Day 17, Carrick-on-suir – Lukewell

Weather: ☁️☁️🌧️☁️🌧️🌬️☁️
Picnic: none, unexpected indoor lunch in Mullinavat while waiting for the rain to stop)
Track: ☘️☘️(2 out of 5, 30 km all tarmac roads. Not that interesting)
Campsite 1st attempt:⛺🌬️ (none out of 5, bumpy, too small and almost got blown away before fully pitched)
Campsite 2nd attempt: ⛺⛺⛺ (3 out of 5 flat, spacious and sheltered by trees)
Diner: 🍲🍲🍲 (3 out of 5, couscous is quite alright too with some chicken and capsicum 😂)
Name of followed trail: South Leinster way

We leave Carrick-on-suir in cloudy dry weather. There’ll be rain today, but surprisingly, we were able to pack up dry. It’s not the most interesting hiking day today. The whole day on tarmac trough grey countryside and a few villages. We start our day with a detour due to a broken bridge. We walk a busy roads and are once again happily surprised by the friendly Irish drivers. Everyone slows down and makes way!

Around 10 o clock it starts to feel ‘Irish dry’, so we put on the rainsuits. It actually clears up and stays dry for a few more hours, but we keep the raingear on just in case!

We can’t find a spot to sit down for lunch, but at 22 km in we het to Mullinavat where the house of the rising sun is open! Just when it really does start to rain, we go in for lunch!

After a good lunch we leave (with lots of questions about a rooster called Ginger). Unfortunately it isn’t as dry as the weather app made us believe and we still get pretty wet.

When we get to a forested area, it’s time to find a spot for our tent. However it is not that easy to find one! The forest is wet and overgrown with brambles and gorse.

We go in twice but find nothing. When we go in a third time, by now a few kilometers further than intended, we really want to make a spot there! The forest is overgrown and bumpy, but we make do. We pitch, just when the wind picks up. We aren’t sheltered at all here! The wind blows right through and we can barely pitch the outertent!

I really don’t like this spot, but we are almost unpacked and set! Yet it doesn’t feel good. My tent is my home now. That should feel safe. It doesn’t now! So I tell Mark, and even though it also started to rain (so we need to repack everything in drizzle), he agrees with me. We pack it all up again, careful not to rush or do anything stupid. We’re both tired after a long day, and disappointments like this can be hard then.

We move on, a bit further down the hill. 15 minutes later, we find a very good spot, out of the wind. The rain also stopped long enough for us to pitch and have diner. Happy to have moved on, proud for making the right decision together!

And on the positive side. We already did 3 km of tomorrows distance!