Idyllic Ambulation
The temperature was a little below 50° when I started this morning. The official starting point for the Dingle Way is the museum in the city center of Tralee, less than a 4-minute walk from my hotel.
The first few miles out of town ran along a canal and then up a country road where there were several equestrian centers. The horses gazed curiously as I passed by. Just short of the fourth mile, the trail left the paved surface and began a rocky uphill slope—the surface I would travel for the next eight miles.
There was lots of up and down along the way, and in some places the footing and incline slowed my progress considerably. Today's route was a total of about 12 miles and there was no hurry to get it completed. Time out on the trial is time for introspection, appreciation, and gratitude.
There was some great scenery as I made my way. The only negative was that the road was never so far away that you couldn't hear the traffic. It was often out of sight, but never out of earshot.
There wasn't a lot of wildlife to be seen, other than a couple of swans in the canal as I left town, crows along the roadway, and a few sheep and cattle. If you didn't see them, you could smell them, or find evidence of their presence along the trail. There were some muddy sections as the water ran downhill and across the pathway. In the rain it would have been much worse.
For several hours there was no evidence of any other humans on the trail other than some telltale tread marks in the mud. It wasn't until I was into my fourth hour that I ran into a couple of people going the opposite direction. They were a young couple from Brussels, Gen (pronounced like Jon) and his wife Safir (an Arabic name pronounced like Mayfair).
There were several stream crossings made much easier by small bridges, and a very steep descent that was mitigated by a knotted nylon rope. Once again, if the path had been wet, this would have been much more treacherous. Lucky for me, the skies began to clear and the temperature actually began to come up into the mid-50s.
In the last hour the terrain changed as the trail entered a wooded area. There were remnants of an old medieval village to be seen and it was interesting to watch the rock structures appear out of dense woods.
It was in those treed areas that the insects began to swarm. Outside the boundaries of the forest it was too windy for them to fly. Fortunately they weren't nearly as bad as the midges in Scotland, and were only a small nuisance. It was interesting to hear the running water of streams, brooks, and rivers before I could see them. It was all very idyllic.
The last 15 minutes of walking was back on a road heading into the small village of Camp. That was the end of the trail for the day, and I grabbed some light lunch at the only restaurant in sight before running for a bus to take me back to Tralee. There were no accommodations available in Camp, so I had to return to the much larger city for my hotel stay.
When I set the trip up, I was encouraged to reserve transportation from Camp back to Tralee at a cost of almost $100. Included in that price would be my return tomorrow morning to resume my journey from Camp. Over my lunch of vegetable soup, some locals encouraged me to take the bus instead. It took 26 minutes and cost $5. Biggest lesson learned today:. Listen to the locals. They've all been very friendly and generous with their time.
Tomorrow morning I'll grab breakfast at the hotel and return to the bus stop for my ride back to Camp, to pick up where I left off today. The temperature is supposed to be slightly warmer with a higher risk of rain. I've got everything I need in my backpack. I actually hope to have an opportunity to use some of the things that I carry for mile after mile.
