Day: |
024 |
Date: |
Sunday, 17 April 2016 |
Start: |
Sneem |
Finish: |
Waterville |
Daily
Kilometres: |
34 |
Total
Kilometres: |
705 |
Weather: |
Cool and mostly cloudy, with one brief
shower in the morning and a cold westerly wind in the afternoon. |
Accommodation: |
Klondyke House B&B |
Nutrition: |
Breakfast: Full Irish Breakfast
Lunch: Muesli bars and chocolate Dinner: Egg
sandwich, tuna sandwich, corn chips and chocolate |
Aches: |
None really |
Highlight: |
The lovely coastal walk around Derrynane -
white sand beaches interspersed with low rocky bluffs, a grassy
plain behind and interesting rocky islands of all shapes and sizes,
near and far, offshore. |
Lowlight: |
On leaving the Derrynane coastal walk, I
seemed to end up at a dead end on a small stony beach and decided I
must have gone the wrong way. I then retraced my steps for
about 15 minutes before deciding that I must have been going the
right way after all. I returned to the beach and after looking
around for a while, discerned faint wear marks on a bare rock
sloping down to the beach, and sure enough, it was the correct
trail. Wasted at least 30 minutes. |
Pictures: |
Here |
GPS Track: |
Here |
Journal: |
I left a very quiet Sneem at 9:00am and was
soon following a long straight country lane. The Romans never
colonised Ireland, but it still seems to have a number of very
straight old roads, a trademark of the Romans. It was easy
walking and I made good time, partly to try and warm myself up.
In an hour or so the sun broke through and an hour later I was
stripping down to T-shirt and shorts again. As usual, this was
the signal for it to cloud over and begin raining, but the shower
was brief, and I toughed it out in my T-shirt. In the last few
days, I've had a number of comments about how tanned I look, so I
must be getting some sun.
My good progress continued all the
way to Caherdaniel, a small touristy village I reached in the early
afternoon, whose main claim to fame would seem to be its proximity
to the nearby Derrynane House and grounds. Here the Kerry Way
split with two options - the beach route or the higher (shorter)
route. A couple of hours earlier I had met a Swiss woman
hiking the Kerry Way in the opposite direction and during our chat,
she had said I must go the beach route, so that's what I did.
(Unfortunately for her, a knee problem was likely to make this her
last day of hiking after having completed most of the Kerry Way and
only having a few days to go.)
The beach route followed the
beautiful coast on a series of paths, part of it across a vast
grassy plain behind the dunes. The beach itself was white sand
and this contrasted with the dark rocky headlands and shoreline
surrounding it, while offshore, across the calm sea, were numerous
rocky islands. The last part of the coastal path was quite
technical and slow in parts and I lost time at one point retracing
my steps when I thought I had missed a turn, but the views continued
to be spectacular.
From Derrynane, there was quite a long
climb over the shoulder of Farraniaragh Mountain, and it got a lot
colder as the Kerry Way became exposed to a westerly breeze.
There were some good views of the Skelligs, two pyramid-like rocky
islands way offshore, one of which served as a location in the
recent Star Wars movie (I coincidentally saw a brief TV documentary
on it a couple of days ago).
The last hour or two passed
quite quickly and I was soon in Waterville, which had the feel of an
out-of-season beach resort. I was disappointed to find my B&B
was about 10 minutes hike out the other side of town, and I didn't
check in until 6:15pm. After a shower I then had to walk back
into town for some supplies and dinner. On discovering they
made fresh sandwiches in the small supermarket, I bought some for
dinner, rather than go for a more expensive pub or restaurant meal,
and returned to my B&B to eat.
Apart from the Swiss hiker
mentioned earlier, I also met a young American couple hiking the
Kerry Way in the late afternoon. They said they were telling
people they were Canadian, so they didn't have to deal with Donald
Trump questions. |
|
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)
|