dripping wet Woodstock Estate woods. It was eerie and gloomy, the kind of place where witches and gnomes live, but the rain remained just a sprinkle. My early weather optimism was lost as the trail rose higher and the roar of the wind in the treetops increased. Before long, I was out in the open, being buffeted by the gale force winds and horizontal rain. The conditions were miserable, but I have good wet weather gear, and although I knew I would get damper as the day wore on, I was confident that I would be OK and that the gear in my pack would remain dry. Unfortunately, the conditions gradually worsened as the day wore on, and apart from some protection provided by a few pine plantations and occasional hedgerows, the trail was mostly exposed to the wind and rain, especially when heading south into the wind. The wind roared like a jet engine, and in a few places there were ankle-deep bogs that couldn't be avoided. For my two breaks during the day, I burrowed into pine plantations where there was less exposure, but generally the day was spent trudging along with head bowed into the rain and wind. I reached the guesthouse where I had booked a room in the village of Mullinavat around 4:00pm and got more than a few stares from the clientele as I stood saturated and dripping by the bar waiting for the manager. She quickly showed me to my room and I spread out all of my wet gear as best I could around the room and had a disappointingly feeble shower before putting on some warm and dry clothes. There followed a quick dash in the rain to the village shop to replenish my snack and drink supplies. I had dinner at the guesthouse/restaurant where I'm staying, despite it being a bit over-priced, and wasn't impressed by the service speed, though the food was OK.