Glenealo Valley and the Spinc

Todays walk is the Spinc trail.  There are different colours marked on the trails, and it is a circular trail so we have options on which way we are going to do it.  After discussion with Ann who runs the B&B we decide on the white trail.  Wendy hates loose rock, we decided to do the loose rock going up, a great decision we come to find out.  So off to the white trail.  It is again about 2.5 km walk to get into the park.  Today we walk along a nice trail on the other side of the river to get to the start of the trail.  Not on the mileage for today is we need to  walk around the lake to the start of the trail.  It is another beautiful morning, we have been so lucky.  Lots more people out on the trails today, we are in a very popular park that is not too far from Dublin, lots of tourists around, and many doing the hikes.  Today we picked up lunch from a deli around the corner from our B&B, some days we have ordered take away from our B&B, but if there is a shop near by we have just picked up what we wanted.  Today was also the first time we have had an  unfriendly person serve us, oh well, hopefully it will be a different worker tomorrow in the deli. 

The 2.5 km walk from our B&B to the start of the trail, 

Old Monastic Settlement of St. Kevin at the beginning of the trails

Upper Lake

Many trail to choose from

Walk around lake to start out walk today

At the end of the lake there was a minors village

Lots of shale at the start, better walking up than down

Lunch break at these little ponds

Cross country runners, they could have lapped us many times

Different type of gate at the end of our walk, kept the animals in/out

Unfortunately we didn't see any of these on our walk

Again decided to just walk back to the B&B after our walk.  We have a reservation tonight at Wicklow Heather restaurant, which was delicious.  A couple of places to eat within easy walking distance to our B&B, but there is always the dreaded hill to get back up to the B&B that we need to tackle. 

There is supposed to be live music at the pub tonight, stopped by after supper, waited until 9PM and gave up and went home.  Late nights are not for us normally, and this trip especially not..

Glenmalure to Laragh

 

Paul drives us back to where he picked us up yesterday to get us started back on our walk.  Again we nearly missed the start of the trail today.  This is getting to be a bad repeat every day!

Pub we were in last night in our hotel

Today we see some amazing heather.  We are walking through it in many places.  We see the group in front of us again today that we saw yesterday.  They have just started out as well.  We also see 2 guys from Holland that we keep bumping in to on the trail.  This part of the Wicklow Way is not very busy at all,  you can walk for hours without seeing anyone at all. 

Trailhead today

Depending which way you are coming from

Beautiful bridge at the start of the trail

Rocky uphill climbs today

A few climbs over gates today

More boardwalks today for walking on

Fields of heather

TOday there was also different colored markers to follow

Todays walk was beautiful and we will be in this area for the next 2 nights as well.  At the end of the walk today you end up in a park, then you have 2.5 km to walk to the B&B in Laragh. Decision as to whether to walk, find a taxi, or we saw some type of bus that seemed to be running into town.  Decided to push on and walk.  Arrive at our B&B after a very steep climb up their driveway, everyone there was commenting on the steep driveway walk!  Ran into the first Canadians, 2 sisters from Vancouver, lots of fun catching up with them.

A different urinal

Dinner tonight at a pub that was not far from the B&B.  We find out there is live music here tomorrow night, so will come back after our dinner reservation at another spot.  Worst thing about leaving the B&B is you have that hill to climb back up when you come back.