| We had a choice of whether or not we wanted to be dropped
back off at the fields where we were picked up the night prior, OR... ...
start our hike 4km further along the route at this place called Coars Cross
(which is what we chose).
Right away, the hike began with a long, aggressive slog up a hill. |  |
| When we started, you could clearly hear a dog barking from
the salmon colored house shown here. We could still hear that same dog
barking for the next 45-60 minutes as we made our way to the top of the
hill. |  |
| A good start to the day. |  |
|  |
| You can still see the salmon colored house (and still hear
the dog barking). |  |
| Feeling confident. |  |
| How many times to you get to look down on a
windmill? |  |
| Notice the big field of purple flowers. |  |
| STILL going up! |  |
|  |
| It was neat to see how much a little bit of sunshine could
highlight the countryside. |  |
| "What's the best path down?" The walking sticks made a big
difference in being able to navigate the terrain. |  |
| We're pretty much up & over the hill at this stage, and are
plotting our way towards a Post Office where we plan to sit and have lunch.
Notice the row of standing stones out in the middle of this farmer's field. |  |
|  |
|  |
| Mom providing lunch. |  |
| We have no idea what this says. BUT... our friend Mary
Ellen M. wrote...
Walkway of sceilte
"bealai siuloide na sceilte" from Irish
and sceilte can mean site... best I can do
|  |
| That's logs of peat (as in peat moss). You could also buy
this at gas stations, much as we'd see stands for kindling and firewood over
here. |  |
| Here's the post office where we had lunch. In addition to
handling the mail, they also sold ice cream.
So we had some.
:-) |  |
| I kid you not, this is the bustling downtown area where the
post office was. This place was out in the middle of nowhere. |  |
| After lunch at the post office, we had a choice in the route
for how to get to Waterville on our last day of hiking... There was the
normal, scenic route, and there was a route that kept you closer to the
roads.
The scenic route went up and along the ridge of a long mountain, but it
had the reputation of being pretty boggy in spots.
We decided to go for it anyway. What the heck... we'd come this
far, right? |  |
| That's Waterville in the distance, right near the connection
between the lake and the sea. |  |
|  |
| As we finally descended off the ridge line, this was our
last stile. |  |
| I just love this picture. |  |
|  |
| Waterville has a fixation / history with Charlie Chaplin.
Apparently he and his family vacationed there for about 10 years, staying at
one of the local B&Bs. |  |
| Here's part of downtown. This is typical of the kinds of
old buildings with fresh frontage that we saw all along our trip. |  |
| This reminded us of Gloucester, MA, where Tracy and I lived
for a few years long ago. Compare this section with how a similar
waterfront area would be built up in the states. |  |
| The Clifford B&B, where we spent our final night of the
hike. |  |
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