Day 5, Maunghanasilly Stone row – Ballingeary park

Weather: ⛅☀️🌤️☀️⛅
Picnic: 🌯🌯🌯🌯 (4 out of 5, great spot, sunshine and the best public toilet in all of Ireland!
Traction on track: 🍌🍌(2 out of 5 bananas for a bit, then 👟👟👟👟👟 5 out of 5 for speedy walking, because it was paved road)
Best sight: to many to mention, what a great day!
Contact with locals: great chat with a shepherd and his cousin, who walked with us all the way to Ballingeary. After that we found local permission to camp in the village park, thanks to Mick!
Campsite: ⛺⛺⛺ (3 out of 5, flat, dry even ground and comes with automatic streetlights)
Need for a headlight: none (which is good, because they were out of battery anyway..)
Name of followed trail: Sli Gaeltacht Mhuscrai

After a rainy night, it’s dry when we get up! And although we first want to start in raingear, just to be sure, it clears up even more, so we don’t have to!

We leave our great campsite with a ‘thank you sticker’ on the gate.

We have an easy start on the road, which is nice after our logh day yesterday. After some nice progress, we climb a style into wet ground again for a bit. We roll up the pants and sigh, but it isn’t to bad, and the surroundings are beautiful again. After a short trail we get onto the road again, and we get to a little hut with a big warning sign about the upcoming part of the trail. About weather changes and difficult terrain, about not attempting it if inexperienced, etc. We left the Beara way, and entered the Sli Gaeltacht Mhuscrai (whatever it means), and they appear to take the safety of their hikers very seriously.

We check our map and look at the blue skies above, and decide that the warning is not an issue for us today. We are right, because the most beautiful track follows. Yes it’s steep at start and end, yes it’s wet, but oh my it’s SO worth it! The views are stunning and we actually get to enjoy the landscape, as the bog isn’t too bad. We are amazed by some beautiful trails laid with huge slabs of rock. How on earth have these been made?! We feel like walking through the Shire and are expecting hobbits (or a wise grey wizard) any moment. On top of the hills we see more tarns, with beautiful and clear water. And just as I imagine the hills to be grassy and want to start singing ‘the hills are alive’, we get to the steep strenuous bit of going down..😅

Hard work, on mostly decent track, and beautiful views as a reward. We are spent when we get down though, and hope for a nice lunchspot. The trail provides by giving us the top public toilet in Ireland, with running water, flushing, clean toilets and a lovely grassy patch in front for lunch. We dry our our tent and eat our wraps. From here we have only roadwalk left, and there is plenty of time to get all the way to Ballingeary, 6 km further than planned!

We walk along the road and meet a shepherd with a shepherd’s cane. We stop to chat and he explains the use of the 2 sides of the cane. Apparently the big hook is to catch a sheep by the neck, and the small hook is to hold it bu the back leg to keep it still. Somehow sheep stop moving when you hook the back leg by the groins…. I’m sure I’d stay still too😅😅!

Another guy enters the conversation and they decide we need to take a specific route to Ballingeary, due to repairs of the bridge ahead. We believe them and follow the man who offers to walk with us. In the next couple of kms our self appointed guide tells us all about the surrounding area, the Irish game of Hurling and more. We meet Michail, a farmer on our way and stay for a chat. Our guide explains that this is the way it works in rural Ireland; have a chat with your neighbor whenever you meet. Sometimes this can apparently take a few hours..😅 Great to feel the sense of community in this country! We get to experience more of this in the village of Ballingeary. We say goodbye to our guide and enter the village. We go past a shop (upgrade to noodles ✅) and ask for a place where we can pitch. They are surprised that we even ask and point us to the public park. Since that isnt more than a grassy field with some picnicspots surrounded by houses, we double check at the carpenter. There Mick comes along and agreed to be our ‘patron’. So if anyone has an issue with us camping there, we cam send them to Mick. He shows us where he lives and splints us to the park. With clean public toilets 200m down the road, it is practically a campsite. And indeed, nobody cares. We do get a few stares while cooking in the park, but that might be because of the delicious smell of bacon, union and capsicum going into the noodles 😁😁😁

we do feel slightly hobo though… I have to laugh when I see our tent in the dark. Well dark… We apparently pitchted richt under a street lamp. No need for a headlight tonight 😂😂😂

As I walk to the toilet through the village with my dishes (because there is hot water there!!) and say ‘Hi’ to people who walk their dogs, there is a calm happy feeling coming over me. The feeling of being on trail. The feeling of living a life parallel to society. A happy quiet, adventurous, crazy life. My life. Our life.