Day 2: Looking for help

Day 2 - Monday, March 19th 2018: Howth to Donabate 24 km / Total 39 km, 6°C, sun

The target of the day was to join Portmarnock and find a place to sleep in the sand dunes, close to the golf club. After a long break at the Starbuck Coffee in Howth, I started walking again around noon. The weather was improving, sunny, but very windy. It seems there was a kind of festival in Howth and as it was Bank Holiday, there was a lot of people outside, enjoying the sun after the snow.

I arrived shortly in Portmarnock, found some sandwich in Texaco station, and had lunchtime in the dunes, around 3 pm. Definitely too early to find a place to sleep, and with so many people walking around, impossible to put my tent at that moment. As I've only walked 14 km, I decided to continue to Malahide. After 4 pm, it was time to search for a place for my tent. Unfortunately, this part of Ireland is the most populated and very residential, so not as wild as the West coast. I started to get around Sword estuary, following what Google showed me as a road on the satellite view. Well, Google is not always right, cause suddenly there was no road anymore. Or at least if there was one, apparently, it was underwater. No worries, let's try to find a field. There's no open field there, they are all closed, with doors, and sometimes indications such as "private property, trespassers will be prosecuted". Ok understood. And suddenly, I heard some shooting! (it's bird shooting actually) Ok, that place starts to be very scary. So I did what I saw, heard and read many adventurous and travellers doing: I started asking people to welcome me. I chose a house, with light and people inside, and knock at the door. Once. Twice. No answer. All right, let's try the next one. There's an intercom. I think intercom is not a good thing, cause people don't see me, face to face, and can't really evaluate me and understand my situation. Well at least someone answered me, and I said: "Hello, I'm Pauline, I'm french, I'm making the tour of Ireland only by walk, and I'm looking for a place to sleep. Would you mind if I put my tent in your garden ?" He went to discuss with his wife I think, and came back telling me he cant', but I should try the house across the road. I did the same, several times. Sometimes no answer, sometimes refusal, but always with intercom. And I think it's important to find the right sentences, and I'm sure now, that asking for a place to put my tent in the garden in winter, when it's around 0°C is absolutely not credible. I just think people didn't believe I was going to sleep in a tent. Maybe I should have asked for the couch. At least, someone told me there was nobody at home for the night (incredible those intercoms directly connected to mobile phone) but there was a B&B at the end of the lane. Well, this person at least tried to help me. The problem was I came from the end of this lane and didn't see any B&B. So I went back and looked for it (still with these shooting in the air). I saw a house with a lot of cars and thought maybe it was there. I rang the bell, and the man came out, which I think, made the difference. Because he saw me, a young woman (he thought I was a student), with my big bag and my walking sticks which prooved I was really walking. He asked first if I was alright. So I explained I was looking for the B&B. He gave me slowly the correct explanation and told me it was half a kilometre away. Almost 7 pm, let's walk fast. I finally found it, and no answer! Suddenly the guy I just met before arrived with his car and told me he called the B&B to be sure it was open, and as no one answered him either, he decided to pick me up and bring me to the next B&B in Donabate. He really seems to worry about me, especially when I explained what I was doing in Ireland. He told me not to trust everyone, even if Irish people are very friendly, to be careful, and that it was too cold to sleep outside because the weather was unusually cold for the season. He asked what my mum and dad think about it (which I think, means he might not allow his daughter to do such a thing). Well, there's only Mum left, and she's used to seeing me doing such a thing now. It's a big thing, but not my first one. I trained her too.

So I finally spent the night in a B&B in Donabate, just in front of the beach. As I arrived at the last-minute, with my backpacker looking, they didn't give me their best room, but at least I had a room, with a big bed and a bath. It was warm, I could dry my stuff, get a shower, and have a good sleep. That's for the best!

To summarise, the hardest thing is not to walk, is to find a place to sleep. It's residential here, so it's more difficult to find a place for my tent. But there is no hotel, B&B, Airbnb, hostel or couchsurfer every 20 km. I just regret I forgot to ask the name of the man who helped me and to give him my card.