Dave Byrnes

Round Ireland - 2016

Overview Planned Schedule Map Diary Pictures

Day:	070
Date:	Thursday, 2 June 2016
Start:	Sperrin
Finish:	Dungiven
Daily Kilometres:	29
Total Kilometres:	1929
Weather:	Warm, mostly sunny and breezy at altitude.
Accommodation:	Edenroe B&B
Nutrition:	Breakfast: Egg sandwich and two donuts Lunch: Tuna sandwich, muesli bars, Snickers Bar and chocolate Dinner: Tuna, pasta & egg salad, fruit trifle
Aches:	Sore feet
Highlight:	The walk over the saddle north of Moneyneany was a pleasant surprise. Although only about 370m at its highest point it felt alpine and remote.
Lowlight:	The last few steep downhills on hard roads after a day of roadwalking was tough on my feet.
Pictures:	Here
GPS Track:	Here
Journal:	Not wanting to miss the bus from Gortin back to Sperrin where I finished yesterday, and not trusting the Irish bus schedules, I arrived at the bus stop at the village crossroads a full thirty minutes early. I spent the waiting time on a beautiful sunny morning watching the world go by. Everybody going about their daily routine, many of them taking a good look at me standing there with my pack, perhaps enviously. I know what I would rather be doing. The bus arrived more or less on time and I enjoyed the thirty minute ride back to Sperrin, the hamlet near where I finished hiking yesterday, and started walking along the road again about 10:15am. There was little traffic, as the road gradually climbed into the upper Glenelly Valley leaving the green pastures behind and becoming more alpine in feel. Along the way, I stopped to look at an ancient stone row, believed to be between 3,500 and 4,500 years old. Awesome! As the road began to descend after passing through a saddle, I began looking for a turn-off shown on the map which would take me off the road and over the top of two nearby mountains to Moneyneany. I found what I thought was the junction, but there was no signage at all and no clear trail going up the mountain. Although I could have climbed cross-country up the mountain, descending on the other side to the right place if there were no trail markings might be problematic, so I decided to play safe and stuck to the road. My route was pleasant enough, passing through lush closely-settled farmland, but it was all roadwalking. When I reached the outskirts of the village of Moneyneany, I found that the route over the mountain from that side seemed to be well sign-posted, so I probably would have been OK. Oh well! From Moneyneany, I was expecting more of the same rural roadwalking to Dungiven, but was happy to find the little-used road climbed steadily, and quite steeply in the latter stages, up to a high moorland valley with mountains to either side and a large pine forest to the west. I felt like I had it all to myself most of the time. After a few relatively flat kilometres along the high valley, my route descended, sometimes steeply down to Dungiven where I arrived at my B&B at 5:15pm. I was tired, but there was a small supermarket next door and I found some cold food there for dinner, so didn't have to walk far after a shower and change of clothes. The B&B was having internet problems and so was I with using my new UK SIM card, so a lot of time got wasted by me and the B&B owner. I think I am on the edge of the mobile coverage, so connectivity comes and goes, which is pretty frustrating. I had later night than I wanted.