Ireland day 0403. Saturday 05 November 2022- Coast and Evening Gym *

Ireland day 0403. Saturday 05 November 2022- Coast and Evening Gym

Today’s summary	Walked down the coast to Portmarnock with Val then took the bus back. Val at Wonderlights in the evening and I went to the gym
Today’s weather	Overnight rain but bright and breezy most of the day, with some warm sunshine on the walk down the coast. Moderate westerly wind. Appx 13C

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The green line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Download

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

Walked down the coast with Val as far as the Velvet Strand in the morning. She needed to get back by early afternoon to have lunch and get ready for work at Wonderlights in the evening. So took the 102 back from Portmarnock to speed the return.

Spent the late afternoon and early evening in the gym after negotiating a temporary extension to my off-peak membership. Quite different to be there after dark

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Blurry image of a bird on the beach that Val identified as a Stonechat. Can be identified by its characteristic chirp, which sounds like two pebbles being banged together	The upper treads of these steps leading down onto Malahide beach apparently (according to the local paper) reappeared after a storm last week. They had previously been buried for sixty years

Starlings gathering for their evening roost. Sometimes they migrate south to warmer climes, but they don’t go far and quite a lot stay put in Ireland	Above the beach, near High Rock



The Velvet Strand, aka Portmarnock beach. It’s always a spectacular sight, especially in the low angle winter sun