Finishing the Fermanagh section of the Ulster Way

To finish the Fermanagh section we had to deploy the tent; just as well Andrew had bought a super light and easy to assemble one merely a week before hand :) The MSR elixir 2 weighs in at approx 2.5kg and as he was going to be carrying it, that was great compared to our Vango Tempest 300 which is 1kg heavier.

Day 1

We drove to Belleek (2 hrs from home) which we were to call the finishing point and parked the car in  Main Street. After much needed coffee and scones, we caught the bus to Enniskillen, then had 2 hours to kill there before we caught another bus. So you know what we did - we went to one of the oldest pubs in Co. Fermanagh for a while - 'Blake's of the Hollow' established in 1887...

Then we caught that second bus that took us to our starting point, the center of Belcoo :)  Our lovely campsite was only a mile and half away, so we walked there, getting some Ulster Way ticked off too,  set up camp and got acquainted with the facilities. At dinnertime we walked back into Belcoo to have some good food.

The sunset was beautiful later on....

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Day 2
Like ninjas, we were so quiet putting away our tent and packing up our bags in the morning. We used the facilities, had breakfast and were off on our merry way by 7.30am.  And it was the best day of hiking ever so I do not apologise for the number of photos :)

These cows and the ruined church and graveyard were on the walk out of the campsite - great start to the day.

Haybales; a ruined house and barn with cool finds

Roses at the side of the road; Andrew at the entrance to Ballytempo Forest; the first way marker

Peat cutting; Andrew getting water from a little lough to filter for our drinking water; The forest tracks

Beautiful little Lough Formal (we had a full on nap at the side of road here, haha); The trees had all recently been cut down in this end of the forest, Into a new forest which had a lough with a road over it - full of fish and a heron

Up above the lough on 'Little Dog' hill we hoped would be less full of midges; Our tent pitched beautifully and then pain meds and nap time for me - hurrah! Then dinner - oh yeah, when you hike, food is pretty much all you think about and we'd gone quite far indeed.

Carrigan Forest and Lough Formal from the afternoon, Lough Nabrickboy and Little Dog

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Day 3
It had been raining as we slept and it continued to do so as we packed up the wet tent. Luckily we were able to shake a good load of the water off it but still, it meant Andrew had more weight in his bag as we set off.

One great thing was the rain had made a noticeable difference to the air quality and the midges weren't such a pain :)  But the hiking was harder from the get-go as I was stiff from the walking we had already done plus the slight aches from sleeping in a tent. But we soldiered on. Little was I to know....

Inside an abandoned cottage - there were birds nesting in it so we didn't stay long but snapped these few photos

.....the rain and breeze were nice but nothing would take away the increasing pain in my shoulders and hip. We had to stop every 1 mile or so for a break and though I LOVED the abandoned houses on this road, I was truly in agony. Thankfully the rain hid the tears. I had my prescription medicine with me but it makes me tired and I really am stubborn (as you know) and wanted to finish this on my own steam.

Abandoned Bus stop: Glen Mass Rock and Holy Well; Cob nuts; rain drops on the spider webs

It all got to a point were I could feel the damage I was causing to my body. At the final crossroads, with only a few more miles to Belleek (along busy roads), we had to turn the opposite direction down into a wee village called Garrison and search for help. But lo, they had no train, no buses, no taxis! What were we to do??

Our hero came in the shape of the bread delivery man at the local Spar. I have never instantly loved someone as I did him, Martin. He drove out of his way to get us straight to our car. Not accepting our money offer he asked that we simply do the same one day for another in our situation - what a guy!

Hugs
Carrie