On to Killarney





I finished the Wicklow Way Tuesday afternoon. I took a zero day Monday to rest and betting the weather on Tuesday would be better. I lost that bet and ended up in a ferocious storm in the mountains. 

I came to a split in the trail and the online app I was using said to go right. After some time I felt like it was not right. I tried to check the app but my ohone was just going crazy. Fortunately, I had a paper map and a compass (and even know how to use them). It was blowing and raining so hard I couldn't read the map well enough to figure out where I was but I could see the trail everywhere went south and west. My compass said the trail I was on was heading north. I was going the wrong way.

I went back to the place the trail split and found an old, weather-beaten sign post with an arrow and went that way. The trail was going southerly and downhill so I felt good at first but it too turned north after a few minutes. Back to the split.

This time I climbed up the bluff the signpost was on and took a good look. I found there was old, blue paint in the carved arrow. The waymarks for the Wicklow Way are yellow. I don't know what that arrow was for but it wasn't the WW.

Frustrated, wet, and cold I decided to backtrack until I found a correct waymark. It only took about fifty yards before I found it. In the blowing downpour I walked right by the turn in the trail. As soon as I took the turn the storm stopped. It went from a blowing downpour to calm in a few seconds. It was if the trail gods had been sending me a message that whole time.

The trail was easy after that, going down into the relatively flat lowlands and I reached Clonegal about 4:30 and comfortably ensconced in a nearby B&B soon after. The first leg of this trip was done.

Now, I just had to get to Killarney.

Public transportation in Ireland is excellent and you can get to just about any place in the country. Clonegal isn't one of them. But, I was able to work things out. The B&B owners gave me a taxi ride to the next town and I caught a bus back to Dublin, getting off within sight of the hostel I had stayed in. Caught a tram across town and got a train out here. In the space of one day I had taken a taxi, a bus, a tram, and a train. It got the job done.

That was yesterday. I did my resupply and laundry and rested today. Tomorrow I'll hike out of here and head to the Kerry Way. The fun continues.

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