Contact — Penelope Janu

Four lawyers, an engineer, a sonogropher and two doctors go for a walk in Ireland …

Today was the first day of our nine day hike around the Dingle Peninsula on the South West coast of Ireland. We’re not an organised group, just a group of friends (for now …) so we do the navigating ourselves, though the trails so far have been relatively well marked. Tralee is a very handsome town, and our biggest navigational challenge was finding the round-a-bout out of town, but once that was done, we were on our way.

There are eight of us on the hike, but today we were joined by my daughter. Such youth! Energy! Photography and map reading skills! We will miss her when she leaves her ‘carer for a day’ role and decamps back to lawyering in London.

Five highlights/ observations/ lowlights:

The scenery! Green, green and green. Emerald is an apt description for the fields, though the pinkish gorse in the hills is a beautiful contrast to the grey of the rocks and the brown of the bogs. After walking up and down gentle hills for much of the day, we’ve arrived at the ocean and, like Frodo’s quest to Mount Doom (not our ultimate destination we hope), we are well and truly on our way.
It rained, but not too much. Some like to wear waterproof coats, but I prefer a brolly. We ate honeysuckle flowers and blackberries from the side of the road (with sandwiches and water). There was nowhere to stop to eat on the way, so it was lucky we had provisions. The crimson hydrangeas in Ireland are just beautiful! And of course I found ponies.
Misadventures of the day were happily few. Lydia fell on her bum (very gracefully) while traversing a stream, and Kitty sank to her ankles in a bog. Mr Collins’s achilles is a little tender, Mary’s second toenail is at serious risk of separation from her toe, Mr Bingley has spots on his legs. Also a nettle sting and a dodgy ankle. But all in all, it was a successful day.
We thought we’d left tiny midge critters behind on our 2022 Scotland hike, but unfortunately they crossed the border to Ireland to find (feed on) us again. The Aerogard came out of our backpacks very quickly and we averted disaster, but the best way to avoid midges is to keep on walking ...
Our accomodation. We are staying in an expansive Bed and Breakfast establishment and our host is a very friendly Irishman. Besides threats of sending Mr Wickham up the road with a cattle prodder at his back should he complain about the incline on the first part of tomorrow’s hike, and telling Lizzie it was about time she got some meat on her bones when she declined to order a Full Irish Breakfast, all seems to be well.

Tomorrow we head to Annascual, which is a moderate hike (assuming we don’t get lost) of 18km. In the meantime, we’re off to the pub across the road for a lager, a chardy and a meal. Then dinner. And bed!