Day 22: Caha Pass to Skibbereen. 37 miles, 845 miles total.

As of that morning Wildcamping-8 nights, Campgrounds-6 nights, Youth Hostels-2 nights, Hotels-5 nights. 20-nights total.

The most beautiful morning of the trip: 48F and clear skies.



If there was rain in the night I slept through it, or else the dew was especially heavy.



On the long cold roll downhill, another rainbow.



First glimpse of Bantry Bay, as seen through an intervening rain shower.



Glengarriff, it might be that all Irish villages look similar. A by-now familiar dilemma in this time and season where dawn arrived long before "morning", I hung around for ninety minutes waiting for a restaurant to open for breakfast.



Bantry Bay.



Climbing out of Bantry, I came across this relic of the 18th Century Irish Patriot Wolfe Tone's attempted War of Independence.



1798, a French Fleet carrying 14,000 French troops, arms and munitions, with the intention of establishing a free and independent Irish Republic. Persistent severe gales upon arrival forced the fleet to abort the mission. An episode which also illustrates why English Monarchs felt so obliged to subdue Ireland; the threat of a foreign invasion. The alien Native Irish were regarded as a menacing presence poised upon England's flank, and a potential ally of England's enemies.

Onward to Skibbereen, and the famine gravesite.