Cahirsaveen to Waterville

Posted By on September 10, 2015

Cahirsaveen to Waterville

10.49 miles; ireland

first day on the trail, and i guess, technically, it should really be coars to mastergheey, because i caught a ride 4 1/2 miles in and then bailed about 5 1/2 miles from finishing. yeah, it was originally a more than 20-mile day. and it also included the highest point on the trail. so i did a bit of slack-packing.

the weather was warmish (mid-60’s), but very, very windy. and i managed to miss the rain by a mere minute or two, although it appears it will be raining all day tomorrow.

a resident says hello

a resident says hello

the trail started off on some farm lanes, and there were plenty of farm animals in evidence.

fuschia

fuschia

fuchsia grows wild all over the side of the road here. in fact, the flowers were wonderful, even in peoples’ gardens, which were filled with roses and hydrangeas.

signage

signage

the signage on the trail is excellent. where they are not elaborate like this, there are at least yellow pictures of a hiker with arrows pointing the way.

i be stilin'

i be stilin’

this isn’t a wild or even wild-seeming trail, like i’m used to. there is fencing everywhere. and stiles for getting over the fencing. if i climbed one of these, i climbed two dozen. and walked around piles of cow manure and sheep manure. there were some damp and boggy spots in the trail, too. speaking of which, ireland is known for its peat bogs, right? and i saw a big old truck at the beginning of my hike filled with cut peat. so you would think that when i came across a part of the trail that was damp and covered with sphagnum moss, a lightbulb would go off. you would think that. you would be incorrect. i made one bad step and my right leg went in to my thigh. and i couldn’t extract it at first. i finally ended up crawling out on my hands and knees. i was very wet, but surprisingly not muddy. sucker was just water and moss, i guess.

view

view

the views are, well, i don’t have the words. i have pictures though. this is a stunningly beautiful place. just amazing.

my biggest piece of serendipity today: i was slogging up, and up, and up, and i can see someone waaaay ahead of me. and each time i descended into a saddle and then began to climb again, i saw that i was gaining on my mystery hiker, till finally, just below the highest peak, there she was, sitting on a rock waiting for me.

we got to talking. she was a very large german lady, maybe late 20’s or early 30’s, and she had on a tampa bay buccaneers hat, so i mentioned it. you are not even going to believe this. she is a licensed american football referee. i kid you not. she told me she got hooked on american football when there was a pro team in frankfurt, the frankfurt galaxy. she and some friends decided to try to qualify to referee almost as a joke, and she was the only one who passed.

she goes to games all over germany, and only ran into problems once, at a game in the eastern part, where she said the players and the coaches and the fans were all quite nasty to her. but she said otherwise, everyone accepts her and respects her. and she knew who was playing in the nfl season opener tonight—she’s recording it on her dvr and will watch it tuesday, so she said if she ran into me later on i should try not to be too elated or depressed, because she doesn’t want to know the outcome.

she’s been to the states, too, and seen a few nfl games. so there i was, on the top of a mountain in ireland, talking to a german lady about the upcoming patriots and steelers game. life is too weird.

wildlife

wildlife

i didn’t see any real wildlife, unless you count this MONSTER slug. lots of farm animals, but no wildlife.

standing stone

standing stone

this was on the way back down the mountain. there was a section of the trail marked by standing stones. so cool.

bridge

bridge

this is a bridge over the inny river that was very close to the end of my hike—lovely old stonework.

tiny rock ferns

tiny rock ferns

the stonework on the bridge was covered with these tiny beautiful rock ferns. lovely.

and that’s the story of my first day in ireland.

Next Day–>

Comments

4 Responses to “Cahirsaveen to Waterville”

  1. Eleanor McClelland says:

    You are THERE, how wonderful, how beautiful, and yes, how green!

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