Day 16: Burtonport to Lettermacaward (14.7 miles)

After yesterday's aborted mission I was hoping that today would be a bit friendlier to me, weather-wise, and it was. When I was rudely woken from my dreams by my alarm, the first thing I noticed was that the sky I could see through the sky-light in my room was blue. A good sign.

It was our last night in our little cottage in Portsalon so the morning was spent putting all our stuff away ready to vacate. I had to decide what I was going to take with me and what I was going to send back home with Tim. We had breakfast and by 10.30 we were packed up and ready to leave. Tim was taking me to the place he should have collected me from yesterday, had I completed my walk. We took our last drive out of Portsalon and through Glenveagh and eventually came to the garage at the turn off for Burtonport - my setting off point. I'd already called ahead to the B&B and they were absolutely fine with Tim dropping off my backpack early. We said our goodbyes. I get very emotional at these partings so it was with tear-stung eyes that I set out on the road again.

The day was fine and sunny in sharp contrast to yesterday. Before long I was regretting wearing my warmest base layer and fleece. I was carrying the orange poncho and waterproof trousers in my small rucksack. They were just unnecessary weight because as far as the eye could see it was blue skies and fluffy white clouds. It wasn't until about 5pm when I wasn't far from my final destination that the darker clouds started to form. Even still, no rain fell on me the entire day and I call that a win.

The first section of the walk took me into Dungloe, a busy little town with lots of pubs and places to eat. I stopped at a little bakery for a quick snack before heading out of town again, The route should have taken me onto the N56 again and into the massive roadworks I told you about in yesterday's post, so I went on a different road that took me straight out of town and immediately into undulating countryside and narrow quiet roads. When I envisaged what this adventure would be like, it was roads like this that I thought I'd be walking on, I barely saw a soul all day. I did meet two boys who were playing on a rocky outcrop up high across the road from their house. One of them was waving a Donegal flag and was making a loud, shrill call. It reminded me of playing "I'm the king of the castle" when I was very young. I thought how lovely it is to live in a place so safe and quiet that you can just go climbing and shouting and flag waving with your brother, I wish that my children had that kind of freedom. "Hello person I don't know and have never seen before!" shouted the flag-waving boy.

"Hello to you too," I replied.

"Why are you here?"

"I'm just walking." I'd walked past by now. He was still  shouting at me. He seemed very interested. I'm not sure that many people walk by his house. I could no longer hear what he was saying so I turned around and waved and said, "And now I'm walking onward. Goodbye!"

The land changed subtly as I went on. The sea was often to my right or the road would turn inland to a boggy area with browned grass and huge rocky outcrops. Sometimes there were trees, sometimes you could see hills roll away for miles in the distance. It was endlessly changing and interesting. At one point I stopped n my tracks because I suddenly became aware that, aside from birds, there was not another sound to be heard. It's so seldom that you become aware of silence. I stood still for a full minute just listening to it before the sound of a car engine in the far distance broke the spell.

I relied heavily on technology today. without my GPS maps on my phone I would have gotten hopelessly lost. As it was I overshot a turn-off by about 100m at one point before realising I was heading in the wrong direction. When you're walking long distances you really resent walking a single step further than you absolutely have to. After that mistake I checked every turn-off in the road to make sure I was going the right way.

Apart from one section of 1.2 miles I managed to stay off the N56 today.  I can't tell you how happy this made me. When I got off it again I was on the last section of road meandering between small lakes before coming out above the estuary. A golden retriever decided he was going to walk with me along the way. At first I got very worried and tried to convince him to go home but then I realised that he did this all the time. He led the way before leaving me to continue on to the beach. I turned a corner and after passing under a little tree tunnel I found my home for the night.

I was greeted very warmly by Ann and her husband who run the B&B. They are a German couple who fell in love with the house and the area. Ann asked if I'd like an evening meal as she was cooking one for the other guests. This was great news as we were far from a town. I had a very enjoyable meal with lovely people. It was delicious and the company was great. The other couple have kindly offered to take my backpack to my next B&B tomorrow so that literally is a load off. I continue to be pleasantly surprised at how generous of spirit the people I've met truly are.

As I type it's raining outside. The forecast is for it to be cloudy with showers tomorrow. I may have to break out the poncho! Think sunny thoughts for me!

Until tomorrow. Oiche mhaith a chairde. (Goodnight friends).


Total mileage: 218.4 miles