Thursday.September 4/08 - Ireland
GARDA means police in Irish. A Garda car pulled over with two officers in it. They expressed concern all over their faces. "Who is this weirdo?" might best describe their look. Their actual questions" What are you doing?" Where are you going?" "Where do you stay at night? "When all their questions were answered regarding the cross country walk they beamed and nodded in approval and went about their way.
Signage in Ireland is interesting. It's in Irish first then English. One sign said something like "So you like littering the landscape? FINE!"
I had left the beautiful Mourne mountain region behind me now and the Northern Irlandis at least one day behind me as well. I recall having seen a Capucchin monk of the Franciscan order. While wolking on a major street in Dundalk and elderly monk in his dark brown hooded robe came out the shop in front of me, walked some paces ahead and turn a corner quickly to enter another edifice.
In Drougheda I felt dizzy spells more than once and had to stop and sit. I attribute the uneasiness to the cearbon monoxid or fumes from the cars funnnelled into the narrow downtown street. Once I reached the countryside it was over. A phatographer, Paul, came to take shots for the local paper, The Independant. Ananta and Premarnava,the two monks with me (Tim bused it back to Dublin) went to the magnificent cathedral. They were intrigued by the preserved head of Saint Oliver Plunket who was martyed in 1609 during religious conflict.
On the serene road Rout 108 I met a walker way out in the middle of nowhere. Austin is a young traveller, a walker, who trekked across Europe, a distance of over 2000km. He has been on other ventures as well. When I asked him where the village Naul was he gave the perfect walker answer "An hour and forty-five minutes up the road". It was great having met another walking freak.
The weather was good and scenery spectacular! Rolling hills/mountains in behind. Ocean in the distance. The day led into night when hosts Mathura and Katyayani arranged a gathering of Krishna devotees who came to chant with us . Also thanks to Raghupati and Nalini for getting groceries for us monks.
Today I saw images of vines taking down fences and in other places vegetation bringing a slow decay to a stone wall. " Maya", temptation can also suddenly creep up and gradually bring us down to our knees.
A final perk about today's walk earlier on was meeting a Torontonian in his friend's front lawn. He know exactly where I live. Small world.
40 KM
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