Weather: ☁️🌧️🌈🌤️🌈🌧️🌈🌤️
2nd & 3rd breakfast: 🥪🥪🥪🥪🥪 (5 out of 5, coffee and sausage roll/ croissant first and at second stop a salmon bagel!)
Track: ☘️☘️☘️☘️ (4 out of 5, enjoyable walk along the river into the city, so much green in this urban environment!)
Memorable: getting to the Dublin port. We made it!
Hotel: 🛌🛌🛌🛌 (4 out of 5 good shower and great bed, unfortunate that we have a really short stay here!)
Name of followed trail: Wicklow way – E8
Special mention: I got my new camera!
We get up at 6 and start our morning routine of packing up. In the meantime, we hear the greenkeeper driving around on the golfcourse to mow the grass. An early bird indeed!
Soon we find out why, because at 7.00 we hear the first ball being hit at the golfcourse! Good Friday Tournament maybe?
We pack up and are on our way at 7.30, on our way to Dublin! Within a few kilometers we walk into Marley park, where the Wicklow way ends. It was truly a great trail to walk!
Frome here onwards, we’ll be on the E8 hiking towards the Dublin port. The hike is not signposted at all, so we use my watch for navigation. The route takes us along the Dodder river into the city. It’s a very nice and relaxed way of getting into Dublin.
The other big bonus is that there are plenty of cafés on route! So we first enjoy a 2nd breakfast on the go with a fresh croissant and sausage roll, and 30 mins later we find a place where we can sit down for a good 3rd breakfast! After that it’s only another 6 kms to our hotel near the ferry port.
The weather can’t seem to make up its mind. Rain and sunshine follow each other every few minutes. The main result is rainbows every few minutes and hiking in raingear while it’s actually to warm…
We see the area become more urban, and feel more and more like aliens here. We seem to be in a parallel universe, where everyone minds his own business and goes purposefully from a to b, with their heads somewhere else. In our universe, we have time to look around, have a chat and enjoy the moment. Sometimes the universes connect when a daily commuter looks up and gives us a big smile or a wave. People have less time than in the rest of the country, it seems.
When we get to the port area, I feel a sense of pride. We made it through our first country! We check in to our hotel at 12.30 and we’re in luck, because the room is ready! That means we get to shower before we go into town! When Mark turns on his phone, we’re in for a surprise, because our ferry got cancelled due to adverse weather… when he calls the operator, we get another option to go on the 4.30 boat. Mark hangs up and finds out it’s the 4.30 AM boat…. That means a very short night in Dublin!
We head into town, to pick up my camera (yeah!!) and get a new hikingpole for Mark, because the other one broke again, now more definitely…. We also enjoy the sunshine and the atmosphere in the city. With the new gear we go for a good lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant.
After that, it’s time to go back, fuff around with the stuff that needs to go in the backpack and go for a very early sleep, in this wonderful fluffy bed!
First one done. Knap hoor!!!