Day 41: Ballyvaughan to Fanore (9.5 miles) and Day 42: Doolan to Lahinch (10.5 miles)

Tuesday's walk started EARLY! My friend Robin was coming into town from the USA and I hadn't seen her for a few years so I wanted to get my walk done promptly and safely. Also I had to be in Fanore by 09:10, in time to get a bus back to Ballyvaughan. When the alarm went off at 5am I jumped up and got dressed and was on the road to Ballyvaughan (a 30 minute drive) before 05:30. I had parked Minty by Ballyvaughan Pier and was on the road before 6 am.

I knew it was about 10 miles and that normally takes 3+ hours so this was going to be close. No time to waste I walked just shy of a jog and made unbelievably quick progress. I tried to take the incredible scenery in as I hastily took pictures but I was so worried that I might miss the bus I did not linger as I usually might.

The morning was grey but clearer than the day before and all three of the Aran Islands were visible. The sea was calm and the gentle lapping against the shore contrasted sharply with my noisy breathing as I ploughed relentlessly on.

It actually truly amazed me when I saw the blue walls of O'Donoghue's Pub (where the bus stop was) come in to view well before 9am. I managed to get there at 08:45, with 25 minutes to spare.

My muscles were zinging and I stretched them out as I waited patiently for the bus to take me back to Minty.

The rest of the day was totally awesome. Robin, her cousin and her cousin's daughter met me in a lovely pub in Doolin and we spent the afternoon chatting and doing touristy things like visiting the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren and eating some lovely local food in a terrific restaurant.  It was well worth getting up in the middle of the night to have the afternoon off to spend it doing fun things with great people.

I was so exhausted after my early start I fell asleep without writing my blog again. When the alarm went off at 05:30 on Wednesday morning I could not get myself up-and-at'em with the same enthusiasm as Tuesday. I was going to be moving on from Doolin so I packed Minty up carefully and got myself ready. My bus back from Lahinch was at 11:05 so I didn't have to leg it with quite the same enthusiasm as the day before. I moved Minty off his pitch over to the car park and off I set for Lahinch. 

The road out of Doolin is quite steep as it runs up towards the Cliffs of Moher. Before I got out on to the main Lahinch road, though, I was on a narrow, bendy little boreen that looked down over the ocean and had some interesting ancient architecture.

I made good progress despite the fact that I could not muster the speeds of the previous day, but because I'd left an hour later, the traffic was starting to get heavier Once I passed the cliffs and headed towards Liscannor. I decided to leave the busy main road and took a series of back roads that avoided Liscannor and the traffic of the N67. When I rejoined the main road I was a couple of miles from Lahinch. 

By now my feet were complaining and (of course) I really needed a bathroom. However I was on a busy road so there was nothing for it but to hold on and hope that nobody turned a tap (faucet) on near me! Thankfully there was a footpath most of the way into town so at least the HGVs and buses weren't an imminent threat.

I have to admit to being happy to be finished when I arrived at the bus stop with a half hour to spare. I thought about wandering off into town to get a spot of breakfast and find a loo but my previous experience told me that wandering away from a bus stop any time near the advertised departure time, was a risky thing to do. I shouldn't have worried. As more and more people arrived and 11:05 came and went I heard a couple of women talk say, "Late again. Well I guess we know who's driving today then!" And apparently they were right.

When I finally got back to Minty, I starting to feel really weary. We bid O'Connor's Riverside Campsite in Doolin farewell and headed south to Kilkee.

Kilkee is like a second home to me as it is the place where my family used to holiday when I was little. Lots of my family still spend as much of the summer there as they can and I am very fortunate to be staying with family for the next little bit of the walk. Coming down the hill, into town felt like coming home. I know I'm going to love the next chapter of this journey.

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

Total mileage: 538.2 miles

Day 40: Doolin to Fanore (8.9 miles) and The Flaggy Shore Loop (4.3 miles)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I quickly discovered that the coastal roads in Clare are not a good place to be walking in the middle of the day in July, due to the heavy traffic and the narrowness of the roads so I have decided that I need to get up super-early and do my walk before everyone else gets up. That was why I was up at 05:30 on Monday morning, determined to get to Fanore before the working day started.

It was a pretty grey and miserable start with light rain falling sporadically but I ploughed on. The roads were clear as a bell and that made all the difference to me in terms of my stress levels (none) and how much I enjoyed the walk itself.

The road to Fanore weaves both inland with tree-lined sections and then along the coast with the sea lapping against the grey limestone flags of the Burren. As it was quite misty it wasn't very easy to see the Aran Islands in the bay but their silvery shadow on the horizon was a constant reminder.

The quiet roads and the eery greyness of the morning gave the walk a tranquil and sometimes other-worldly atmosphere but it began and finished without anything remarkable happening.  I was surprised and pleased to see the blue walls of O'Donoghues Pub appear in the distance much earlier than I'd expected. As I got closer the heavens opened again. (I'm beginning to think there is an Angel of Meteorology somewhere who thinks that's how I like to be informed of the end of my walks!)

I was about 20minutes early for the return bus to Doolin so I dried a little patch of a bench outside the pub and waited for the bus that was due at 09:25.  It arrived before quarter past and left with great haste as soon as I boarded. Clearly the bus schedule was just advisory and not meant to be taken as law.

I was back at the campsite by 10am as seeing as how my walk had been a bit shorter than I had thought, I decided that I would return to a section of the road between Kinvara and Ballyvaughan, called the Flaggy Shore and do a loop walk there. 

  



But first I went to a local cafe to get some breakfast. I had a delicious Eggs Benedict with bacon and I enjoyed it so much I decided to have a breakfast dessert. I recommend having a large latte and a berry and apple crumble served with cream and berry compote in a baked crust, after breakfast. Breakfast dessert should definitely become a regularity!        

I was finished so early that I felt no need to rush into another walk and upon arriving at the Flaggy Shore I just mooched about in Minty, checking emails and Facebook and watching showers come and go. Soon however I decided it was time to get started.

If I could describe a perfect walk then this one at The Flaggy Shore would surely be it. The road runs right next to the shore, it's flat and there is virtually no traffic on it. Perfection. Even when it swung around to go back to the starting point there was a lake with swans swimming serenely and another shore with views over the Burren and its rugged stony hills. It felt effortless and gave me a great boost.

The flowers of the day were particularly pleasant too.

 

I do love these lonely days where it's just me, the road and the weather. I get lost in my head but the lack of interaction with other people doesn't make it a particularly interesting read. Sorry! I do hope the pictures make up for it!

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

Total Mileage: 518.2 miles

Day 39: A Loop Walk Around the Southern Tip of Achill from Achill Sound (10.7 miles)

I did this walk last Saturday (July 2nd). It's taken a while for me to get around to writing about it because ... well, I've been rushing around. I had to go home for a week because Minty sprung a leak. I woke up on Thursday morning (23rd June) with rain pouring in on top of me. The weather is always going to be a challenge in Ireland so I decided that I had to go back home and get Minty water-tight again before going on. I came back on Friday, driving from East Sussex to Sligo, where I spent the night before pressing on to Achill. I parked Minty up, walked 10.7 miles, got back in Minty and drove to Galway. I was really quite pooped after that.  So here it is, finally, my fantastic walk around the southern tip of Achill Island.

In complete contrast to the last time I was in Achill, on Saturday for most of the walk the sun was out in all its glory. It was a little grey when I arrived but it cleared up quickly as I headed south from Achill Sound towards Bleanaskill. Here I l turned right  towards Ashleam on the other side of the peninsula. Then the fun began. The Minaun Cliffs came into  view and also the corkscrew road that wound its way up to them. The first of the Wild Atlantic Way viewpoint markers was just about visible from ground level. Carefully I walked past sheep (who are notoriously jumpy) and who were playing very vigorously on very dangerous cliff edges. At the top the views were glorious.

I'm so glad I didn't attempt to do this walk on June 23rd because the visibility was atrocious and it would have been criminal to miss such incredible views. 

I walked on taking it all in. I was also keeping an eye on my trails app because at precisely 5.7miles into my walk I had officially walked 500 miles! I took the time to record this momentous occasion with my iPhone. However when I went to take another photo my phone told me that I had no more memory left. Not a bother. I had my camera with me. It's my camera that takes all the photos for the blog. Unfortunately my camera refused to turn on because it had a flat battery. I'd lent it to my son to go on a school trip the previous Monday and I'd forgotten to charge the battery up again. Undeterred I started deleting apps form my phone until it started to let me take more photos.  Honestly-  technology eh!

Me celebrating 500 miles before all the technology gave out!

As I rounded the southern tip of the peninsula, the sea got calmer and the cliffs disappeared. I was walking back towards Bleanaskill again. My intention was to walk to the point where I'd turned off the road and to hitch back to Achill Sound. I had one little stop-off to make before that though - Achill Lifeboat Station. I had called in the week before and met Stephen. I was planning on calling in the following day to take a few pictures and meet everyone (have a cuppa, use the loo - the usual), however due to the whole leak situation I didn't manage it. Before I left Achill I popped in to explain what had happened and I said I'd call in when I came back. So here I was, back again and heading for the Station. I could see the Lifeboat moored in the bay close to Gráinne Mhaol's castle. Gráinne was a very successful pirate in the 16th Century. You can read all about her HERE. I was looking forward to a cup of tea and, of course, I was in need of a bathroom. As I stopped to take pictures of the castle and lifeboat a thought occurred to me: it was Saturday - what if there wasn't anyone there? Forget the tea, I really needed a pee. 

Guess what? There wasn't anybody there. I still had a few miles to go before I finished. I wouldn't make it that far. Nothing for it - I had to go al fresco. I managed to find a spot that wasn't overlooked by any houses (which is very hard to do in Ireland) although I did have an audience of a few bemused sheep.  Still I'm just glad no cars came along and I didn't inadvertently flash my derriere at anyone. Much relieved I walked on. With about a mile to go the skies darkened and then split in two as the rain came bucketing down. I was soaked. I arrived at the junction, turned my trails app off and stuck my thumb out. The first car that came along very kindly took me back to Minty in Achill Sound. I changed out of my wet clothes, had a quick bite to eat and then got back in the van and drove for another two hours to Galway to stay with my sister. I'd been travelling pretty much solidly for two days. All I could do was veg in front of a movie for the evening. Hence the tardiness of this post.

I slept in on Sunday and it was lunch time by the time I'd packed up and got on the road again. I had decided to skip Co. Galway out because I'm saving it for when my husband comes over for a holiday in mid-July. As I drove out of Galway city, my intention was to drive to Kinvara and to walk from there to near Ballyvaughan, crossing the county border from Galway to Clare. As I arrived in Kinvara I knew I'd made a serious miscalculation. It was absolutely heaving with tourists and all their assorted vehicles: buses, campers, bikes, motorbikes, cars ... The road was barely passable for two normal-sized vehicles going in opposite directions let alone two coaches! If I walked I would have been squished like a bug. So I didn't walk. Instead I drove the road as far a Doolin, recce-ing it and seeing what was ahead. One thing was for sure - if I was going to walk this road I was going to have to do it before the  traffic started in the morning. I was going to have to start at 6am. 

Tune in tomorrow for my early morning hike from Doolan to Fanore...

But before that here are a few lovely flowers from Achill -

Raising money of the RNLI on www.justgiving.com/Jane-Volker

Total mileage: 505 miles