Hitching and Bulls

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so we woke up a pretty sore (no sleeping pad on a wood floor not so much the most comfortable) and started off. we hiked down into glenmalur valley, then we were hoping to get a lift in laragh, which is the closest town to glendalough. so we get off the wicklow way and start hiking up the road, sticking our thumbs out. eventually we score a ride with dominic, a guy who lives in glenmalur. it's a real good thing, because we would have been walking for a few hours to get into laragh. and he tells us some interesting things about ireland, we drove through some of the last remaining old-growth forest in ireland - the english cut almost all of it down in 1600 (that blows my mind) to make battleships. oh, and the whole time i was wondering how much i smelled....he drops us off (safely, mom 😊 ) and we go into the gas station to get a refill on water, got some peanuts, and some minstrels, which are my new favorite chocolate. and man, that was some amazing food! at that point we were both really tired and hungry and thirsty, so a break was very welcome. then a 3 km hike to glendalough, and we decided to do the trail to roundwood, and made reservations at a caravan park there. so, commence the hiking. so there's these platforms used to get over the fences, and when your legs are burning, man, each one was taken very slowly! the country is just beautiful, forests and sheep pastures...really peaceful. so we get to a farm where there's cows loose on the road. so after a few pictures, one cow begins to moo incessantly, and her moo's are answered...by a ginormous bull that is purposefully walking over. that boy was BIG...and all muscle...and just a tiny barb wire fence between us and him. he's literally a ton of muscle, no fat, just rippling muscle underneath skin. he's clearly nothing to mess with, and now i'm not so sure about running with the bulls in pamplona. so picture time was clearly over and we retreated. then more walking...walking...walking....then finally we get to roundwood around 6. so we splurged on gouda cheese to go with our soda bread, and then had ice cream! yeah, it was real good. and then into town for a pint of guinness. then a walk back, we got asked for directions...which is the second time for me, and it's great to be able to reply, "yeah, i'm not from around here..." you get kind of a sheepish grin from the person who just asked, it's great. so back to our tent and glorious sleep.

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Comments

[Axume]

are the old growth forests anything like walking through Sequioa and did you take any pictures of the raging bull?