We knew it was going to be a long day but we were prepared with plan B if the need came. We did adjust the walk time for the inclement weather and the really long mileage. Public buses worked great for some, but it took the kindness of drivers to make the day go smoothly.
15,67 miles, 1283 feet elevation gain, 55 degrees, 92% humidity.
Richard’s ReLive video for the day is here: https://www.relive.com/view/vJOKzmgB75v
St. Patrick’s Cathedral Catholic was built between 1840 and 1904, considerably later than St. Patrick’s Cathedral COI (Church of Ireland). It’s building was partially delayed due to the famine.
Morning mass was scheduled to begin at 10 am and we reached the church about 9:45. I quickly viewed the sanctuary from the back.
Note the intricate story told above the arches.
Sunlight was streaming through the stained glass windows.
Time to head out of town. Like many big cities, it takes some time to leave the suburbs and sometimes is complicated to follow the map. This busking musician was entertaining the mid-morning shoppers with his tin whistle.
Art is everywhere — even at the freeway intersection.
Pedestrian crossings are simpler and safer in the city. You press the button and wait for the green man to illuminate. You are looking at the same sign next to you instead of trying to make sense of overhead or distant signage. Your pedestrian walk sign is short—there is usually a protected spot in the middle of the road where you go through the same procedure. Cars respect the pedestrians and their wait time is less. At some major intersections, there may be three separate lights for pedestrians to get across.
Richard was consulting his phone map and I was waiting around when this storekeeper popped out of World of Sport to see if she could help. Thank you, Connie Walker, for getting us on the right road.
One last look back at St. Patrick’s Cathedral (COI).
Now our trail follows a meandering stream through the outer suburbs of Armagh.
This marker was placed by the Royal Bank of Scotland to mark the Millennium and the creation of the National Cycle Network.
We kept hearing loud grinding noises from this house as we approached. It took a minute to understand what he was doing — trimming the hedgerow. He had a tool like a lawn mower body suspended from his tractor arm and it was evenly cutting the hedge. Unfortunately I was too late to get a good picture of his set-up, but if you expand the picture you can see what has been cut on the ground behind him.
We’re talking about our plan B now. It’s after 4 pm and rain clouds are looking threatening. We have several hours more to walk to the hotel. Evidently the folks in Armagh were right—the mileage is understated in the trail map literature.
Richard consults his phone and we were able to get two public buses that would get us to the closest town to our hotel. We expected to ride with more townspeople, but buses carry school students so many were uniformed students from the local schools.
Scarva is the end point for today’s walk so we expected a bigger town. Not so. Its claim to fame is the canal that was dug to encourage commerce in the 1800’s. Today the canal is mostly unused, but the tow path seemed widely used by walkers and bicyclists.
Outside Scarva there is a graveyard where John Wesley preached on one of his visits to the area. Local Methodists annually commemorate the association on the first Sunday in August.
There was one restaurant near the canal (closed), and a bigger restaurant near the bridge into town (also closed until Wednesday). We decided to head into the local bar for refreshment and help calling a taxi.
Gillian served us beers and crisps (potato chips) and answered a slew of questions. No, there is no food to be had. Any taxi would have to come from the neighboring town, Bainbridge, and they would charge us for that route before picking us up. And no, you can’t pay for your beers. “My dad will drive you to your accommodation to drop off your packs, and then drive you to a restaurant for dinner.”
Tom arrived to drive us under instructions from Gillian. Of course, Helen, our hotel host, also knew Tom.
Dinner was at Rice’s Hotel in Poyntzpass, established in 1798. It is the only place within miles to eat on Tuesday night. Richard had beef and mashed potatoes and Jan had salmon. After we finished, our bartender, Galvin, called our hotel host to pick us up. Galvin knew both Tom and Helen.
Thanks to the incredible kindness of people who got us delivered and fed!
2 Responses
What a day!
It was a long day but at the beginning of the hike, excitement goes a long way to keep us going. Thanks for following!