This Is The Day

LETJOG E2W – Day 35: Saturday 18 May – TOWER to MILLSTREET (25.4 miles)

With a high mileage and a climb up to a 430-metre col through the Boggerah Mountains, today’s was a testing hike indeed, taking around nine hours. It was possibly the most challenging day of my LETJOG E2W walk so far – I am thinking back now, almost a month, to my Ely to Brampton marathon, although that was on the flat. I am now a little more ‘walking fit’, and so the day’s activity passed off quite happily, with good weather and some fabulous views of the hills. When switching to my more southerly route through Ireland, along the coast from Waterford to Cork, I always knew that there would be a ‘big day’ required to get me back northward over the hills to my original route. And this is the day.

After a quick thrown-together breakfast in my room, I started out early this morning from my B&B in Tower without waking the rest of the household (I hope). My route followed pleasant back lanes for most of the day, taking initially a very straight line through undulating farmland, and then after Rylane village, climbing up into the hills, over the col, and down eventually to the town of Millstreet. A small store (no coffee, no sandwiches) in Rylane aside, there were no facilities at all on the path, so I had left well-stocked with water and snacks from a shop-up in the SuperValu store in Tower last night. Here are a few pictures of how I got on today.

So far, so good. But finding accommodation in Millstreet was not to be. I had exhausted the few opportunities on all the leading platforms on my free morning in Cork yesterday, but my faint hopes of picking something up in the small town after my exertions this afternoon came to nought, largely on account of a large wedding party in the town. I therefore invoked Plan B, meaning a walk of another mile out of town to Millstreet Station, and thence a train to Killarney. Even here things were not straightforward, this time due to a popular Gaelic Football match in the town this afternoon. What a busy place Killarney is – and I will have more to say on the town tomorrow, no doubt. Even all the hostels were full tonight and, after being offered a tent in a back garden (that would in fairness have made a good Blog story), I was fortunate to pick up a cancellation on a room in a rather splendid town centre hotel in which to shower and rest my limbs. If ever I needed some creature comforts on this LETJOG E2W trek, then this is, indeed, the day!

I was researching song titles by Irish alternative rock band The Cranberries this morning, before I set off on my day’s trek. I try to choose a Blog heading that is relevant to my day in some tangential way, and this morning I was also looking for something rousing – maybe to sing along to, at least in my head, whilst on the trail. So ‘This Is The Day’ seemed a reasonable choice. It is a number written by the Cranberries’ lead singer, the unique and sadly now-departed Dolores O’Riordan, and it appeared on the Limerick group’s fifth studio album ‘Wake Up And Smell The Coffee’, released in 2001.