People were friendly and helpful no matter where we encountered them.
Regardless of where we went the eating and drinking places far out weighed all other establishments. This was true in the Republic at least. In Belfast the eating and drinking places were not quite as plentiful.
We encountered lovely weather with most days gloriously sunny. Our suntanned legs, arms and faces can attest to the sunny days.
The final day of our northern Ireland tour was wet and cool although that didn't cause too much concern. The two weeks we were there were not totally devoid of rain as there was the odd very light shower and some overnight rain.
While we were there Ireland was experiencing a drought! It had not rained for over a week and the farmers were certainly concerned about the dry.
We had arrived in early June: summer. Harvest was in full swing. Everywhere we went we saw fields that had been harvested already or were getting close.
Not even the lack of rain could change the greenness of the countryside.
We took the train from Dublin to Tralee and had very little difficulty finding our hotel which was situated right in the heart of the town. Our Dingle Way walk started in Tralee. Actually, we did not starting walking from Tralee but from Camp which is a short distance outside of Tralee. We walked the Camp to Tralee leg on our last day.
Tralee and Dingle were the largest of the towns we encountered on the walking part of the trip. That does not mean that either place is overly large although I'm sure that Dingle's population explodes during the summer holidays.
[This overview has just been interrupted by a drug bust. I'm doing this on the train from Brussells to Paris. The first that I noticed was a dog wandering up and down the carriage. Odd, I thought. Next there were people talking to a young chap a row ahead of us across the aisle. The people, four in all, just looked like tavellers in faded jeans except for their armbands. The chap eventually returned to his seat so I can only conclude that they didn't find any drugs or whatever it was they were looking for. It was very good of the authorities to provide entertainment for us!]
For most of our stay in Ireland we were in B&B establishments. The breakfasts were generally very good with loads of options. Generally there was a cooked breakfast on offer along with cereals, yoghurts, fruit, juices, tea, coffee, breads/pastries and toast. At some of the places there were other goodies such as fresh scones and muffins.
We certainly had the odd issue with the documentation and material we were provided with for our walk.
Each of us received a laminated copy of the document that gave the general instructions of where we were to go, our nightly accommodation and how to get there from the Dingle Way. It even included map references. What a pity that the references related to maps that were not supplied and and did not have any references that related to the supplied maps.
We were provided with a glossy Dingle Way booklet. Perhaps it was the only available one. I need to check to see if there are other books on offer which provide detailed directions. The one that we were given was sometimes misleading, at best, and downright wrong at other times. There were a number of times where we took a wrong turn because the directions did not adequately describe the point where an alternative applied. This was particularly unfortunate on long days. There was also references to things, such as the steam train from Blennerville to Tralee, which no longer apply. How we looked forward to doing the last couple of kilometres on that non existent train!
The distances quoted for each day were sometimes way out. Given that I was tracking distance we found this discrepancy very disconcerting.
It was interesting doing a self guided walk in an area that I had not previously covered. Having four in the group generally meant that there was a front marker, or two, and back markers.
Because the area was unknown to us we had no way of knowing where good stopping spots would be. It was not possible to arrange for a meeting point. This meant that a spread out group, particularly where one member lost sight of the rest of the group, was an issue.
I'm pleased that I did the walk and I take my hat off to Jen and Sue who each had their challenges: Sue with feet problems in the morning and Jen suffering as the day wore on. Both just kept on walking, with rest stops of course, but they did keep plodding on. Well done girls!
Dublin is a city full of interesting places to see and things to do. It is well worth devoting a number of days to explore it without the time that could be spent in the many libraries and museums.
As we travelled north we noticed a number of subtle changes. The ruins of old stone cottages which had dotted the southern landscape disappeared. The appearance of flags, mostly Union Jacks, became more prevalent.
I was pleased that I did the tour through northern Ireland and would recommend including it on any trip to Ireland.
In following posts I'll look at Dublin and the Northern Ireland trip.
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