A Wet and Hairy Day

Frenchpark to Ballinlough

The day has started out fine, 13 degrees and cool but the sun is shining, Philip drops us across to the junction on the outskirts of the town and which connects to the walk and a lane, much better than a main road. We have a map to follow and yesterday we drove the route so we cannot get lost today. The last 36 hours has been lovely and restful but we are ready to walk again with map in hand. Up a few hills and onto Fairymount, there is nothing there but a road stone telling us we are there. After a stop at the Sacred Heart Church and small graveyard we keep trudging along to the small village of Loughglynn with its welcome sign set in a small low hedge. The farm houses all smelling of peat, smoke rising from their chimneys. All we would like is a coffee - no such luck. The statue of Mary encased in a glass box and surrounded with a flower box welcomes the weary traveller to the village. We find a stone fence in the centre of the village on which to rest so we sit, drink cold tea and watch the tractors with their hay baling equipment. The Brewery trucks trudge past. Sue is having trouble with a toe which has decided it doesn’t want to walk, a band aid and change of socks and off we go again. There are black clouds forming. The small deserted village is spotted with several planter boxes and flower pots full with colourful flowering plants and other old but interesting objects. We have seen the sign to Boyle several times since we left Leitrim; I think we are walking in circles. We are now starting to see the field scarecrows and purple Irises, clumps of the Yellow White Mustard and rows of wild white and yellow Daisies growing in the gutters and fields alongside the road. The stunning red Fuchsia with the purple petals downward hanging on long stalks appearing among the hedges and fences, growing wild in this part of the country. This flower is so hard to grow back home in Queensland. We follow the Lough for some distance until the stone fences and green patchwork farms start to appear again. The bright blue Milkwort is in abundance in the short grassland fields.

We are just outside the town when we get the company of a black and white Collie dog who decides she wants to walk with us. She is not vicious but the opposite, just overly friendly and we decide not to encourage her which is very hard as she keeps us in her sights. She frolics in and out the farmer’s muddy fields, stopping occasionally to check we are still there, crosses a main and busy road managing to miss the cars. I think she has adopted us and now the rain is starting to settle in so a change of clothes on the side of the road with her standing beside us. We must look a sight as she slows down the traffic and we just hold our breath as cars and trucks narrowly miss her and the drivers give us the “look after your dog look”, and still she stays with us. We are now about 10klms from where she started to walk with us and I feel she will not be able to find her way back. We convince a farmer to tie her up until we can get some distance between us but she escapes and back with us again looking at us with her big soppy eyes and asking - aren’t you happy to see me?  She jumps a farmer’s house fence and rushes back out to us slipping on the cattle grid and hurting her leg yelling in pain and dragging herself across to us, looking up at us as if we were her guardian angels. It appears to be broken or badly twisted. What could we do – we could not leave her lying on the side of the road in the rain and she could not walk back home.  The farmer has seen our predicament and comes to the rescue. He takes her back to the same area where she lived leaving us to walk in the rain the last few kilometers. An old car pulls up and it is the lady from the Lakeview B & B. We want to walk the last distance to the house so she takes our bags and gives us a house key. My gut feeling is really screaming at me.

I am pleased that we are on our own when we reach the house as words cannot describe the state of the house, its cleanliness or lack of, why didn’t I listen to my gut feeling yesterday? It is raining heavily and freezing cold and we know there is no other accommodation close by so after a discussion we decide to stay. We are big girls and not wimps …… we could ring Philip and he would come out and collect us.  How can anyone live like this? Our next problem is a night meal and as there is nowhere close the owner has offered to cook a meal. This was organised when I booked in January. We will be OK but have decided it better to place all our gear on the bed and not the floor as we have clean clothes and still another 5 days in them – I do not want dog hair all over them after only one day. The room itself was not as bad as the rest of the house except the shower/ensuite which had not been cleaned for some time so all we can do is close our eyes and hopefully the time may go faster. There are heaters in the room which was great as our day clothes and socks were wet and we needed them the next day.

The meal was really nice but we did not linger in the kitchen too long even if Deborah just wanted some company. She has decided to not charge us the night fee and instead to donate it back to Cancer so we really cannot say anything now. We arrange with her for a quick breakfast and early exit next morning as we are to meet some walkers from Cavan in the village at 8am. To date we have walked over 100klms and our fitness level is good, better than I had expected.

I would personally not recommend this B & B to walkers planning on staying in the area; it is advertised online and possibly part of the Airbnb group but difficult to locate the house as it has only a damaged sign at the front gate. There is a hotel in the village which had just opened its door to customers and possibly other B & B houses around the lake. The room would have been €20 and €10 for the meal but we were only charged €5. 

Today we walked 21.8klms in the rain