Wild Atlantic Wanderer: Day 43: Kilkee to Doonbeg (6.9 miles) and the Kilkee 5-Mile loop walk (5.4 miles)

I knew that I was going to enjoy my time around Kilkee. It was so nice after spending three days in a campsite to be sleeping in a bed, in a house again, with family to talk to and a cute little doggy to snuggle up next to on a very comfy couch. I love Minty but ... a couch, well, there's nothing better when you've got tired bones, now is there? I had such a comfortable night, I really didn't want to get up this morning but I had two walks planned for today so I got myself on the road for 7:30am.

The first realisation I made was that despite the grey of the sky, it was really quite warm and I was totally overdressed wearing my raincoat. Less than a half a mile into the walk, I had to stop and put my jacket in my backpack and then put my sunglasses on. The clouds were getting thinner and the sun was beginning to break through occasionally.

The road to Doonbeg is fairly flat and the countryside around it is lush and green. You can't see the sea at all so I don't have many photos from this section of the walk. It was mostly just an exercise in filling in space on the map. It was easy and comfortable and over before I knew it. The big bonus with staying with family is that my lovely sister-in-law then came and picked me up and I was back in Kilkee by 10am.

Over the next hour the sun broke through and it turned out to be a beautiful summer's day. Everyone in Kilkee loves to walk. It's like the walking capital of West Clare. The entire population will take a constitutional stroll either up George's Head on the east end of the beach; a short walk down the Dunlicky Road ending up on the cliff walk on the west end or, if you're feeling energetic, there's the "Five Mile". That was the route for my second walk of the day. For the first time on this entire journey I had company on my walk and it was lovely. When you have someone to talk to the miles fly by.