|
Day: |
061 |
|
Date: |
Tuesday, 24 May 2016 |
|
Start: |
Mass Hill |
|
Finish: |
Aughris |
|
Daily
Kilometres: |
28 |
|
Total
Kilometres: |
1683 |
|
Weather: |
Cool early, then warm, dry and mostly sunny
all day |
|
Accommodation: |
Aughris House B&B |
|
Nutrition: |
Breakfast: Full Irish Breakfast
Lunch: Muesli bars and chocolate
Dinner: Beef &
Guiness Stew, choc chip biscuits |
|
Aches: |
None really |
|
Highlight: |
The first hour walking through a sparsely
populated high valley in the Ox Mountains along a very quiet single
lane road in the early morning sunshine. |
|
Lowlight: |
None really |
|
Pictures: |
Here |
|
GPS Track: |
Here |
|
Journal: |
I ate breakfast as the B&B family got ready
for their day and had a nice chat with Monica and Dermott after the
older girls had left for secondary school. Around 9am, I hit
the road after being escorted to the front gate by young Stevie on
his bike. It was a beautiful morning and one of those days
when it is good to be alive.
I headed north along the very
quiet road gradually climbing up the valley to Lough Easky with low
mountains to either side. It was very peaceful and I could
just hear a distant cuckoo calling across the valley from a pine
plantation. At the tranquil Easky Lough I rejoined the Sligo
Way, from which I had detoured to the B&B, and continued northwards,
now with fantastic views to the west. It was clear enough to
see all the way to the far distant mountains near Bangor Erris where
I had been walking four days ago as well as the Atlantic Ocean to
the north.
The Sligo Way then turned eastwards, at one point
climbing back up into the mountains near a windfarm and giving
spectacular views to the north. It was along this section of
farm road where a mob of sheep obviously concluded I was carrying
some treats for them and I was surrounded and closely followed for a
100 metres or so until they decided they were mistaken.
It
was now quite warm, but still OK for hiking, and I enjoyed wending
my way along occasionally shaded farm and back roads, chatting to a
few farmers along the way. Given the good weather and light
from 5am to 10pm, all the farmers are working almost around the
clock to make the most of it.
To find accommodation I had to
leave the Sligo Way and walk north to the coast where my B&B
adjoined a pub and a surf school, though the surf looked pretty flat
when I arrived just before 4pm. The B&B is set at one end of a
pretty little bay, with a backdrop of farmland and distant
mountains. I had dinner in the pub, bought a few cans of Diet
Coke for the road tomorrow, and went for a short walk along the
beach before retiring to my room. |
|
ADVENTURE LIST
Round Ireland
(2016)
Hume & Hovell Walking Track
(2013)
Via Alpina
(2012)
Australian Alps Walking
Track
(2011)
Land's End to John O'Groats
(2010)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2009)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2008)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2007)
Australia Tip to Top MTB
(2006)
Adelaide to Darwin MTB
(2005)
Sydney to Melbourne MTB
(2004)
Three Peaks Race
(2004)
Appalachian Trail
(1986)
Alpine Track
(1983)
|
