This is quite an 'interactive' post:- clicking various underlined links will give more detail on our walking weekend.
The big event we travelled to Ireland for in June was to take part in the Connemara Community Radio Station Sponsored Walk on the weekend of June 11/12. This annual event raises much needed funds to help pay for the license to broadcast an FM signal to the many people around Connemara who may be living in very small communities or completely isolated and single dwellings dotted around the vast, beautiful West Ireland countryside.
We also got to catch up with Debbie who talked us into the walk when we met on the Oz bus and who also kept a blog of her overland journey from London to Sydney.
On the first day we travelled to Letterfrack by car where a group of us met at the radio station and were transferred by minibus to our fate at the start of the walk in Gowlan West. Here we were dumped, er we mean dropped off and met up with yet more fools, er we mean folks who had also 'volunteered' to walk for two days. Not that we knew just yet but our day one walk would take us from Gowlan West to Roundstone The start of the walk was along a disused railway line and straightforward enough offering lovely views of the countryside all the way through to lunchtime. In the afternoon, things got a little different. We started to walk on the bog! A unique experience - a bit like a very small creature trying to walk on blancmange - we were a bit bigger than that though. Thankfully Stephen - our guide was a shepherd and we acted like pretty good sheep not wanting to wander off the beaten track and as if to warn us, every half an hour or so Stephen would shove his walking stick right through the bog to the tip of it's handle to show how quickly we could disappear should we set one foot wrong. After a very wobbly hour or so, we finally hit firm ground and ventured into Roundstone where we had a fantastic welcoming committee who saw us right with beer, wine and canapés in the warm Summer evening sun.
We then made it back to our B&B stop to get ready for a night out. The two of us lasted until about 10.30pm - complete lightweights but we were stuffed full of food and drink and feeling completely uncomfortable and knackered. We were definitely in the minority however as we heard people gradually coming home over the next 5 hours, the last to hit their rooms (quite literally with loud whispers and giggles at around 3.30am).
Sadly, when we woke up on the Sunday it was raining and the festivities of the night before seemed long gone as people gathered quietly - shoulders dropped - to meet at the minibus to be taken to the second days start point. Couravoughil to Letterfrack was to be our second days walk and it was a wet start. There was an ascent almost immediately to just to keep us cheery. Then a very tricky walk along by a significant stream over wet rocks and it wasn't long before Helen straddled a rock and David was a short way back thinking that Helen's walking was going to be over any second as she plunged into the water. Thankfully a fellow walker right behind Helen managed to lift pull her up by the back pack and coat straight out of trouble - impressive stuff. It wasn't long before we were back on the bog. Also not much longer after that before David gave out an unimpressive whimper as he lost his footing and was left foot knee deep in the bog - nice soggy footwear for the remainder of the walk. Day 2's lunch stop certainly seemed shorter and the walking also seemed longer, but it turned out that we'd done slightly less when we limped into Letterfrack to an equally impressive welcome party as the night before. The Guinness started flowing, the food was plentiful and the evening sun was warming our faces. Feeling the glow of the sun and a couple of pints of Guinness, David accepted an invitation to complete a
radio interview on Connemara Community Radio Station to talk about our experience. We slept pretty well on that Sunday evening.
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