The Irish Rover

LETJOG E2W – Day 25: Wednesday 8 May – FERRY CROSSING from FISHGUARD to ROSSLARE (9.0 miles)

When first planning this LETJOG E2W challenge, my logic in choosing the Fishguard to Rosslare ferry route – as opposed to Pembroke to Rosslare or, much further north, Holyhead (on Anglesey) to Dun Laoghaire (near Dublin) – is that the route provides the shortest sea crossing distance between the two largest islands of the British Isles, namely Great Britain and the island of Ireland. Likewise, St Davids Head, where Pembrokeshire finally meets the Irish Sea, is the closest part of Wales to the Emerald Isle – to Greenore Point in fact, just at the entrance to Rosslare Harbour where I arrived this afternoon.

This day of my LETJOG E2W started in unfamiliar fashion, with a relaxed breakfast and a morning of desk work at my base, the James John Hamilton Hostel in Fishguard. On a venture such as this trip there are a great many logistical tasks to sort, and so a morning of route planning and accommodation booking for the days ahead (as well as sorting out my phone package to ensure international coverage, and an array of deferred life admin tasks) did not go amiss. I should now be vaguely ready for at least the next few days, after I set foot in Ireland tonight. Here are a few photos of the rest of my day.

Embarking on this second leg of my LETJOG E2W challenge, in Ireland, brings with it a lot of change. Day to day the biggest difference that I shall notice is that without the OS App mapping coverage on my phone I shall now be relying on paper maps, and perhaps my compass also – a return to past practice, and old navigation skills that I won’t be too distressed about. As can be seen above, this will mean that I am unable to continue including the digital maps of my walks each day on this Blog, and so a photo of a conventional map segment may be the best way to indicate my whereabouts. The other thing to say is that I may have less reliable data signal and wifi henceforth, so if my Blog does not arrive at the customary time every evening then please do not concern yourselves too much as to my fate – I will do what I can to get each Blog out as soon as I can! It certainly feels now like the dawn of another walking adventure . . .

‘The Irish Rover’ from which I have borrowed today’s Blog heading is an Irish folk song that has been recorded by numerous artists over the years. The lyrics feature a gigantic multi-masted sailing ship, and a cast of colourful characters who are all set to perish, bar the narrator and, briefly at least, the Captain’s dog. Perhaps it is not the best sea story to ponder when crossing the notorious Irish Sea, so I will take the ‘Rover’ to be a traveller, rather than a reference to a ship. The version of the song that I am including on my playlist is the 1987 recording by The Pogues alongside The Dubliners, that reached Number 8 on the UK charts. The song means something to Rachel and I as it was adopted as our anthem on a trip with friends through South-East Asia thirty-odd years ago, with the words changed to match our company’s own characters – one of the group would somehow procure a guitar from time to time and perform the song for us on certain evenings. Happy days!