One day last week, a fellow WWOOFer from France and I decided to go for a hike. After looking through a few guidebooks we found maps of "The Wicklow Way" which is Ireland's version of the Appalachian Trail. Obviously it's much shorter so we planned to walk and camp the 127 km through Wicklow County and into Dublin over the course of a week. Neither of us are still quite sure why we decided to do this. I left my iPod behind and we packed a few belongings, bought a cheap tent, and hit the trail not quite sure what to expect!
After the first day of constant walking we were completely drained tried to keep our spirits up with the thought of going to a pub at the end of the day. Unfortunately, we seemed to have walked to the one village in Ireland that is pub-less. We set up our tent in a church yard and soundly slept for the next 12 hours in our small dome tent.
The next day, we continued walking, ignoring the blisters and sore muscles that were already present. We began to speak only in kilometers and already began to wonder why we were putting ourselves through such an exhausting adventure! Luckily, every steep hill we climbed had a view at the top that made it worth it! With the night approaching, we knocked on the door of a farmer who allowed us to set up a tent in his sheep field.
The third day was by far the most difficult and most unpleasant. The path zig-zagged through a man made forest that was interrupted every so often by a field of tree stumps. Not the best of Ireland but with constant encouragement from eachother, we somehow made it through the day and to a restaurant/pub in the nearest village. The fire was never so warm, the food never so good, and the beer never so refreshing. We were lucky to be able to camp in someone's backyard with the softest grass of our trip!
With the walk over halfway completed, our spirits were high and we decided to only walk in the morning and spend the rest of the day in the national park of Glendalough. It was the most beautiful portion of the way and amazing to wander through the old monastic city and imagine what life would have been like there hundreds and hundreds of years ago. After a night of illegal camping in the park, we once again set off the next day to mark off more kilometers on the map!
By this point we knew we were able to finish the walk and it was just a matter of the last few kilometers. We woke up early this morning, excited to hike to the highest points of the Way which we had been promised provided the best views of Dublin. Unfortunately Mother Nature was not on our side. We did hike to the highest points through the fog, wind, and rain but were unable to see anything but the path in front of us. We were soaked to the bone, miserable, and only thinking about going home. Proud of what we had accomplished and realistic that we couldn't possibly dry all of our clothes and sleeping bags for the night, we walked 4 kilometers down the mountain and another 2 km to the nearest house. Luckily Jesus in a young Irish woman's body lived at the house and opened her door for us to change our clothes, drink hot tea and eat cookies, and then proceeded to drive us right back to our house. We were and still are grateful beyond words!
While this week was physically and mentally draining, walking through Ireland was probably the best way to see the country and meet it's people! So many people went out of their way to be nice to us, whether it was was the person who filled up our water bottles in their kitchen, or fellow hikers who suggested possible campsites for the night, or the man who let us camp in his backyard. This week I also gained greater respect for the abundance of public restrooms available. And every day, I realized there's always one more bite left on the apple.
"When guys in camouflage pants and hunting hats sat around in the Four Aces Diner talking about fearsome things done out-of-doors, I would no longer have to feel like such a cupcake. I wanted a little of that swagger that comes with being able to gaze at a far horizon through eyes of chipped granite and say with a slow, manly sniff, 'Yeah, I’ve shit in the woods.'" - Bill Bryson
