Ireland day 0753. Saturday 21 October 2023- Flat Walk *

Ireland day 0753. Saturday 21 October 2023- Flat Walk

Today’s summary	Val was at work and I walked down the coast to Howth then caught the trains back. Read some papers in respect of the consultancy work I’ve been asked to do and watched a bit of the Tour De France on the new TV in the evening.
Today’s weather	Mostly dry and bright with some sun. Moderate north westerly wind. Appx 11c

Today’s overview location (The orange mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The orange 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): Flat coast walk to Howth

Commentary

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

At last, today the rain stopped and we were able to enjoy of bright skies, a decent amount of sunshine, and heavens that weren’t weeping. Sadly, Val had to go back to work, so I shared a bit of the pain by doing some admin and then more laundry, before starting to plan my day ahead.

After some consideration, I decided to revisit one of my favourite walks – a simple “down-the-coast” hike to Howth. As the wind was from the north west, I had it on my back the whole way, so it turned out to be an extremely enjoyable and easy walk.

The only fly in the ointment for today’s walk was the sea – I had misjudged the tides, which meant that i had to paddle at a couple of points – only a few metres, but enough to leave me with wet socks and trainers (I decided not to take shoes and socks off because the sea shore was quite stony and as the water had a lot of silt in it, I couldn’t really see what I was walking on). The paddle was worth it, though, as once I made it through to Burrow Beach, I was rewarded with a fine view of the Mournes, some 60km away to the north. It’s quite rare to see them from sea-level – you normally need to be a bit higher up to avoid the atmospheric haze. You can see a slightly blurry picture of them in the banner image at the top of the blog.

I was pleased to cover the 17km in 2h 50m non-stop, which meant an average pace of just a shade slower than 10m / km, which I thought was reasonable (although I did have a tailwind, and it was completely flat). The coffee, sandwich and cake in Howth felt well-earned today.

I returned to Malahide straightforwardly enough on the train via Howth Junction – although it was a bit slow as Iarnród Éireann has been somewhat unreliable lately and it seems like most trains are running late or short formation. Today was no exception.

So now I’m back, Val has returned from work, and my shoes and socks are drying on a radiator. We’re going to have beans on toast for dinner tonight – eating up some of the leftover provisions from Beara – then watch a bit more of last year’s Tour de France on the new TV. And in-between everything, I am going to read some background papers for the possible consultancy job. Exciting stuff!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Hardy swimmer at Low Rock, undeterred by the northerly wind, murky sea, and chilly temperatures	The wooden walkway from the Velvet Strand over to the Golf Club car park is beginning to show its age. There are gaps and rotten bits that I’m sure weren’t there when we first arrived in Ireland

Heavyweight bovine watchers by the Baldoyle greenway	Rounding the Sutton golf club peninsula to gain access to Burrow Beach. I made it round this bit with dry feet, but had to paddle at the far end of the beach to get round to Howth

Howth buzzing with activity, as it always is	Well earned refreshment at Howth, I thought!

How much longer can those trees remain perched on the top of that rapidly eroding glacial till? I’d give it a couple of winter storms, at most