Day 24, Glendalough – Powerscourt waterfall

Weather: ☁️🌤️☁️🌧️🌈 🌤️
Picnic: 🌯🌯🌯 (3 out of 5, nice grassy, sheltered spot with some sunshine, no special treats though..)
Track: ☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️ (5 out of 5, cool and pretty, well maintained tracks, amazing views, great summary of our hike in Ireland in one day!)
Mark’s wisdom of the day: rainbows are beautiful , but they do come with rain…
Trip down memory lane: having a Spagetteria meal after 20 years
Broken gear: Waterfilter, the first time we needed it this hike! Too bad, now we have to boil the water…
Diner: 🍲🍲🍲 ( 3 out of 5, Spagetteria with extra chorizo and capsicum, quite alright for an outdoor cooked meal)
Campsite: ⛺⛺⛺ (3 out of 5 reasonably flat, close to the river, but some bushwhacking was needed)
Name of followed trail: Wicklow way

We started our day with a breakfast in the tent, and then we get going. The trails are stunning but tough (this combination of things happen quite often, I’m starting to see a pattern here).

First we hike along and over a lovely stream, then we get into a forest and  across some fields and farms. It seems Ireland is giving us a summary of our time on trail here! 
In one of the fields we find a nice spot for lunch and a little snooze, although it’s a bit cold for the latter..

We hike on trough a forest and enjoy the beautiful surroundings, what a great day on trail, and sunny too! The clouds have cleared, and we have nice sunny weather. 

After crossing another stream, the trail goes up, up, up! Still beautiful, but tough on the muscles! We pass a sign with information on how the trail is prepared and what grades of trail there are. I like the difference they make in muscle stretching (moderate trails) and muscle building (strenuous trails). Apparently any trail is good for you 😂

We keep going up and it becomes cloudy again. Right before we get to the open fields at the top of the hills, it starts to rain. We put on full rain gear, which is a good idea, because it’s quite windy up there too!

A really cool part of the hike is next. Over the boardwalk on the boggy hills. A true summary of Ireland, including rain and boggy hills! Despite the weather we really enjoy this part of the day, because of the dramatic scenery. Although at some point I do get tired of the rain, especially because my feet are soaking wet by now. At that moment a rainbow appears! And a bright and full version too! You can almost see the leprechauns dancing on the other side!

And all is good again, because it’s beautiful! Mark comments in this that rainbows do imply that they come with rain. Like: it’s even in the name…
But I don’t care, the rainbow was what I needed in the rainy part of this great hiking day!

Looking beyond the rainbow, we can see the sea. I thought I saw it yesterday, but now we’re sure. We almost reached the other side of Ireland!

After the rainbow disappears, its shortly sunny, and then it pours down again. That wasn’t what I needed Ireland! But luckily we’re almost there. At the river we look for a campsite and with some bushwhacking we get to a nice sheltered one. In sunshine with some drops of rain we set up our tent and by the time we go for water it’s completely dry. We try to filter the water from the river because we’re near livestock, but the waterfilter doesn’t work. It’s probably blocked, but we can’t fix that now. We settle for boiling the water, which takes more time but also does the job.

We get warm again in our tent and make dinner . Spagetteria time, with chorizo and capsicum. The Spagetteria brings back good memories from long ago hiking with scouting friends. Funny that after so long, this meal pops up in a supermarket as the best we could get. So many years of experience later, we find out it is all about availability in the end. And, contrary to 20 years ago, we make a fine meal out if it with some extra treats. That’s also what we learned with experience. 20% more effort can mean 80% more comfort!

After a good meal we have a glass of whiskey and go to bed.