Day 22: Donegal Town to Killybegs (16.5 miles)

Since I last wrote on this blog the biggest change to how I'm doing this trip has been the acquisition of Minty, my little camperan (and when I say "my" I mean it's my husband's who's's letting me borrow it for the summer!) and home for the next 13 or so weeks. Having Minty means that I no longer have to worry about carrying a backpack. I had always intended to camp during the summer months but when my back started to misbehave it became clear that carrying a tent and also sleeping in one was not going to be an option. The cost of B&B's for a further 13 weeks would be prohibitive so we invested in a campervan which we will continue to use long after this little adventure is a dim and distant memory. The best thing about Minty is that it's small and easy to drive. It's also super comfortable to sleep in.  There is one little logistical snag that I will have to work out on a daily basis: When I leave Minty and walk for 15 miles, how do I get back? Because you better believe that I'm not walking! Today was easy because I walked to a big town and was able to catch a bus back to the town I started from. Most of my destinations and starting points, however will be in quiet rural places. This is the main reason I set up the twitter account.  I am now @wawjane and I need your help. I need lots of people - particularly in Ireland - to follow and retweet my requests for a lift which will always have the hashtag #wawneedsalift followed by a pick-up place and a drop-off place and a rough time the lift will be needed. Anyone who gives me a lift will have a selfie taken with me and become part of this journey through the various Wild Atlantic Wanderer sites. I need to get a few high profile people following so if anyone knows any prolific tweeters with lots of Irish followers please, if you can, bring them on board. Hopefully with a little help from my friends I will find lovely people who will be willing to give me a little lift down the road to Minty.

So today was Day 1 of Leg 3. The longest part of the whole thing. I'm here for the rest of the summer (bar the odd trip home for the weekend to see my family) and hopefully to get this kiddy done and dusted before I go back to work in September.

As you may remember from the last blog post, I didn't get to finish leg 2 because of some rotten weather so my plan to finish in Donegal Town got a bit scuppered and ended in Killybegs instead. So today I drove from my campsite in Rossnowlagh to Donegal, parked up in a very reasonably priced carpark right next to the water and I walked to Killybegs. It was in the opposite direction to the one I normally travel but it's only the distance I'm concerned with and the distance was the same.  I may do that a lot on this trip - drive ahead and walk back. It will depend on the circumstances but be prepared, if you've been following me on Google Maps, to vary the direction!



The first thing to mention was the weather which was the opposite of my final say way back in April.  It was a gloriously sunny and warm day. The fleece I stupidly brought with me was packed straight into my small back-pack. Those of you who follow me on Facebook will have seen my new Hi-viz vest which is orange and has Wild Atlantic Wanderer printed on it. I figured that in the summer I couldn't wear the poncho or my cycling jacket because it would be too warm, so I bought the vest to go over my t-shirt to give me visibility on the road. I forgot, however, to factor in my little back-pack when I ordered the size. The vest has to go over the top of the back-pack and of course it won't close at the front. It still does its job but I do look like I have a rather nasty growth on my back. I'm glad to say that it didn't make me excessively warm as I'd thought it might. The sun did that. I wore my hat, my sunnies and was covered in sunscreen but still I swelled up like a balloon and ended up with a stinking headache. This is why I avoid the sun. I'm very pale-skinned and freckly and I burn very easily but actually it's the headaches I get from it that make me retreat under the shade of a leafy tree. I feel bad like this even when I'm not exercising but throw in a long walk and I'm afraid I wasn't loving it. I like the sun from a position of shade, preferably with a cool breeze blowing. Thankfully there was a slight breeze today but the sun itself was relentless.  I found it difficult to keep hydrated and had to stop for more water en route. There are no embarrassing anecdotes about needing to pee today because 1) I was able to find two bathrooms on the way and 2) I didn't really need to go anyway. And I drank a lot. So these are going to be my super challenges for this summer: keeping hydrated and keeping the sun off me.

The walk itself was largely uneventful and dull if I'm honest because most of it was on the N56 again. Most of the road was wide, had a good hard shoulder to walk on safely and there was very little traffic. Although it was green and pleasant the truly awesome scenery was hidden off to my left somewhere and I only had brief glimpses of it. No, today was just an exercise in filling in the gap. And it's done now!

As the route was over 27km I put it in to google maps and it came up with a couple of minor detours that could shave off a km or two. The first one worked so well (between Dunkineely and Bruckless) that I was looking forward to the next one which was longer and would take me away form the dreaded N56 which was starting to narrow and become windy. It started off well enough but soon it became evident that while the N56 took a circuitous route around a big hill - this route was going over the top. The road got narrower and narrower and started sprouting grass down the middle and of course, it was going up and up. As I got to the apex I turned a corner to the entrance of a quarry and the road seemed to disappear. I checked my phone - this was definitely the right route. I peeked  around a hedge and the "road" that continued on was nothing but a dirt track laced with deep puddles and much mud.

Well I'd come too far to turn back. I'd already succumbed to my ten-mile backache and my feet were starting to complain bitterly too, so off I went down the other side of the big hill on a narrow little track. I'm a little out of practice with these distances so I was expecting the first week of this leg to be a bit tough on me and it didn't disappoint. By the time I got back down to a decent road every part of me was complaining. The 500ml bottle of water I'd bought four miles back was starting to get low. I was so very pleased to see the bridge into Killybegs come in to view.

I walked past the welcome to Killybegs sign, saw these little beehive huts or "Cills" which explain where Killybegs gets its name and with less than a km to my destination I came to some roadworks. There were temporary traffic lights allowing only one stream of traffic through at a time. I'd come across some earlier in the day and had negotiated my way through quite easily but this time they were re-surfacing the road and it was full of hot tarmac and rollers flattening it down. It was also quite a long section and as I looked I could tell I'd never get through to the end before the lights changes colour. After watching a few light changes I decided I needed a lift through the roadworks. By lucky hap a car pulled up beside me being driven by a glamorous older lady and it had the window rolled down.

"Excuse me," I said, "could you give me a lift through the roadworks, please?"

"Ok then, Hop in let you!"

So I did. I was still trying to negotiate getting my Hi-viz and back-pack off and my belt on when she took off.

"Where did you walk from?" she asked.

"From Donegal today. I'm walking the Wild Atlantic Way for charity."

"Oh you're that woman!" I was a little surprised that the tiny article that was written 6 weeks ago would have been remembered with such enthusiasm but then I remembered I'm not the only one doing it.

"Well I'm one of them. The other woman is from Galway and she's walking for the Jack and Jill Foundation."

"Oh that's who I was thinking of! SHIT!"

For a moment I thought that her disappointment was a bit over the top but then I realised that the way into a supermarket had been blocked by the end of the roadworks.

"Well that's massive pain in the arse! I needed to get a few messages. I'll just have to go to a different supermarket!"

"Thanks for the lift. You can leave me out anywhere here."

"And who are you raising money for?" she said driving on. I told her that I was fundraising for the RNLI. She then told me that three members of her husband's family had been lost to the sea. It was only a half a km into town. I didn't press being dropped off. I'd already walked to Killybegs a few hundred meters wasn't a big deal. It's hearing stories of how important the RNLI are to the people who live and make their livings on the coast that make all the back-aches and sore feet worthwhile.

She dropped me off at the bus stop and I only had 10 minutes to wait for the next bus back to Donegal. The bus was almost empty and had AIR-CONDITIONING! My overheated body gave thanks to whatever guiding light had brought me here. At last I was a normal temperature.

Weather forecast is for clouds tomorrow. Beautiful grey fluffy clouds!

Total mileage: 296.3 Miles

Raising Money for the RNLI on www.justgiving.com/Jane-Volker