Day 3 Wicklow Way: Oldbridge/Wicklow Way Lodge to Coolakay House B&B

 We woke up rested and ready for another day of backpacking. Part of the B&B was breakfast, and we were treated to a FULL Irish Breakfast with toast and porridge. Many people mentioned the full Irish breakfast, which includes blood pudding. This was on my list to try while I was in Ireland, and today was the first chance for doing just that. They asked whether we wanted porridge, and not wanting to be rude, I of course said yes. Come to find out, it is basically oatmeal, but for some reason it tasted so much better in Ireland!? 

A typical FULL Irish breakfast includes: sausage, "bacon" (canadian bacon), 1 fried egg, roasted tomato, black/white pudding, sauteed mushrooms, toast, tea, and juice. Imagine eating that every day. Wow! We did just that plus included the porridge that morning. The day was supposed to be 22km, and we knew we needed the fuel as we didn't have much in the way of food for the majority of the day.  

While we ate breakfast, we enjoyed talking with a man who stays at the B&B often, but hails from a town we passed on the train 2 days ago. He was very nice, and it was interesting to here about Ireland form a local. During breakfast, Seamus, the other owner of the B&B asked whether we wanted him to drive us up the way thus keeping us from a long road walk. We thought about it briefly, and said, "yes, please." 

As Seamus finished cleaning up from breakfast, we packed up our stuff, settled the check, and retrieved our packed lunches. Seamus packed us in his car, and we took off along the road section of the Wicklow Way. He drove us up and up and up, and I thanked my lucky stars as it was windy as all get out. We passed Lough Dan, which is part of an alternative route when water levels are low (not sure when that is in Ireland). Along the way, he told of the various movies that had been filmed in the area, and pointed out the potato ridges on the hillsides from back in the potato famine days. It was really neat to here some of the history of the area. Eventually, Seamus dropped us at the top of a hill in the road, hugged us goodbye, and we headed up a trail to meet up with the Wicklow Way about 50ft beyond.

The place we were dropped off gave wonderful views of Lough Dan and Lough Tay, the latter also being known as Guinness lake due to its dark hue as well as the land previously being owned by the Guinness Family. Because my husband and I had trained on South Table Mountain in Colorado, and took a photo of him looking down on the water treatment area for Coors, which I had termed "Coors Lake," I had to take a photo of him looking the same as he gazed at Guinness Lake. I'm pretty sure Guinness Lake was neater than "Coors Lake." 

We met up with the Wicklow Way just 50ft up from the road where we were dropped off, and found ourselves faced with bog boards and horrendous wind. Extremely thankful for having packed trekking poles, we braced ourselves along the bog boards and against the wind, as we traversed upwards. The views were beautiful despite the wind threatening to dump us in the bog if we did not remain diligent. As we ran out of bog boards and thus boggy area, we looked at potentially climbing the tallest point along the Wicklow Way that day. Unfortunately, the wind strongly encouraged us to take the trail around instead. That was a good thing as we came across a heard of dear moving along the hillside and the wind was gloriously blocked by the hill we were blown away from. 

Coming down the other side of the hill area towards the Powerscourt Waterfall overlook area, I found the wet, slippery grassy hill a great place to test out my wonderful macabi skirt as I slid onto my behind and down the hill until I was able to dig my heels into the earth and stand up. I dusted myself off, and continued down to the saddle which was next to the stream that feeds the waterfall. Crossing rocks at that stream, I once again fell on the wet, muddy ground. Disappointed and feeling like a bog monster, I stood up and my husband helped wipe me off. I asked him whether I looked like a muddy mess, and he said that I did not. 

After a bit of lunch by the stream, we continued up a big climb before leveling out and heading around the Powerscourt Waterfall getting amazing glimpses of the waterfall before entering into Crone Woods. The trail got a little more popular around this area. Along this section of the way, I enjoyed moist spots to setup my traveling gnomes, fairies, dinosaur, and husky. Crone woods was erie and yet amazing with the twisted trees. Eventually, we made our way through to the trailhead and the long road walk to Coolakay B&B for the evening. 

The Coolakay B&B was gorgeous, and we got settled in before joining another traveller to Enniskerry for dinner. The ride into Enniskerry was wonderful with the host/driver talking about the town being used in Disney's Disenchanted movie. We agreed on about 3 hours in town, and headed for some dinner. It didn't take long for dinner, so we enjoyed wandering the town, checking out churches, store fronts, and the center of town gazebo; definitely a place I would love to visit again when things are open. 

Back at the B&B, we showered and got ready for bed. We were definitely ready to sleep after a long day of battling wind, road walking, and exploring town.