The End of the Kerry Way

I'm sure as you are reading this blog, you mumble to yourself "that photo looks just like the one last time" but let me tell you, you are wrong.  It has been fascinating traveling along the Kerry Way and experiencing so many different terrains and types of countryside.  Moors and rocks covered in white lichen, tidy fields filled with ragged sheep and their gorgeous lambs, lakes and bogs, mountains and valleys - it has been a rollercoaster of diversity.

Our penultimate day saw us walk from Templenoe to Kenmare.  It was a lovely day for a walk, quite balmy really, and the path was an easy one.  We were blown away by the number of flowers and ferns that we saw growing in the gutters and on the verge of the road.  But the biggest surprise was just how shallow rooted many of the trees were ... quite a few had fallen over and you could then see that they had grown on rock.  How they grew to that size is a mystery!

The stem of the chilean rhubarb

Walking into Kenmare was like walking into a nightmare!  There were people!  Lots and lots and lots of people!  Tourists!  After ten days of walking off the beaten track and staying in little villages (or no village at all), this was a serious shock to us.  We looked at one another and said "YUCK!".  We were so glad we weren't staying for another night.  But ... there's always a bright side ... we did have an amazing bowl of seafood pasta for dinner.

Our last day ... even packing our bags was tinged with a sense of melancholy.  Our adventure was soon to be over.  Today's walk back to Killarney (where we started) only had about a third of it that we hadn't already walked.  But there was a BIG difference from last time ... it was sunny!  On our first day, we had slipped on rocks and stepped in bogs and had finished with wet boots.  This time ... nothing!  The day was a delight and even the sections that we had already walked looked different under a blue, warm sky.

So we made it!  I am so pleased that I walked every day since it wasn't looking like that would be possible with my sore leg.  But a combination of drugs, Chris Jacob's strapping, support from Merran and few tears and swear words and I feel like I have conquered Everest!  Mind you, don't be fooled ... it wasn't a hard walk in comparison of some from the past.  But it was a delight and I'm so glad we did it.

Our only injuries (apart from the damage to my dignity when I went arse over in the main street of Sneem) were to two of my toes that are now nicely bruised, result of our marathon effort in very wet boots and socks on that awfully wet day.  Not bad, huh!

Now, it's off to Cobh, Wicklow, Skerries then ...