Ireland day 0661. Friday 21 July 2023- Gym and Newbridge *

Ireland day 0661. Friday 21 July 2023- Gym and Newbridge

Today’s summary	Gym in the morning, then walked round the shore of the Broadmeadow lagoon to Newbridge for a cup of tea in the café. Returned by train. Val still in UK
Today’s weather	Overcast, cool and windy most of the day, with no sun and light rain which lasted all evening. Moderate to strong westerly wind. Appx 16C

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): Newbridge via Broadmeadow after gym

Commentary

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

I woke up unusually early this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I spent the early hours of the day listening to podcasts, doing a bit of tidying up, and sorting out the laundry. Then, by mid morning and after several cups of tea, I was feeling a bit more compos mentis so I pulled my gear together and headed off to the gym for another session on the machines, followed by a swim. I’ve been four times this week, which is more than enough, really, but I have a fair amount of catching up to do as I have missed quite a lot of sessions over the last few months.

After three hours I decided I’d had enough so returned to the flat, made a packed lunch, and decided to head out into the dry but threatening afternoon, to enjoy some fresh air. Over the past few days, I’ve headed east, south and west on my walks, to today I thought I’d complete my tour of the compass and head north – round the estuary and over to Newbridge House.

I’ve done this walk several times before, so there isn’t much new I can say about it. Except that the rain successfully held off until I practically reached the end of the walk (so I didn’t really get wet), and by chance I got the tides right, so I didn’t have to paddle. And given my unexpectedly early start to the day, I was running quite early so I managed to reach the café (featured in the banner image at the top of the blog) in time to get a most welcome cup of tea. Suitably refreshed, I emerged from the shelter of the café and walked over to the station where a southbound train arrived 20 minutes later to whisk me on the short hop over the estuary to Malahide.

Well that’s enough for now. The rain has really organised itself and is pouring down outside, so I’m going to settle back with my half-price Tesco macaroni and cheese, and watch a bit of TV. An early night calls, too, as I’m worn out!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Statuesque heron patiently waiting for its next unsuspecting meal to swim by	Unusual – I think this is a cormorant perched on the rocky foreshore of the Broadmeadow lagoon. Never seen one like this before

Out with the family for the afternoon	Tide just low enough to get round with dry feet

Great Masterwort, Astrantia major, growing on the verges of the Kilcrea road. I must have seen this species hundreds of times before, but I’d never really paid it any attention and even today I had to look it up on Google. If you look closely at the flowers, they are really quite elaborate and striking	Arriving over the bridge at the entrance to the Newbridge demesne, just as it started raining

Ugly ducklings well on the way to becoming beautiful swans