Final Leg – Fair Play to You

The final stretch and looking forward to putting the feet up but still some distance to go. We have now walked 520.4klms since we left Leitrim several weeks ago.

 We leave the colourful crossroad village of Glengarriff with a low, heavy mist hanging over the mountains so decide for our safety we will not walk the mountain path but instead we decide to walk the main road for some klms and pick up the bike path to Adrigole. We do not wish to become a statistic at this stage of the walk. Not sure if it was such a wise decision as the traffic is a little hairy at times with some serious bends and curves in the road and little room at the sides to move off, this just makes us walk a little faster. We turn off the coast road at Lackavane and head up the path, we are now facing some very rocky mountains and hope we do not have to climb them - I am not a mountain goat.

We have a break at Leitrim Beg and the standing stone which is situated in a farmer’s field, I find I am a little bull shy so keep an eye on the cows as we trudge across the boggy fields. The views across the Beara Peninsula was worth the walk. This part of West Cork is so beautiful and wild with the green hills covered in large boulders and dotted with sheep. We watch the wet mist coming down the hills and we know we are going to get very wet very soon so decide it is time to change into the wet gear, hopefully for the last time. Several wedge graves off the road but the rain is starting to get heavy and we still have a few kilometres until we reach our bed for the night. When we reach our B & B we must look a sight – dripping wet and a little earlier than expected.  All I want is to stand in front of the roaring fire and dry off. We have walked 16.8klms today in the rain.

The final morning looms, bright and sunny. We are to meet Jean and Paddy O’Sullivan and Fachtna O’Donovan outside Adrigole and they will walk us over Hungry Hill and several more very rocky hills and into Castletownbere – 26.7klms. The walk or should I say hill climb is steep, rocky and very demanding, not sure if I am just exhausted or the boys are testing these Australian women to see what we are made of. Sue and I have decided that we have O’Sullivan ancestry but definitely not mountain goat in our bloodline. Upwards we continue and JUST one more hill when we start the downward run. This has proven to be one of the hardest walking days but we have done it. We have a welcome party at the bottom of the mountain and photographer and we walk into the village and Twomeys Bar where we have more people and the Clan Chieftain waiting for us.

It is hard to believe we have completed the walk that we have been organising, training and dreaming about for over the past 15 months. The hospitality through Ireland has been fantastic, the villages have taken us into their community, their homes and hearts and for this we will be forever grateful. The day and celebrations finish at night with several presentations from the Beara people and a night of Irish music, a very late night or early morning but one we will always remember. Yesterday we completed the March with a phone interview for a West Cork Newspaper – we are internationally famous.

Sue and I have walked 547 klms, walked 25^th June – 22^nd July, we have had 5 rest days, we have raised $10,326 for Cancer Queensland. We have had 1 blister on the first day and no serious injuries, walked 16 – 38 klms each day and had a mixture of weather. We had walkers along the way and made some lifelong friends. We have had a mixture of hotels, B & Bs, hotels and private accommodation and everyone has gone out of their way to welcome us and show us the sights and history of the area. We will never be able to thank the Irish people for their friendship and hospitality.

We have walked Ireland for the craic