Ireland day 0555. Thursday 06 April 2023- Trekking Poles *

Ireland day 0555. Thursday 06 April 2023- Trekking Poles

Today’s summary	Val was at work so I spent the day doing Spanish homework, going to the gym, and learning to walk with trekking poles. Cooked the dinner in the evening so altogether a successful day all round
Today’s weather	Mostly dry and sunny with a beautiful clear evening at the end of the day. Light north westerly wind. Appx 11C

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

Commentary

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

Val was back to work today so once she was safely off, I got up and started on the latest dose of Spanish homework. (The Casino model railway museum where she works, by the way, was looking glorious today in the spring sunshine. You can see it in the banner image at the top of the blog).

The homework was quite a tricky puzzle today, a bit like Sudoku but more complicated, and it took me a couple of hours to figure it out. Quite rewarding in the end, though. Once that was done, I headed off to the gym for a bit more exercise biking and a quick swim, then did some shopping on the way back.

After a late lunch in the flat, I decided to advance my recovery by trying a walk with trekking poles rather than crutches. My physio has OK’d this and in anticipation, I’d got a cheap pair of poles from Mountain Warehouse the day before my operation. Today my hip felt good so I thought I’d give them a try on a short circular walk from the flat down to the coast. I’ve tried using poles in the past and never really got on with them – I tended to find they got in the way and were generally a nuisance. But today they were fine – a good deal lighter than crutches and I felt a lot more nimble when using them. I’m not ready to give up all forms of walking assistance yet, but the poles will be a good intermediate step with that ultimate goal in mind. I’ll probably also use crutches for longer expeditions for a week or two more. So a successful day all round, really.

Val’s back from work now but immediately headed off for a power walk round the demesne. My job is to try and get the dinner ready before she returns. Better get my skates on! (Not literally).

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Walking back from the gym along the estuary shore, with a slightly inconvenient tree growing out of my backpack	Roses outside the Casino museum looking vigorous and healthy as the new spring foliage takes shape

Looking down Hanlon’s Lane to the estuary. I do like this road – quiet but close to the town centre



In Hanlon’s Lane. Note the trekking poles – and no crutches!