Day 15 - 11/07/20 - River running

A bright start to today but not as early as normal as I hit the road around 1000 this morning.

Am still heading west at the minute and taking the back roads to Pettigo.

Late morning there was stiff westerly breeze blowing making it feel colder than it actually was but by the afternoon it had changed to come from the south and warmed up somewhat, the sun even broke through the cloud cover once or twice which was nice.

As usual I generally follow my mapping to a tee and today was no exception. Only problem was today the road I was following stopped being a road and started being as track! No biggy, just kept going. The road I'm looking to get onto is only about 600m away anyway.

I round the next bend and the track turns into a massive field!! Worse still the farmers are collecting the silage! I give them a wave and they don't seem to be that bothered 😲.

So I keep going, now keeping a small forest on my right and my mapping is reading a small river ahead before I can reach the road. Not a bother 'I think'. I've crossed a few before.
I climb over a fence and into a field with long grass in keeping the forest on my right and now dropping down beside quite a wide river 😬.

I follow it for a bit and bump into the cows that reside in this field having a wee lie down. Skirting round them I continue to look for a crossing point. Either a narrow section or some stones that I can 'glide' over will do.

No dice and I've gotten to the end of the field so I decide to bounce into the next field and keep trying.
The next field has a slope down to the river and a couple of gates blocking access for the cattle. I decide to go for a crossing here. Only thing is... I'm gonna have to go barefoot 🙈.

Boots are off and I'm swinging on two gates tied together trying not to go arse over tit in the knee high water🧐.
I'm over... Problem now is I can't see where I'm standing as the water is brown. At least not when I look straight down at my feet that is!
I work out that if I head into the shade of a close by tree and look up river I can make out slabs of rock I can gain purchase on.
Thank goodness they are big slabs as walking across on pebbles wouldn't have been nice at all! 😲

Wading to the other side only took around 20 seconds which was long enough when you're feet are loosing feeling 🥶.

I bounce onto the bank at the other side which turns out to be somebody's garden!! Aw well! I sit down, dry off my feet and get my boots back on.

I don't want to go straight past the punters front door so decided to walk the edge of this rather large but well manicured garden and hop over a barb wire fence at the other side straight into a pile of nettles.

Anyways, a short walk brought me out of that field and onto the road I was looking for. With only about a 20min time delay, but it was well worth the craic.

About an hour and fifteen minutes later I arrive in Pettigo to be told that both pubs are closed as they don't serve food so can't open yet!! 😩
An ice-cream it is then 😄.