I’ll See You In My Dreams

LETJOG E2W – Day 40 (plus 1): Friday 24 May – TRALEE to CORK (by Train!) and my flight HOME

Writing this last daily Blog of my LETJOG E2W trek on the train from Tralee to Cork, I am enjoying watching the Irish scenery flashing past me, ahead of my flight home this afternoon. Many of the places, and the hills, are somewhat familiar to me now, as the track passes through Killarney and a couple of the other towns where I have walked and stayed. The fact that I have now trekked across our islands south to north three years ago, and now east to west, has yet to sink in really, and I cannot yet start to think about putting together a list of highlights, nor at the moment am I quite able to distill what I have learned from my 40 days of walking. I will do that exercise in the next few days and post a final Blog here. Suffice it to say that I have made it home safely this evening.

I want to thank you all, as I have done before, for sharing my journey on this Blog. All of the interest around my walk, the comments and encouragement, the friends that I have met and the help that I have received along the way, have all meant so much to me, and have kept me on track when the going got tough on occasions. Thank you all! And, on behalf of Parkinson’s UK a very big thank you to everyone who has donated – it is very much appreciated and, if we reach the £2,500 target figure, we will have provided the funds for a medical researcher into the condition for a whole month. We are very close now, so if anyone does wish to contribute then the link, as ever, is on my Home and Blog pages, or can be accessed just by clicking below.

This is not quite my final Blog. In the next few days I will put together my reflections on this LETJOG E2W adventure, together with some facts and figures on my walks, and my playlist derived from the Blog headings. I have often referred to my trip in this Blog as an adventure rather than a challenge – it has of course been a bit of both, but it is the experiences that I will always remember above the hard miles in the rain and the evening muscle cramps. It has been a unique few weeks indeed, and I feel privileged to have had the fitness and resources to be able to complete such an enjoyable ride. Thank you all for following my journey and for your support.

I thought for my Blog heading today that I should finish with a Bruce Springsteen song title. ‘I’ll See You In My Dreams’ is a relatively recent number, written and recorded by Springsteen on his 2020 album ‘Letter To You’. It is the single that he often chooses as a final encore to close the shows on his current world tour, as he did when I saw him and the fabulous E Street band in Hyde Park last July. As I said previously no two shows are the same, and so in Cork eight days ago he closed with a song by The Pogues, ‘A Rainy Night In Soho’, that was most appropriate then (given the audience and, not least, the weather), and it seemed equally apt as my Blog heading for that day. Likewise ‘I’ll See You In My Dreams’ feels right for my mood today, as I return from Ireland and back to reality. Sweet dreams indeed!

‘East, West, Home is Best’!