Day 4: Glenmalure to Laragh:
Distance: 19 km / 11.9 miles, Ascent: 566 m / 1698 ft, Descent: 540 m / 1620 ft.
Approximate walking time: 5 / 6 hours.
Sunday broke with wonderful sunny weather and it ended up being a very busy day on the trail – the most people we have ever encountered on a trek. The beautiful weather and Sunday combined to bring all the locals outdoors.
It was a great walk over more rolling hills. Much of the path was along peat bog and boardwalks have been built to protect the sensitive wetlands. We even had a sheep-guided tour across one section of the boardwalk for quite a long distance. A woman traversing down the hill from the opposite direction got a good view of our group trailing behind the sheep and found it hilarious.
As we rounded a bend, two lovely lakes (Glendalough Upper and Lower) came into view. It was at a lookout over the long lake where our first real injury incident occurred. Lucy just made a little slip on the platform and over she went on her ankle. We thought she would need a rescue, but after a bit she managed to get up onto it. We used our KT tape to try to get some compression, but it wasn’t great. We pumped some ibuprofen into her. Amazingly, Lucy managed to walk down to the information point at the end of the lake. There were hundreds of people by this point. The girl at the desk had some better bandages and offered to drive Lucy to the bnb in an hour when she got her lunch break. Paul tried asking the bnb hostess if they could arrange a lift, but she said the 20 min trip would take over 2 hours today due to the traffic! So PK stayed back with Lucy and the rest of us walked on.
PK & Lucy sadly missed out on the monastery ruins from the 600s. They were used till the 1200’s and then destroyed. The oldest Celtic cross in Ireland was there as well as a tall tower to call the monks to service. The tower had an entry door 12ft above the ground. A ladder had to be dropped to gain access.
That night we stayed in 2 separate hotels- for 2 nights which was a luxury. We along with Dan & Suz stayed at the Lynhams Hotel, the other 6 at Bramble Rocks up the road. I even managed to get a soak in the tub in our wonderful king-size room.
The hardest part was that as the pain set in, Lucy couldn’t walk. She managed to get down for dinner on the first night, but couldn’t do it on night 2. Dinner was wonderful again, but never cheap and we ate too much and drank too much…. again.
After dinner there was live music in the pub and Doug & Kaylon and Mick & Sue danced along. Monty had gone up to transfer photos, but by the time he came down Paul & Lucy had left and the band was taking a break. We didn’t want to hang much longer so left before the next set and I think the party broke up. After all, it was a rigorous hiking tour and we aren’t as young as we used to be!
