Day 121: Try to see the landscape

Day 121 - Sunday, August 5th 2018: Castlemaine to Glenbeigh 27 km / Total 2496 km, 19°C, sunny

I tried to wake up early in order to start walking early before the traffic got busy. But even if I woke up at 6:30 am, I didn't walk before 9:00 am. Why did it take me so long to get ready? Maybe because, like many people, I need my morning ritual before I can start my day: getting out of my comfy sleeping bag; enjoying my cup of porridge, my biscuits and my cup of tea; getting dressed; packing my stuff; packing my tent; doing some physical exercises to warm my muscles, etc. 

When I got back to the main road, the traffic was quite normal. But around 10:00 am, it started to get busy again, and the touristic bus was back on the road. I stopped at the petrol station and got an Irish Breakfast sandwich. As there was a long day of walk expected, I definitely needed good fuel to start. 

After Milltown, I chose to take little roads. It would be longer but the main road, N70, which is the Wild Atlantic Way and the Ring of Kerry was definitely too busy, with hedges on every side. And there, most of the time, the hedges are taller than me, which mean I can't even enjoy the landscape. And as I was on that little road, I realized how stressful the big one has been, and how peaceful it was to walk without the noise of the cars all the time. I could be back in my thoughts, lost in my mind instead of being focus on the traffic. 

As I arrived in Killorglin to get lunch, I saw many cars parked on the roadside (which means for once there was enough place of the side of the road, because most of the time, there's no side, so if you get stuck, you get stuck on the road and block all the traffic). It was because of the Poney Fair, which included a race and some other things related. At least I avoided the Puck Fair of the next weekend, which according to the picture would mean a crowded village, and I don't know how I would have crossed it with my big bag.

So, in the afternoon, I walked the little road again, along Lough Caragh, enjoying the view from time to time between the trees. The road was perfect, in a good state, with sidewalks and almost no one. And with very beautiful houses along, with CCTV, etc.

Suddenly, a car stopped close to me. Usually, it means someone's gonna offer me a lift. But that time, it was two men looking for their road. Once they took a taxi from Glencar to Glenbeigh, with a beautiful lake on their right side. And they were looking for that road again. As I had a map and according to their indications, I found the road they were looking for and explained to them how to reach it. 

I arrived at my hostel completely exhausted. The last two last kilometres were on the main road, still busy after 6:00 pm, and even the Kerry Way uses that road. 

I shared my room with a girl from Argentina who was walking the Kerry Way. She told me the next day she would have to walk twenty-eight kilometres to Cahersiveen then thirty kilometres. Which includes climbing mountains. And as she had no tent (so a lighter bag than mine) she had no other choice than to get from hostel to hostel. It would be definitely too hard for me to walk that way !