Derrymore to Waterville

Today’s walk encompassed twelve miles, a lot shorter than yesterday. So we figured it would be an easier day. Go figure.

The majority of the mileage today was along two different major ridges. There are good and bad things about ridge walking.

The best thing is that the views are outstanding. For much of the day, we had views stretching 20 miles or more in all directions, when the weather cooperated. And the weather cooperated for the most part.

But a downside of walking along ridges is  getting there. The first long uphill started right ouside our B&B and wound up and around a couple of major hills until we got back on the Kerry Way just below the summit of Knockavahaun, the highest point on the coastal portion of the Way. And the first big hill of every hiking day is always the hardest.

Once up on the Knockavahaun ridge, we were able to follow it for several miles, with long distance views of the valleys down below on each side, before dropping down into the Inni River valley.

After crossing the Inni we stopped for ice cream at the Mastergeehy Post Office, a small building out in the countryside. We’d heard they had snacks, but it turns out a choice of ice cream bars was the extent of the menu. The postmistress (who has probably been there for a long, long time), offered to make us tea,  but we pushed on.

From the Post Office it was 45 minutes of uphill to the next ridge from where we could see Lough Currane and  Ballyskelligs Bay. Off in  the distance, down the ridge, was Waterville, our destination for the day, still a couple of hours away.

On this ridge we experienced another of the downsides of ridge walking. For the next couple of hours we fought winds that were probably never less than fourty miles an hour, and gusts much higher, blowing in off the Atlantic in the distance. When the trail finally got to the point where it dropped down into Waterville all three of us said we simply felt beat up.  What had started out looking like an easier day was tougher than the day before.

When we got to our  B&B around 3:00, Abby, the innkeeper, was surprised to see us so early. She asked if we’d come “down the mountain”, and said that a lot of people choose to take the longer but easier route staying on the road.   (We never thought about it.)

Waterville is a neat little town, maybe four blocks long, almost all of it facing the ocean. It’s not the high season yet, so it’s all still pretty quiet. At the edge of town is a lifesize statue of Charlie Chaplin, who used to spend summers here. We each took our pictures standing next to the Charlie Chaplin statue, but none of us believe we were the first to think of that.

Abby suggested the Fisherman’s Inn as a good place for dinner. She was right. The Fisherman’s is a nice quiet pub with good pub food. At the Fisherman’s, the order of events was: Guinness, Guinness, Fish and Chips, Apple Pie, Guinness, and Jameson’s.

At least that’s the way I remember it. But I could be wrong.