Cahersiveen to Waterville 25km + 8km in a car

Cahersiveen is an eight kilometre dog leg off the Kerry Way and today we would have had to reverse our walk of Friday to get back on the trail. We decided not to do this and Mary at the bar in the Kerry Coast Inn arranged for Maureen to drive us back to Coars School to rejoin the Way. Maureen had purple hair and a bright pink top and was very jovial and full of information on the ten minute drive. €10, which we thought was cheap as it saved us two hours repetitive walking.

Today’s walk could be simply summarised as follows: walk along an undulating ridge for two hours, descend into a valley, cross a river, climb onto another undulating ridge, walk along it for two hours and descend a spur to Waterville. This tells you nothing of what a great day it was. Today we made up for all the views we missed in the rain and mist on Friday. It was a fine and clear day, warm but no wind. The undulating trail was rugged and remote and being on ridges there were wonderful wide views down into the valleys with their mosaic of fields and woods, Lough Currane and at the end of the day Inny Sands and Ballinskelligs Bay.

The trail was out in open grassland all day and it looks deceptively easy. In New Zealand it would be mostly firm and dry. In Ireland the grass hides six inches of water or bog. You had to concentrate all the time on finding a stone or thicker piece of grass for your foot. Inevitably we had soaking wet feet after about half an hour. This didn’t bother us. We were just enjoying the weather, the views and being out in the countryside. For the first time we saw wind turbines, saw more peat cuttings, crossed an old stone bridge over the River Inny and passed a few derelict houses and farm buildings.

Waterville has a special connection with Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin was English but made his fame and fortune in America with his character The Tramp. Among other issues he was accused of communist sympathies and in 1952 was refused re-entry into the United States so moved to Switzerland. From 1961 every year for a decade Chaplin brought his family to holiday in Waterville – it had been recommended by Walt Disney.  For a month they stayed in the Butler Arms, a resort hotel at the other end of the beach to our B & B. In 1998 with the help of generous funding from The Chaplin family a statue of The Tramp was erected on the sea front. Every August there is a Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival held in Waterville. Two of Chaplin’s daughters Josephine and Geraldine attend the festival as patrons, along with some of the grand children. That’s according to our purple haired driver Maureen.

Geraldine Chaplin is a prolific actor but you will all remember her as the wife of Omar Sharif in David Lean’s epic 1965 movie Dr Zhivago. Dr Zhivago is worth seeing over and over. For the girls to watch Omar Sharif and the guys to watch Julie Christie. But I digress.

Barbara is fully fit and healthy again and leading the charge powering across the hills. Paul is getting left behind, especially when he stops to take a photo.

Disappointment of the day: we had bought four little apple pies, but they did not travel well. By the time we came to eat them they were a bit munted.

Funny moment of the day: on a very quiet lane we were passed by a car. Barbara, the car and the only puddle on the road all coincided. See the result in the photos.

Old Irish proverb of the day: The man with the boots does not mind where he places his feet.