West Cork Camino Training

Over the last two Saturdays I have undertaken two walks with my Camino buddies around the wonderful West Cork coast to get ready for walking the next section of the Camino in October. On both occasions we were blessed with that most elusive of Irish blessings: hot sunny weather and even had to use suncream! The sky was blue, the Atlantic sparkled and there were expansive views in all directions. A warm, sunny Irish early Autumn day is hard to beat!

Broad Strand

I undertook the first walk on Saturday 29^th August with my friends Ben Jonas and Matt McCullagh. Ben is walking the first half of the Camino starting on the 19^th September and Matt is returning to Estella on the 26^th to walk to Belorado (and hopefully meet up with Ben on the way). They then will walk with us for five days from Belorado – Fromista.

Ben & Matt

I stayed overnight at Ben’s house in Cork and then Matt joined us for breakfast (I have now realised that Ben doesn’t know how to boil an egg!) and we drove down to Courtmacsherry and walked 26.7 km around part of the Seven Heads Walk.

Barry's Cove

The entire walk is 42.5 km and starts at the town of Timoleague and goes round in a circle clockwise to Courtmacsherry, Broad Strand, Ballymacshoneen, Dunworley and back to Timoleague. Within this there are other smaller walks that can be taken without walking the full distance including the Lusitania trail which commemorates the ill-fated liner which was torpedoed by a German U Boat and sank off the coast on Friday 7^th May 1915 causing the deaths of 1,198 passengers and crew and resulted in the United States joining the First World War. The whole area provides some of the finest coastal scenery in Ireland as a counterbalance to this grim history and the walk is to be highly recommended.

Patrick Keohane Monument
- he was part of Captain Scott 's Antarctic expedition

After morning coffee with a homemade scone for me and almond croissants for Matt and Ben at the excellent Travara Lodge B&B and café in Courtmacsherry, we drove to Broad Strand and started our walk. At Travara itself near Ballymacshoneen, we stopped and ate our packed lunch before walking on to Dunworley and then back to Courtmacsherry via Butlerstown and Lisleetemple. After a pint in Courtmacsherry we completed the circuit back to Broad Strand through the ancient oak woodland at Wood Point.

Last Saturday (3^rd September) I undertook my second walk; this time around the Sheep’s Head, also in West Cork, but further west around the coast. On this occasion I walked 15.8 km with Matt and another friend, Matthew Watson, who will also be walking the Camino with me in October. The reason we were walking was because the charity Christian Aid Ireland organises an annual fundraising hike around Sheep’s Head every September and this year was using it to raise money for projects in Ethiopia. We had agreed to do the sponsored walk on behalf of the Church of Ireland Parish we belong to – Carrigrohane Union.

Matthew, me & Matt

Matthew, Matt & other walkers
with the Mizen Peninsula in the background

One again the weather and views were spectacular. The sky was blue, the Atlantic was flat calm and we had forgotten to bring any suncream! Matt who has some Burmese ancestry tans nicely but as Matthew is a fair skinned red-head, he had to bow to the ignominy of having to wear my Camino sun hat to stop being burned to a frazzle!

Sheep's Head Lighthouse

with the Beara Peninsula in the distance

The weather meant that there was a record turn-out and 220 attended the walk, which was great for Christian Aid. However it also meant that the walk was a bit slow going at times as we all tried to crowd along the narrow path and there were other places where it was very boggy and rocky.

Nonetheless a good time was had by all and both walks have only made more eager to get back to walking the Camino!