Ireland day 0953. Wednesday 08 May 2024- Wrong Tides Again

Today’s summary	Took Val to the airport first thing. She is in the UK until Friday to deal with some domestic matters. I walked down the coast to Howth in the afternoon and took the bus / train back.
Today’s weather	Overcast but dry. Light southerly wind. Appx 15c

Today’s overview location (The green 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): Malahide to Howth wrong tides

Commentary

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

Val had another quick trip to the UK scheduled today (she’s dealing with some family and admin matters and is back on Friday) so after an early start and a quick cup of tea, I whizzed her round to the airport in the Trusty Yaris. She had a speedy journey across the Irish Sea and was almost at the end of the runway by the time I was back in Malahide.

I hadn’t got anything specific planned for today and the weather was looking decent, so I thought I would head out of Malahide and tackle one of my favourite walks, down the coast to Howth.

But first, I had a quick call with a friend of mine who is unfortunately in hospital back in the UK at the moment. We had a good chat and he seems to be being well looked after during his temporary incarceration.

Eventually I hit the road and started my walk south. I say “road” deliberately because I had once again misjudged the tides so the amount of beach-walking was a bit restricted. Anyway, I stuck as close to the coast as I could (a nice flat walk!) and I really enjoyed walking when, for once, it wasn’t raining, freezing or blowing a gale.

I covered the 18 km in 3 hr which was a reasonable pace (10 min per km) though really I’d like to up the pace a bit to closer to 9m/k. I think I’m still recovering from the hip resurfacing last year so probably this is a good pace for this stage in the proceedings.

I stopped in at the Insomnia café in Howth at the end for a late and enjoyable tuna melt for lunch. The café is still in the middle of a refurbishment programme and as there were diggers and drills in full swing hacking up the car park, it wasn’t particularly relaxing and I didn’t stay too long.

The journey back to Malahide took longer than it should, as the 102 I was aiming for was cancelled, so I had a 45 min wait for the next. Still, there’s a small kiosk next to the bus stop so I treated myself to a cup of tea as I waited.

Once the transport arrived, I was quickly back in Malahide. I stopped off in SuperValu to get some chicken for dinner, then completed my journey back to the flat.

I’ve got a tonne of laundry to get done before Val gets back, so I better make a start now. Or else there will be damp sheets draped everywhere when she returns, and that would never do.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


The boardwalk onto the Velvet Strand from the Golf Links Road car park had been falling badly into disrepair over the last 12 months. I was delighted to see today that Fingal Council have started repairing it (even though it meant that it was a bit of a pain for me to navigate a way around all the machinery)	I like the rotational symmetry of the footpath sign on the Baldoyle Greenway

I think this is what people of my age are supposed to do all day	A brief wait en route as a DART passed on its way out of Sutton station and heading for Bray

Good to see	In Insomnia. A healthy lunch beckons, once again

M/V “Doer” registered in Ejsberg Denmark – apparently it’s a crew transfer vessel for staff working on offshore wind turbines