|
Day: |
084 |
|
Date: |
Thursday, 16 June 2016 |
|
Start: |
Rostrevor |
|
Finish: |
Dundalk |
|
Daily
Kilometres: |
35 |
|
Total
Kilometres: |
2349 |
|
Weather: |
Cool and overcast with periods of drizzle
and light rain |
|
Accommodation: |
Lismar Guest House B&B |
|
Nutrition: |
Breakfast: Full Ulster Breakfast
Lunch: Muesli bars, Snickers Bars and chocolate
Dinner:
Pizza, ice-cream |
|
Aches: |
None |
|
Highlight: |
None really |
|
Lowlight: |
None really |
|
Pictures: |
Here |
|
GPS Track: |
Here |
|
Journal: |
I had a pleasant breakfast chatting with
Jane, the B&B owner, before leaving at 9:30am for the walk to
Dundalk, 35km away. Accommodation in the right places is
proving very difficult to find this week, and Dundalk is a little
further than I would prefer to go, but there were no other good
options. I'm more or less on the home run to Dublin and the
end of the hike now and have no more way-marked trails I can follow
in that direction. Instead, I will be using Google and Garmin
to work out the most direct backroads routes.
Google did well
for the walk to Newry, and the backroads were quiet in a closely
settled rural area near some larger towns and villages. It was
a cool dreary day, with low cloud and light rain or drizzle and
though I started out in my T-shirt, I soon donned my rain-jacket and
kept it on for the remainder of the day. Newry is a large town
on a tidal river at the head of Carlingford Lough and seemed busy
though I didn't venture into the centre. Instead, I crossed
the river at the first bridge and turned south towards the Republic
of Ireland and Dublin.
On the outskirts of town, after
climbing out of the river valley, I bought a Diet Coke and had my
first break sitting on a window-sill of the small supermarket
sheltering from the drizzle and watching vehicles pass by going to
and from the nearby interchange on the motorway between Dublin and
Belfast. I felt like an outsider (not in a bad way) and drew
plenty of curious looks.
Again, Google did well as I headed
south towards Dundalk, finding very minor roads paralleling the
freeway and some major roads heading in the same direction. To
the east and west were the mountains of the Ring of Gullion, with
their peaks hidden in the low cloud. The border between
Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland follows a circuitous
path in this area and I know I crossed between the two countries
more than once, but there was no evidence on the ground.
Instead, the types of road signs changed and distances alternated
between miles and kilometres.
I took another break sheltering
from the drizzle under a tree outside a factory, before gradually
descending over the last 10km to sea level and the large town of
Dundalk. I walked through the town to the other side where my
B&B was located and found it without difficulty at 6:00pm. It
has been another long day and I'm looking forward to a shorter one
tomorrow. |
|
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)
|
