E8 Trail

During my day off, yesterday, I got frustrated that I have to spend one of the very few days that I have available in my calendar to spend in Ireland by taking rest and shuffling around my room without shoes. I want to try to compensate for this loss of time in the days to come.

The owner of the B&B apologized yesterday evening for not having any breakfast available before 8.00 (“that’s the pace of rural Ireland”). If I have to leave without breakfast anyway I will use the nightly hours to make it a really great day. I leave the B&B at 00.59 and cross the bridge to the other side of the river.

leaving Craiguenamanagh in the middle of the night

It is as dark as it can get, but after I have left the village and its lights behind me, my eyes start feeling comfortable in the dark. I have my headlight on but I use it only once every two minutes or so for a short flash. The Trail follows the bank of the river, in a narrow trail between the high grass. It is very straightforward; if you fall in the water you have gone too much to the left! After two hours I arrive at the first bridge that crosses the river. I follow the road to the northeast to the village of Borris. The street is empty, but well lit. In Borris I go left / northeast again following the road to Mount Leinster. This countryside road is dark and narrow, but at this hour of the night, at 3.20. it is quiet. The road goes up the hill, with some steep sections. I keep an easy pace, most important is to keep moving as I have a long day ahead of me.

on the way to Mount Leinster

In the early morning light Just after the dawn has started I reach the shoulder of Mount Leinster, 24 kilometers after my start of this morning. The view is spectacular here at 440 meters altitude. It is cold, the sky is clear and there are some low hanging clouds between the hills in the north.

view from (the shoulder of) Mount Leinster

I sit down on a bench to have a break and enjoy the scenery. After 10 minutes or so I have to continue, gently downhill still using the paved road. The signs of The South Leinster Way continue to be very good and lead me to the village of Kildavin, the finish of the South Leinster Way.

Kildavin

From there it takes some 40 mintes to hike to the village of Clonegal, which is the southern starting point of the Wicklow Way, the final host of the E8 in Ireland. The sky is clear blue, the temperature is bit more than what I would have wished for but it is great to be outdoors. The Trail continues to use the regular paved road, which is boring but easy and welcome to my feet. I leave Clonegal, at the starting sign of the Wicklow Way at 10.00.

I feel very good, although tired, but it is exciting to realize that I have a big part of the day still ahead of me and that I have already covered 40 kilometers. Further down the road, after some kilometers, the Trail uses here and there forest roads for a while but always comes back to regular roads. The slopes in this southern part of the Wicklow Way are gentle, and although sometimes steep they are never very high. In the afternoon I maintain a reasonable pace, the landscape and the weather are great and I love to be on my way to the horizon. I have a few short breaks every now and then, long enough to recover my breath but short enough to keep the pressure on my feet to keep going. Ona forrest road I meet a hiker who is coming towards me. She is from Belgium, and started last year in Dublin with the Wicklow Way and she is finishing it this year. Although the Wicklow Montains, and the Wicklow Way, are well known for hiking, and August is an ideal month for hiking in Ireland I barely meet others hikers.  At the end of the afternoon I feel that my steps are not as well coordinated as earlier in the day. The Trail is crossing forest roads now, with stones here and there. Although I would have loved to have an 80+ kilometer stage I don’t want to risk of stumbeling and falling. I have been  checking for a place to have a dinner or to sleep but I am crossing the middle of nowhere.

I feel very well, although very tired, and I don’t want to leave the Trail for luxury such as a hot meal or a bed. From 18.30 on I am looking for a good bivouac location and finally, at 19.15, I find one; I call it a day high on a hill southwest of Tinahely, from where I have fantastic views to the southwest where I can see all the way to the Irish Sea. Below me is a meadow and in the valley there are some farm houses. It is quiet, the sunlight is fading away and I am glad not having to walk anymore.

At 06.30 the taxi picks me up at my B&B in Clonmel and drives me back to Clogheen. The lady taxidriver is fun to chat with, and I answer her question (which I get asked every trip in Ireland at least once): “what’s it like to live in a country that is attached to another country?”. When she drops me off at the bus stop in Clogheen she reminds of the weather warning that has been issued for the south of Ireland for later today: storm, thunder and rain at the end of the afternoon.

I start at 07.05, carrying only a small backpack as I have left the majority of my luggage in the B&B in Clonmel. During the morning the weather is great, and lovely for hiking.

In the first kilometers the Trail follows the river valley, later on some hill slopes have to be crossed. After noon the sky gets clouded and the wind is increasing. About ten kilometers before Clonmel, after crossing the river Suir, I cross a regional road that leads northbound to Clonmel. It would be an easy option to follow this road (with a little bit more distance) to Clonmel instead of crossing the final hills to Clonmel.

I continue the Trail uphill, not stopping or slowing down, and being chased by the threat of the upcoming storm. By the time I arrive in the outskirts of Clonmel the first drops start falling. Ten minutes later I arrive in my B&B, just before the storm & rain start with exactly what was forecasted.

This was my last day on this trip, next time I will reach the halfway point on the Irish section of the E8, the city of Carrick-on-Suir.

At 06.45am I leave the hostel and hike along the big street of Kenmare to the starting point of today’s excitement, using the Kerry Way. The knee still hurts but thanks to my slow pace the pain becomes more a local pain in stead of a pain that paralises the entire joint. The weather is great again, do they ever have other types of weather than blue skies in Ireland? The trail goes straight north up the hill, leaving Kenmare, crossing fields with great views along a local road. The section where the road crosses the hill shoulder, illusively named Windy Hole, is lovely and pleasant to cross on this bright Sunday morning.

On my way to Windy Hole

 Descending in the valley behind Windy Hole the field road leads along some small sections that tend to be marshy but I have had a lot worse in the past stages. After some horizontal kilometers, just after passing the announcement of the Killarney National Park, the trail goes up the hill to the northeast. The hill is drenched with marshy sections but, unlike the Beara Way, these are covered with comfortable boards. Altogether these boards cover more than one kilometer, and they enable hikers to maintain a decent pace, keep dry feet and enjoy the surroundings in stead of focussing on their feet. Going down the hill, I bump into the first fellow hikers/walkers of today.

lovely Killarney National Park

On the small sections of the trail in this valley hikers have to make way for hikers from the other direction. The biggest group that I had to step aside for included 30 people. The final kilometers in the National Park are using a field road, which leads to the area with the famous Torc Waterfall. It is really crowded over here, the parking lots are completely filled. The waterfall turns out to be a lovely sight and I stop for the inevitable pictures.

Torc Waterfall

After crossing the national road the trail leads further in the direction of city of Killarney. At Muckross Park I leave the Kerry Way and go east, crossing the park to the main road. The next twenty-some kilometers or unmarked and lead from the Kerry Way to the starting point of the Duhallow Way, where the E8 continues. Since it is not signed or mapped I have planned my own directions. With the priority on safety I have chosen local roads that avoid as much as possible fast driving traffic (details are at the bottom of this post). However, I have to pass a short section of the N22. The N22 motorway is used by many drivers who believe that the maximum speed is a bare minimum for them to get to their destination. For every car that I hear approacing (from the front and from the back) I step aside on the side of the road and stand still untill the car(s) have passed.

N22, not designed for hikers

Fortunately the N22-section is short and I continue my way on the silent local roads in rural Ireland on a sunny Sunday afternoon. After arriving, after 37 kilometers today, in the small village of Headfort (one bar) I hoped to find a B&B or anything of the kind, but the people that I meet, in the bar, know for sure that there is no lodging facility along the trail in the next kilometers. It is 16.45, the weather is still great and I feel okay, I have hardly any problem in the knee as long as I don’t stop for more than five minutes. I decide to continue my way to the starting point of the Duhallow Way, in the tiny village of Shrone. In the next couple of hours I take it easy while hiking southeastbound, I drink a lot and have my bottle refilled by friendly people that I meet along the way, At 19.30 I arrive in Shrone, 46 kilometers from this mornings starting point. I take a short break, get informed by a the owner of the fields that I will be crossing about the direction of the signs in the beginning of the Duhallow Way and I use the inevitable steps to cross the fence. There is no break for me! The first few hundred meters through the fields, walking from one sign pole to the next, are very, very marshy and I am glad I am wearing my rubber croqs.

First section of the Duhallow Way

After crossing a north-south field road the trail goes up the hill. The day has come to an end and the surroundings are preparing for the night. Even during the twilight and afterwards I can follow the signs easily with my Petzl (the signs also have a reflector on each side) but the terrain gets worse: there is no path or trail there are just signs that indicate the direction, leading through very wet sections, with holes and mud. Where the signs cross two parallel fences the sign indicates the wrong direction and I decide to follow the last sign and to continue my way down the hill to the local road, which I will follow and where the E8 bumps into in a few kilometers. The extra kilometers that I cover this way are to be preferred over taking the chance of slipping and sliding or falling in the rough terrain where the trail leads through. After reaching the local road I am still full of adrenaline and I continue my way eastbound. After two kilometers or so the E8 signs join me again on this road. This local road is very quiet, the quality of its surface is superb and it goes more or less straight east in the direction of the village of Millstreet. At a tiny crossing called Croonig’s Cross Roads, the signs go right up the hill. Shortly after they leave the road and lead through the terrain over the hill to Millstreet. The first 50 meters of this section look extremely muddy and I decide to keep my legs and feet safe by following the road, around the hill. Again: more kilometers than the signs indicate but safer to get to my destination in one piece. In the long descent down the hill towards Millstreet I pass many farms where dogs and cows start making noise when I pass. Just before the outskirts of Millstreet the E8 signs join me again. At the beginning of Millstreet (one hotel, two B&B’s, several restaurants and snackbars, many shops), where I arrive at 01.35, the trail goes straight south on another local road, gently up a hill. I continue my way without delay but I feel that my pace is suffering from fatigue. Halfway up the hill I find a great spot for a startrail picture, and this gives me a nice excuse for a 30 minute break.

Startrails above Millstreet

After the pictures have been taken I collect my lugage and continue my way slowly along the local roads. Just before Sunrise, at 06.00, I arrive at the foot of the hill Musheramore. I take a powernap of fifteen minutes after which the daylight is enough to continue my way along the signs through the field. In the first kilometer there are many muddy sections that are difficult to avoid, but I manage. After this the forrest road leads to a sort of terrace path where the view to the north gets more and more impressive with every step I take. Hiking at 500 meters altitude gives a magnificent view over the lowlands in the north on yet another bright and Sunny day.

Overlooking the lower land covered by clouds

After a breakfast break enjoying the view I continue to the east, where the signs lead into the local road that goes from Millstreet to the southeast. I follow the road down the hill in a steady pace but I am exhausted after being on the trail for more than 24 hours. Where the trail leaves the local road to go left/north onto a field road that leads up the hill Carrigagulla I decide to call it a day and I finish my hike for this trip. Hitchhiking I get easily to Millstreet where I stay in the local hotel. A fantastic day (two days!) have come to an end.