Wednesday, 8/17/11: Glenbeigh to Cahersiveen – The Trail Starts

After a lovely breakfast (how does Anne make such fluffy eggs?), we took off for Cahersiveen, pronounced like cursive with an ine at the end, only car for the first syllable.  Here’s Kathie at the head of the trail.

We could not have asked for more beautiful weather or scenery. 

 

 

 

 

Of course, there were sheep and cattle to ogle along the way.  They ogled us; we ogled them.  No herding was necessary this time, however. 

 

Walking along, noticing the flora, I couldn’t help but think of leprechauns and trolls.

Pretty but treacherous – see the rocks in the trail? 

 

 

In some places, we couldn’t sidestep the rocks but rather had to plow right through them.  In others, the rocks were mixed with boot-sucking mud.  I mean, literally, in a couple of places, one or the other of my boots was sucked clean off my foot.  I took to making up haikus in my head:

Rocky flat good for legs.

Rocky up good for heart.

Rocky down good for naught.

or

The walkers are walking

The buzzards are circling

They say, “Look!  Tasty treats!”

 

As usual, I was dillydallying way behind Kathie and Kathleen.  Can you see the tiny figures way up ahead?  If you’re anything like me, you’re more focused on the spectacular view in the background…and also on the horsie moseying up to see if I have a treat to offer. 

 

 

What was supposed to be a twelve mile hike turned out to be an eighteen mile walk, due to a lack of clear directions where we left the trail.  Between the three of us, along with Mary (a Catholic University nursing major), and Bree (a Harvard pre-law student), we simply could not figure out which way we were to go to get to the Southern Sun, our B&B for the night.  After several false starts and asking directions of a couple of people, we did however arrive safely.  (That last stretch along the busy 2-laner was a little scary, eh girls?) 

Our hostess referred us to Frank’s Pub for dinner, where I had homemade vegetable soup, soda bread, and salad.  Yum!  The young waiter/bartender was very sweet.  I loved his accent!  He recommended the apple pie, so we took a slice to go and stopped by the Daniel O’Connell Catholic Church on our way out.  Supposedly, this is the only Catholic church in the world named after a person who is not a saint.  Huh.

Back in the room, I noticed blisters starting on my right heel and both big toes.  Not good.

(If you want to see a description of the hike we took, go to the Macs Adventure site here)