Day 131: The only cable car of Ireland

Day 131 - Thursday, August 16th 2018: Allihies to Dursey Island 12 km / Total 2702 km, 17°C, sunny

I can guess at what time the closest pub close just by the noise people make when they suddenly all come back to their bed at the hostel. In Allihies, it was at 3am. But despite that, I had a very comfy night. And the thing that made me happy in the morning was to find my tent dry!  As I left the hostel, I hoped to find a place to get a big meal. In the hostel, it was written there was a B&B in town that served Irish Breakfast all day. When I finally found it, it was closed. Oh no. But as I went to the door, I saw customers inside, so I decided to get in. And in fact, it wasn't closed and I had my big breakfast. One of the customers, impressed by the size of my bag asked me about my trip and wished me good luck. With good fuel for my walk, I decided to walk the Beara Way to Dursey Island. The path crossed some fields with cows inside, curious but not dangerous. Then, the path started to climb a hill, directly vertical, from sea to summit. Quite hard. From the summit, I had a view of the Iveragh Peninsula and the Skellig Michael Island as well. Until a rainy cloud arrived and passed aside me. Fortunately, I didn't get wet. Then the path got down to Garnish Beach, where I took a short break and met a farmer who told me the last cable car to Dursey Island was at 7:30 pm... Plenty of time in front of me.  My first thought when I saw that cable car was: it's quite old (in fact from 1969). To sum up, it's a tin can suspended above a strong ocean stream, between two rusty towers. Not very encouraging. As I paid for my ticket, the man asked me if I was going to camp there. I said yes. Apparently, it doesn't seem to be a problem. He just wanted to be sure he wouldn't forget someone on the island before closing the cable car. I had to wait a little bit because only six persons can get in the cabin. When finally it was my turn, I looked back at the main island and saw the waves crashing on the rocks. I climbed on the island, to get a better view of what's around. It was hard but I finally got a view to the South to the next little peninsula, Sheep's Head.  The weather turned suddenly very windy and it started to rain. So I didn't go to the far end of the island, I just found a flat place, hidden from the sight of the houses and quickly built my tent struggling against strong wind. Ground was full of sheep's poo, but I thought it was the case of the whole island.  The wind calmed down a little bit later in the evening. Everything was quiet then. Just me, almost alone on that island, at one of the extreme points of Europe.