Day 13: Irish oysters

Day 13 - Saturday, March 31st 2018: Newcastle to Dundrum 15 km / Total 268 km, 6°C, cloudy

As advised by Pierha, I walked along the Murlough Nature Reserve. It's one of the 1st nature reserves in Ireland because of its natural sand dunes, and Stef told me there were beautiful butterflies there. I didn't see it, but at least it was a peaceful walk along the sea, far away from the cars. On the other side of the estuary, there's a military camp, and there were seals laying on the beach. I met an English woman who indicated to me the path to follow, she's from London, but has a house here and loves hiking. Well, that's the place for it. After crossing the bridge, I arrived in Dundrum. The landscapes around remembered me of the "Conflans" area in Game of Thrones where you don't know which banner to show (here it's the same, you don't know which flag to show). Then I follow a path, which was before a railway and arrived at Patrice's place. And it's great he hosted me because it was really cold at that moment, and I originally planned to put my tent in the dunes, where it's in fact the military camp.

Patrice is French, and a friend a Victor. He came to Northern Ireland, in the first place because of rugby, then met his wife Joy and now he has an oysters farm. He made me taste his oysters for dinner, there were delicious, better than the French one, so fresh. I really enjoyed it. It was good to speak French with him and talk about Brexit, because as he said, for the big companies, it's gonna be all right, but for the little producers like him, it might be more difficult. He also agreed with me about the side of the road where there's so much rubbish. But he told me it's like that here, apparently, it's not in their education. Joy really took care of me, she prepared me sandwichs and asked friends about the path I should take to walk along the beach and avoid the military camp. And Patrice asked one of his employees if I could put my tent in his garden. That's so kind, and I'm really impressed by how generous and warm welcoming people here can be.