Glenbeigh to Derrymore

Everybody had a great night’s sleep. Some of us even slept beyond the 7:30 time we agreed to. But we all were able to get to our “Full Irish” breakfast at 8:00. That is, full Irish, with the exception that we asked John the Innkeeper to hold the black pudding. Turns out, not even many Irish like the black pudding that’s supposed to come with a full Irish breakfast. What does come is cereal, yogurt, and fruit. Then, sausage, bacon or ham, eggs, toast, tomato, juice, coffee, and black and white puddings. (To be clear, neither black or white puddings are puddings as Americans would know it. The ingredients are - oh, never mind). .

In spite of this breakfast, we were able to strap on our packs and hit the trail shortly after 9:00. We were anxious to get an early start since today’s hike covers almost 19 miles to the next B&B - in Derrymore. We weren’t sure what pace we’d be able to keep, and we thought our arrival time could be anywhere between 6 and 8 pm. A tough day for the first day of the hike.

We left in a light, misting rain, with raincoats on. The weather varied a lot throughout the day. Misting rain, light rain, drizzle, and threatening rain. Actually, there were a couple of times the clouds broke. Between the types of rain.  For a couple of minutes each.  This wasn’t the best day of weather we’ve seen hiking in Ireland, but it also wasn’t the worst. But at the end of the day, it didn’t affect our hiking.

The days hike took us up some forest trails with rhododendron in bloom, down farm roads lined with fuschia, across fields lined with sheep and cows, and up and over several of significant hills. A lot of the Kerry Way follows ancient paths and roads across these fields and valleys. There were occasions where the clouds and fog opened up to some great long distance views, including Dingle Bay to the north. And there were many times we could see back several miles over the ground we covered, or several miles ahead.

We passed three other hikers shortly after we left this morning, and those were the only hikers we saw all day. On a lot of the back roads we walked cars would occasionally pass, almost always with a smile and a wave from the driver. On one farm road, a farmer in an old Land Rover passed us with his dog, an Australian Shepherd, running along in front of the truck. The dog stopped to greet us, so the farmer had to to stop and call him back. Back at the truck he started running down the road in front of  the truck again. This was a working dog, heading out to a field with his owner to herd sheep into a different field. Marty and I saw this multiple times last year.

The geographic names in Ireland are terrific, mostly derived from Gaelic. Mountains we went over or around today included Curra, Knocknadobar, and Drung Hill. We crossed the Behy and  Verta Rivers, and walked across the Beith and Verta valleys.

And we finished the day a lot earlier than we thought. Around 4:00 we got to the Failte Farmhouse, meaning we averaged around 2.5 miles per hour over all the terrain, including what few rest stops we took.

Failte Farmhouse is pretty isolated, several miles from Caherciveen, the nearest town. So the proprietess made dinner for us here. Homemade mushroom soup, roast chicken, vegetables, and apple pie with whipped cream. But Marty and I had to note that this is the first night we’ve spent in Ireland without Guinness. We’ve got some catching up to do.