Thursday

Thursday morning was another crisp, cool morning. Massey and Ferguson, two donkeys belonging to the nuns, had escaped their paddock, so my day begin helping to herd together the excited pair.

After a photo shoot with some of the nuns and Brian, a reporter from the local Avonghu paper, I was invited into the sparkling canteen for soda bread, marmalade and tea.

Back walking again, I passed the old home of the Hennessay family, teetering on a limestone outcrop, overlooking the Blackwater. The river looked an impressive green today. Small caves and tunnels permeated the limestone buttress. Set inside one of the caves I could faintly make out carved stone steps leading up into the underneach of the Hennessay house.

After an uneventful day I met Christy, the local walk co-ordinator, who has been great for suggestions and advice on B&Bs over the past few days. With a little silver trailer behind his car, Christy took us to our home for the night; a 19th century railway building, beautifully restored into a B&B. Billy and Majella at The Old Train House welcomed us and seemed more than happy for my goat to wander through their immaculate garden, nibbling at bushes and trees.

I was shown to a clean room with thick oak joist beams running across the ceiling; part of the original structure.

Later that evening Cara and I wandered into the smallest of Ballyhooly's three pubs for a quick pint before dinner. I was assured by a farmer called John, stting beside the open turf fire, that we're in for a great summer - like the one of '83!

I'm really looking forward to the next two days, as I follow river banks and forest trails over the Kilworth Mountains and Knockmealdown Mountains to my destination of Clogheen.

I'm just now beginning to realise I have no established plan as to how I'm returning from Clogheen to Killarney, along with my two companions! I think the three of us may resort to having to hitch home on Sunday.

If anyone happens to be driving Killarney direction on Sunday and has room for Bob and Cara, plus me and a big backpack please let me know, otherwise this blog might go on for a whole lot longer!