The last day of leg two (0 miles)

I've been aware for about a week that the weather for today would be a bit pants. The forecast started with scattered showers, then a couple of days later it became heavy showers and a couple of days ago it upgraded to heavy rain all day. Last night as I was getting ready for bed the forecast for Killybegs was for the rain to start around ten which would become heavy rain by eleven. A quick review of Donegal's forecast was the same but with an hour's delay. Faced with the conditions becoming impossible while I was mid-walk I began to wonder if I shouldn't put off doing this particular walk to when I return in May. But as I got ready for bed I thought No. I'll get started at 8am, walk as far as I can before the weather front catches up then I'll stop, call a taxi, get them to swing by my hotel and pick up my backpack, then come and pick me up. I thought I might get 8 miles done before I had to abandon ship. And so I went to sleep.

I woke at about 6.30am and a quick look outside revealed that it was still dry. So far so good. I checked the weather forecast again and that had changed. The weather front was now due to hit at nine. Even if I left at eight the worst of the weather would be upon me within a few miles. I trawled through several different weather sites. Met Eireann said it would be a few heavy showers and probably some hail but that it wouldn't be six hours of unrelenting heavy rain. But that's exactly what The Met Office said - and also that by 2 or 3 pm the wind would be gusting up to 50 km/h. Well now I didn't really know what to do.

Now I don't mind a bit of rain. I'm Irish. We're pretty waterproof. What I had to take into consideration here was a combination of factors. The first was the road I'd be walking on - the dreaded N56 - the whole way to from Killybegs to Donegal. Some of it has a decent hard shoulder for me to walk on but many other sections have no space for me to walk other than the actual road itself. So essentially I have to vie for space with trucks and lorries which are coming at me at 100km/h. Throw in blind corners and I think you begin to see how the weather conditions need to be fairly optimal if I'm going to walk on such a route for six and a half hours. The second consideration has to be visibility. A bit of mist or light rain makes very little difference in terms of visibility, I have my hi-viz jacket or poncho - both of which really do a great job of making me visible to the oncoming drivers. However as soon as the rain starts to fall in any serious quantity you end up with a lot of spray on the road as well as reduced visibility through your windscreen and over-worked wipers. Suddenly I don't stand out so much. Also I wear glasses so my own ability to see is impaired. The third environmental change is that everything gets louder and it gets more difficult to work out the direction of sound because I've got a hood (sometimes two) up. The whole situation starts to feel a lot less in my control and I feel extremely vulnerable. Throw in a bit of high wind and it really becomes a bit of a daymare. And of course my presence on such a road, in such terrible conditions also presents a hazard for the other road users as well.

This is what I had to weigh up as I sat in my hotel room with no rain falling outside. With the rain due to start by nine I thought that there was no point in starting out at 8 - I'd barely have gone a couple of miles before it started. So I decided I'd have breakfast and see what the clouds would bring.
I wasn't very hungry and it was a bit of an effort to eat. As I walked back up to my room the rain had already started to fall. It was proper rain - not drizzle - but I wouldn't call it heavy. Looking westward was pointless - the county had disappeared behind a veil of dark grey. It might not be heavy but it was definitely on its way.  A big part of me still wanted to just go and see how far I could get but by now my experience of the Donegal weather had shown me how quickly it can change and how difficult the conditions can get in the space of a few minutes. So my sensible side over-ruled my adventurous side and I decided to get a cab to Donegal. I would have to come back to walk it another day.

I packed, called a taxi and went down to reception and waited. Before long I was on the road to Donegal - but I was in a car, not walking. The rain was falling at a steady pace. There wasn't much traffic on the road and my inner conflict still raged on. However the car-ride did prove to me that I'd over-estimated how much hard shoulder there actually was. It confirmed that on this road, in these conditions, walking was foolhardy.

I got out at The Abbey Hotel in Donegal where I would later catch my bus to Derry. I had a couple of hours to waste so I went into a little coffee place attached to the hotel and sat and had a cappuccino. Then donning both backpacks (the little one at the front, the big one on my back) I went for a wander around town.

That took five minutes.

I returned to the bus stop and waited in the rain, which was still coming down steadily, but not heavily. The bus came. I got on it. It was a particularly unpleasant journey. (It would be unkind to go in to the reasons why, so I won't). We arrived in Derry and as I organised myself (got sterling, found something to eat and got a cab), the rain, at last started to fall heavily. I'd managed to stay ahead of the worst of the weather front the whole way but it had finally caught me.

I was sitting in the conservatory of my B&B when it really started to come down. The rain and hail battered the glass roof and the wind howled around it. Lough Foyle and the hills of Inishowen disappeared. I could barely see beyond the garden hedge. I would have been hit full force with that weather front had I walked today.

I made the right call.

I will walk from Killybegs to Donegal in May. I've got time.


Total mileage so far: Still 279.8 miles