In one of the brochures for the Upperchurch area, I had read about an historic hiking path, called Eamonn an Chnoic, that left the town, went into the hills, and circled back. It was 8 km (5 miles) and it was supposed to take about 2.5 hours. It sounded pretty good to all of us and would give us nice views of the surrounding hills. So, we drove to town, parked the car, and headed out using the pamphlet as a guide.
After walking a certain distance, we were told to enter a field over a "style". We had no idea what these were until we found the path marker. A "style" is basically a two-sided ladder to go up and over a fence. It's much easier than having people opening gates and then not closing them properly. Many of the fields we ended up going through had cows in them!
We soon found that this hike was going to be a problem. Mud, everywhere. You see, it rains in Ireland (a LOT!) and this year has been much rainier than normal. Add that to the cattle in each field and the soil is pretty chewed up forming large areas of mud. Besides climbing hills, we mostly found ourselves trying to find a way around all the mud. After the first climb, we came to some picnic tables and rested. I also took some nice scenic pictures. No more picnic tables on our trip! To make a long story short, we had plenty of climbing yet to do, plenty of mud to get around, and many styles to climb over. We eventually circled around and came to a road and got a good laugh.
Our cottage wasn't 100' away from where we left a field and took to the road. The hike only had about a half a kilometer left, so Cindy and I decided to stay and get cleaned up while Kasey and Eric finished the hike. That was so that when Kasey and Eric got back, they would have access to the showers.
The picture of our sneakers says much about the mud we found. Luckily, we were able to get most of the mud off using an outdoor water spigot and the washing machine did an amazing job at getting our sneakers quite clean.
Then it was off to Loughmore to pick up Maggie and head to the pub in Kilkenny, about an hour away. Maggie wanted to get there early for the 9:30 p.m. show (everything starts late here!) because she felt the place would be packed. Maggie knew the 4 men in the group after meeting them when they performed in Orlando (where she lives). We were also meeting up with one of Siobhan's sisters, Vera. Kasey and Eric had met her on their previous visit 2 years ago. We arrived about 8:15 p.m. and the place was about empty. We had our choice of seats and had dessert and coffee. 9:30 came and went and no sign of a show. We learned that 2 of the members were coming from another gig and the show wouldn't start until 10:30 p.m. Ugh!
The show finally started at about 10:45 and lasted until about 1:45 a.m.! It was a very good show -
4 talented singers and musicians. In the second to last picture below, Cindy and I are pictured with Eric (left), Vera, and Kasey (right). Eric and Kasey planned the whole trip and we are sharing the cottage with them.
We got Maggie back to Loughmore and we arrived home at about 3 a.m.!!! Were we ever beat! Off to bed in a hurry. We knew we had a busy day later on Saturday as we wanted to go to the Cliffs of Moher.
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