14/05 Dublin - Roundwood "The Bad day"

DUBLIN - ROUNDWOOD

57,3 km

5:50 h

There are good probability that, at the end of the journey, i'm gonna change the title in "The worst day ever", basically because everything that could go wrong, went wrong!

At 10:15 i left home in Dublin, to undertake the first section of the wicklow way. I was very enthusiastic! The journey i've been planning for 6 months was about to begin and the weather was finnaly good.
At the end of the day i would have had a different feeling about it.

The Wicklow way starts with a very long climb just off Marlay park. It was there where it started raining.

                   



A walker took that picture with mi camera on the way to a peak called two rock, 2km far from the beginning. It is a charming walk but once on the top i realize that it was the wrong way...

To get back to the Wicklow way i had to get through a narrow path made by big rocks, so i had to carry the bike, which is around 20 kg up to the next junction, 100 mt far away. Thanks God the rain gave me a break...

That picture has been taken from the top of Two rock, the flood was just about to begin...in the middle of nowhere...

After 2 hours of joy and happiness between stones big like mountains, nettles, thorns, rain, sun, rain again, sunburn and floods, i got in to a paved road...

...never been so happy to see the asphalt!





The wicklow way comes across a private lands which are closed by gates and fences. in thas case if you wanna go ahead you need to lift the bike up, over the fence and then carry on. if you're cycling with mtb is fine , but i had a overloaded touring bike so for two times i had to take off all the bags and stuffs, take the bike over the fence, take all the bag over the fence, cross the fence. i didn't take pictures of this...you will understand why...

Once i left the lovely fence i had to climb nearly 2,5 km up to the hill that is behind those pines. The road to come down is made by big stones and rock, actually you don't see the road cause there is no road but just big stones, so i had to carry my bike through the rocks...at that stage my legs where ready to be baked

I took this picture because that is the firts part of the trek i really enjoyed. The ground way already dry and the way was not so bad so i decided to do it by bike instead walking. I enjoyed much less when i found out that during the downhill i lost the bag with the food... so from 2 pm till 8 pm i couldn't eat anything as there where no shops where to buy food.

Anyway the scenery along the track is very nice. i belive i would enjoy it alot with some friends and a mtb

As i couldn't use the tiny bridge to cross the river with the bike, i decided to ford it but i slipped on one of the rocks and i got to the other side with feet, socks and shoes totally wet...
I did't take pictures of this neither....you can understand why...



That is the last picture of the day. At 6 pm i got off the Wicklow way cause it was driving me crazy and, starving, sick and tired, with the shoes completely wet and with a fucking heavy bike, i tried to reach Roundwood which is the town where i had to sleep the first night. it was the cherry on the cake. I counted 13 big climb in a total of 17 km before i finally got to the village, dead