Day 19, Brandon hill – Leinster hill

Weather: ☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️
Picnic: none, 2nd breakfast + lunch in towns along the way!)
Track: ☘️☘️☘️☘️(4 out of 5, diverse tracks and roads. The part along the river with de locks was especially nice!)
Campsite: ⛺⛺ (2 out of 5 sort of flat and sheltered by trees)
Diner: 🍲🍲🍲🍲 (4 out of 5, couscous is even better with chorizo and capsicum 😂)
Name of followed trail: South Leinster way

We woke up to a dry tent and cloudy skies. Our walk starts with a descent of Brandon hill into Graiguenamanagh (gregnamana, Mark twisted his tongue pronouncing it). In town we first wonder about how difficult it can be to agree with your neighbor on the color you’re going to paint your house… We go to the supermarket for a resupply, and the lady in Inistioge promised us a good place for lunch or coffee. She was right!

We get our food for the next 2 days at the supermarket, + some extra fruits for now. We first eat those, and then go to the cafe in town for coffee, tea and scones! Nothing beats a 2nd breakfast!

After that we leave Graiguenamanagh and walk along the river to Borris. It’s a lovely grassy trail along a meandering river with sets of locks along the way. We see some kayaks and see a man I. The water. We first think he’s lost his kayak, but it’s the search and rescue team that is practising here.

We have a nice chat with them, and after the advice: “don’t go near the river”, we both go our separate ways. We will be carefully, because the last couple of days we’ve seen many little memorials that remind us about how dangerous rivers can be. The lifelines along the way, and the rescue exercise, tell us that Ireland takes this risk seriously.

We just enjoy the riverbanks and walk to Borris, our presumed destination of the day. We get there at 14.30 and with so much time to spare, we can have a late lunch and decide there what to do!

We have a great lunch at the hotel in Borris, and decide to continue another 8 km to the foot of Leinster hill. In the hotel, a man comes up to us to have a chat. He has some great stories to share about his own travels and fishing trips. His advice is: “stay here, because it’s better than Istanbul!” So great to see how proud people are of the area they live in! We thank Malcolm for the advice, but in the end we want to see that for ourselves!

We continue the south Leinster way through the countryside and slowly begin to climb the hill. At the point where we need to go and ask for water, we spot an old-school waterpump. And it works too! One of the first self-service water points on trail!

When we get to the forest, the clouds are low and surrounding us, making it hard to find a spot. We end up finding a flat-ish area that is sort of the size of our tent. Looking at the gradient of the hill, it’s probably the best we’ll find. It’ll do for tonight.