Sunshine!

Amazing what a difference a good night’s sleep and sunshine can make! We were a tad miserable as we wandered around the town of Kinsale yesterday in the grey damp drizzle. Today the heavens took pity on us and bestowed a beautifully clear day complete with sunshine. After scarfing down tea and doughnuts in our room, we headed out to hike the Scilly Way, heading for Charles Fort. On our way through town we just happened to stumble upon the Wednesday market with a variety of vendors hawking their wares. The baker had a couple of raisin marzipan buns that literally screamed our names, even though it meant carrying them with us on our hike. Good thing Mike has big pockets 😉. We continued on, but only made it as far as the Spaniard pub, when we couldn’t go a step further without caffeine. While we sat outside nursing our lattes, the locals made short work of pints. Guess it’s 5 o’clock somewhere. Walking along the bay we couldn’t help noticing the fairly significant tidal variation. Tide was out and sailboats sat on their keels in the mud. Some were actually lashed to the sea wall and standing upright on their keels. Wow. As we walked the Scilly Way, we came across a race in progress, 3 small sailboats accompanied by a chase boat. A great addition to the scenery. As we hiked on, I couldn’t help but notice the rock walls lining the way, with flat rocks standing on edge, carefully fitted together. No idea how old they are, but suspect they have stood the test of time based on how weathered they were plus the labor alone would be cost prohibitive nowadays. When the path headed downward again, which meant a climb upwards on return, we made the command decision that we didn’t need to go all the way to the fort. Good call. Looks like we were in the mini Camino mode as we put in over 21,000 steps and 7.5+ miles before the day was over. We stopped off in town for a delicious lunch of scallops before heading around the bay in the other direction. Stumbled across another Tauck tour group though different tour director and bus driver. A little nostalgia there. While we miss the 5 star accommodations and having someone else take care of all the arrangements, it is good to be on our own and moving at our own pace. We dined al fresco on the front porch of our lodging watching the sun set. Perfect ending to a wonderful day.Читать далее