Ireland day 0641. Saturday 01 July 2023- UKSummer2301 *

Ireland day 0641. Saturday 01 July 2023- UKSummer2301

Today’s summary	Walked to the airport and caught an early flight to the UK for a short visit
Today’s weather	Cool drizzly and grey. Strong westerly wind. Appx 13c first thing in Dublin

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): Walk to airport

Commentary

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

Travelling to the UK to meet up with Val and then attend to some family business.

I had an 0815 flight from Dublin which in theory means I was supposed to get to the airport for 0615. Given Vals experience earlier in the week when she got stuck in the Casino and couldn’t get a taxi, and given that the first 102 wouldn’t get me to the airport until after 7am, I decided to walk to the airport instead. It’s only about 9km and it seemed like the safest option.

So I left the Casino at 5:15 promptly and was at the airport by 6:45. Which even though technically half an hour late, still allowed plenty of time to get through security (which always takes an extra long time because of my hips) and get a coffee and croissant too. The walk went fine and the rest of the journey was straightforward.

A further update from the UK tomorrow!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Leaving the Casino at 5:15 and looking a bit bemused by the early start	A rare moment of silence on the Dublin Road.

Rear gates to the Castle demesne locked shut at this hour. Useful to know as I was actually thinking of walking that way to get to the Swords road.	Even the M1 was delightfully quiet this morning. It won’t last, I’m sure (and the R132 was already getting quite busy by the time I approached the airport)

There’s a pavement most of the way except the short stretch from the first roundabout on the R132 (pictured). The grass is actually nice to walk on	Curious variety of Rumex growing in the verge of the R132.

In case I forget! Here’s the July rose.