Weather: 🌫️ ☁️☁️🌤️☁️
Lunch: 🍳🍳🥯🥯2nd breakfast + elevensies in Glenmalure lodge
Track: ☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️ (5 out of 5, nice tracks, amazing views, lovely forest, a lake and an old monastery!)
Irish wisdom of the day: Coffee is good, coffee and whiskey is better
Diner: 🍲🍲🍲🍲🍲 ( 5 out of 5, 3 course meal at the Glendalough bar and bistro)
Campsite: ⛺⛺⛺⛺ (4 out of 5 reasonably flat, in a nice quiet forest right on trail!)
Name of followed trail: Wicklow way
It starts with a very foggy morning, so we have breakfast in the tent where it’s cosy and warm.
After breakfast we start our hike straight up the hill. That’s a good way to get warm really quickly, even though it’s still foggy and damp! No views, but mysterious mountain scenery around us. Still beautiful though.
When we get at the top of our trail, the clouds lift and we have great views over the Wicklow mountains and the valley below us, where we can see Glenmalure lodge, our lunch destination.
Because we started at 8 and are making good progress, we get there at 10.30. So no time for lunch, but for 2nd breakfast! And like true hobbits, we had elevensies as well! 😋😋
After eggs and toast, and a lovely scone with cream and jam, we’re ready for the next hill of our itinerary of today.
The first part uphill is a bit steep but further along it’s quite doable. We both feel our bodies getting stronger and more trail-fit every day. The trail goes through nice forests again, with some great views over the valley.
The last bit up is kind of tough going, but we get there in the end. The final climb is on boardwalk through boggy fields, so we’re happy with the trail that’s provided! A hiker in military green startles Mark, because he hadn’t seen him! We have a nice chat with him and he provides us with our Irish wisdom of the day: “Coffee is good, coffee and whiskey is better”
From here it’s downhill to Glendalough. We hike in sunshine every once in a while now and the valley is beautiful! We’re loving the forest trail and the river that flows over the rocks. And the view over the valley lake of course! What a beautiful trail we have today, we are truly enjoying ourselves! We decide to rest for a bit and dry out the tent in the sun on a fence.
When we’re about to pack up, we see 5 cars approaching. At first don’t think the can go through the fence, but they are all Coillte, the Irish forestry organisation. We find out that the full management team had a field visit… So we smile, wave, and make a mental note to be careful with the spot we pick for our tent tonight! 😅
The trail gets busier with day hikers and tourists, which means there must be a carpark nearby. We hike down past a beautiful waterfall and towards, indeed, a carpark. After the carparc there is another lake and an old monastery, with a few really nice stone buildings.
We continue to the (second!) carpark, or actually to the Glendalough hotel, for diner! We’re having a gourmet day today! It was to good an opportunity not to do so with the 2 hotels halfway and at the end of our day. It also saved dragging around a day worth of food in our backpacks…🙃
We are quite hungry, and the food is good, so we go for dessert. Mark has an apple pie (very healthy of him) and I get the sticky toffee pudding!
With our stomachs full and our waterbags filled, we walk the last 2,5 km to our campsite. We’re in for a bit of a shock, because the track goes steep up the hill! Huffing and puffing we get up the hill. No sense of trail fitness now!
We find a very nice spot in a pine forest next to the trail. With the daylight saving time we have plenty of time before the sun goes down, and we go to bed.