The bulk of today was perfectly pleasant and lovely, but I’m getting weary of the latter part of the weather forecast. Multiple people have reaffirmed my feelings of wariness about going into fields with cattle of unknown disposition… and yet. And yet.
Anyway, we’ll get there. Let’s start with the rest of the day, which without the bovine complications would been referred to as “The Mellowest Day”. It started with a delicious chicken, mushroom, and cheddar omelet at my Ballygar B&B, the Coffee Drop, and then continued with less than five minutes of road walking before being diverted into some very attractive woods for over an hour.
How to start your day right
Pleasant green all around
Though the obvious timber usage along an otherwise recreationally oriented trail still feels a little odd, it wasn’t bad per se
Very fancy bridge
Maurice has found his sloth castle from which he shall rule over all slothdom… ehhh nahhh that sounds like way too much effort he’s just gonna nap up there
Thither and yon we go
Unfortunately toppled waymarker at a key intersection – not too hard to figure out but watch for it if you are going this way
Maidenhair ferns on stone wall!
Other ferns on stone wall! (if you think I have a thing for ferns growing out of walls, well, you could be on to something)
Even once I emerged onto roads they were chill quiet pretty roads. Also I admit – if you are a huge truck and have reached these signs… what exactly do they expect you to DO?
The specificity of this sign unnerved me slightly. “No deer, but hikers are fine”
Horsey face snuggles = the cuteness
Even the bigger road was kind of nice! I hadn’t had such a relaxed day in a while
Through the woods, past a radio tower, etc.
Coming around the side of Mount Mary (not a super tall mount, for the record), to see some views. I have missed views!
Fuchsias in the wind – I am used to seeing these flowers in hanging baskets, seeing them on bushes still weirds me out
As the sign indicates, the route split here. Of course I tried the flood-prone route – how could I not?
Yet another stile variety; in my head, these are “hoop earring stiles”
Already I like this route
And ANOTHER new stile variety! Riches abound!
Through fields of foxgloves
Along planks to avoid some of the soggy ground the sign might have warned you to expect
Through lush green and beneath blue skies
And past more beautiful views…
Down what seemed to be a series of railway ties whose reason for placement could not be any clearer…
So let me be clear. At this point, I am a good hour into this section of the route. There are no roads nearby, no easy diversions or detours that don’t involve crawling over some fairly intense multi-strand barbed wire fences. I am, at this point, pretty committed.
And I saw the hints. The particular unevenness of the fields. Freshly rained-on cow pats. But I didn’t see any culprits, and turning back did not feel like a great option, so I soldiered on.
And then I encountered these gentlemen.
Note the peen-fluff and lack of udder – these were in fact some variety of gentlemen or former gentlemen (I am guessing the latter and that these were steer)
Given that I was already in their field, I decided to just stroll along calmly and hope we were chill. And that worked – they took a minute to notice me, and by then I was close enough to walk on over to the stile and clamber up. They seemed mellow and curious so I hung around there for a minute – on the other side – chatting with them (they did not moo back) and taking some pictures.
Hi they say
Handsome enough face
I continued along, congratulating myself on a successful cattle experience.
Well, of course, then I came to the next field.
Ohai look more dudes
Gritting my teeth, I slowly made my way across this field as well, and this time they genially ignored me. Great. 2 for 2. Enough for today, maybe?
Then I reached this.
Why don’t you walk into the middle of this huge pasture – cattle were visibly grazing off in the distance – far away from any fencing or escape routes, knowing there may totally be a bull in here that could kill you! Isn’t that how you always wanted today to end, with putting yourself in mortal danger?
I made it out to the first waymarker, which continued to point way off into the unspecified distance of the gigantic field, and then said “okay fuck this” and headed off to find my way along one of the edges instead, because then at least I could have tried to leap over or under the barbed wire if the cattle started wandering over and it turned out there was a bull in the mix.(oh also, this would be the first set of cattle fields that did not have electric fencing – a fact which had lulled me into thinking there couldn’t be cattle in here previously. So much for that.)
My… “path” (not actual path, but my route anyway)
At least, I mused miserably, as I slogged through rushes nearly as tall as I as and over ground so uneven I regularly found myself gaining or losing a foot or two of height with each step – at least they are on the far side of the pasture, and maybe they won’t spot me over here.
Herd in the distance
I had forgotten about my bright orange backpack rain cover… until halfway across when I frantically wadded it up and put it away… but they continued to not notice me, thankfully.
Finally, after several possible false escape routes including a stile to nowhere (okay, into a waterlogged ditch), I made my way out. Only to be confronted shortly thereafter with this:
Are you kidding, guys? I hate everything
And yes, there were cattle this might apply to, unlike the empty fields where you know the sign is out of date. So I once again crept along as close as possible to the fence, gritting my teeth and seething with rage that this lovely, relaxing, mellow day was ending in a guessing game of “is there an animal that could kill you in this field? Spin the wheel!”
People making Irish trails: this sucks. I am sure some people can tell if there’s a bull or not or whether these cows are going to get pissed off at you because they don’t get to nurse their own calves anymore (true story, apparently). But if you actually want some volume of non-natives (or natives who aren’t cattle-whisperers) to walk these trails, the walkways for hikers need to be fenced off so we are not left wondering if this next field of cattle is the one where we get trampled to death.
…okay, rant over. Also, I did do my feet some injustice yesterday, and the route is about to get weird again, so rest day tomorrow. Catch y’all on the other side.
The Single Step Journeywoman 