Day 6 and on to Cloghane. (21 kl or 13 miles)

Cloghane  6/21/17
This is a tiny village at the base of Mount Brandon, with a population of only 297 folk, there isnt much going on, but there are pubs of course. Overlooking the Brandon Bay, the town is quaint and pretty quiet. The name of Cloghane comes from the old regional stone huts that are found here.

To get there we had the biggest climb of the trail, over 2000 ft which was one thing, but as it turns out, it's a straight up climb. with no switchbacks.

Left the accommodation which was marginal at best, worst place we stayed in so far, left by 9.20 am and headed to the trail. We soon found ourselves on the path leading off the road and to the mountain. Looking at the road ahead it didn't seem too bad, but a post on my right side caught my eye and we almost walked past it, it was for the trail and showed straight upwards. Would have hated to miss this turn.
 We took the direction and started to climb. It did exactly that, go straight up for 1 hour and 40 minutes, over sodden grass tufts and sheep droppings, many styles and farmers gates, but only straight up, and after that, more straight up.
 The fog was as thick as pea soup and at times, when separated by more than 30 ft, we had to call to stay in touch.

At last, the top at over 2400 ft and soaking wet

Reaching the top and finally taking a break and a snack to fuel the body, felt good.
 Carolines foot was pretty bad and bleeding, so she decided not to do this hike due to the climb, that was a good choice as the way down was worse. The book warned  of the descent ,and it was right. The fist 500 ft down was as treacherous as it gets, with steps down as big as 3 foot at a time and a gradient of about 65 degrees. We decided to send our big bags with Caroline in a cab to the next night stop, so glad we did because with them on, the climb and the decent would have been hellish dangerous.

We never saw any other hikers today, which makes me wonder if they saw the direction sign going straight up at the bottom, it was easy to miss. If they missed it, who knows where they will end up.

The fog cleared on the back side, and the valley coming down to the ocean was spectacular. Makes you realize why you walk these walks.

stacks of Peat drying out to be used as fire fuel.

Met a farmer and his toothless sheep herder on the way down. Chatted to then for a good 15 minutes
learning about sheep and sheep dogs. they were really interesting to chat with, but were more interested in Las Vegas.

 When we reached the coast, we headed into Brendon town and down to Brendon Harbor for a beer shandy at the pub.

 

Kerri outside the pub, on the harbor wall.

 From there the trail took another 4 miles into this town of Cloghan, it's a tiny place but we are at the best Band B we have stayed in, in fact they are doing a wash for us in a machine, BECAUSE WE STINK.

 Stopped into an old cemetery coming into town and looked around,, they are very peaceful places and looking at some tomb stones, the history is all there. Makes you realize you have to live this life out loud, because this is all there is in the end.

 

We found Caroline at the BandB, and she had taken a few miles in around the town on her feet, to make up for not doing the climb,
Had a shower, clean clothes, now I'm not sure what to do with myself,,,,,,,oh yeah, that's right there's a pub down the street for dinner, and Brian and I need to make up for tooooo many lost games of cribbage.

part of the trail coming into the village