I could walk a hundred miles

Apparently. In a week at any rate. Getting there took a bit of determined pounding of the streets yesterday in order to get in the 38km that I needed to hit 160km, or 100 miles, for the week.

It was a fun walk. Long, but interesting and as ever Dublin threw up some interesting bits and pieces. At the end I actually ended up putting in 45km for the day, which was actually more than a marathon distance. Pretty cool, even if it was just walking and it did take _all_ day.

I started off in Celbridge with a 10km loop of the village and then headed to Chapelizod to start in the emorial gardens in Chapelizod. Hauntingly beautiful place, well worth a visit.

There’s a very interesting selection of trees, including some olive trees if I’m not mistaken, which aren’t too common in Ireland. Spring had barely started to make an impression but there were some things starting to blossom.

I then took the river route back out to Chapelizod village with the intention of crossing back over the Anna Livia bridge and walking out to the East Link bridge. It’s a very pleasant walk back to Chapelizod by the riverside for most of the way but you are pushed back up onto the road a couple of hundred meters before the bridge. 

After Chapelizod I headed back in to the city along Chapelizon Road by the Phoenix Park and crossed back to the South Side at Heuston bridge. I didn’t get any interesting pictures until I got to Steeven’s Lane ( the road that the Luas line takes between Heuston Station and Thomas St) where this bit of wit was rather crudely sprayed on the footpath.

I wonder why, indeed.

By this stage I was somewhere around 18km so I was very focused on just getting distance covered. That meant I spent a couple of hours weaving back across the river and heading for the North East inner city. I got to within spitting distance of Croke Park heading along the Royal Canal at Portland Place only to be met with this vista. This was a bit sad looking, the new canal wall has collapsed and the pathway is actually blocked off from just beyond this point. I assume that is to prevent fans pouring out of Croke Park from getting into trouble.

It also meant that I had to double back to Drumcondra in order  to get over to Croke Park at this point.

It’s very cool walking along the canal beside and under Croke Park. I knew there was a spur off the commuter loop rail line that passes the northern edge of the stadium (out of shot here) but I hadn’t realised that the spur actually passes underneath the south stand.

I also found the Hamilton / Hamiltonian Mural under the South Stand here. I’d heard about this but I though it was somewhere else. Very cool – a celebration of Mathematics under the temple to our national sports.

I followed the canal for a bit until I was forced back onto the streets at North Strand Road. From there it was down to the Quays heading for the East Link bridge. Around the back of the Point I found this succinct North Side critique of cutting edge bio science.

After heading over the East Link bridge I remembered to take a picture of the Dodder Buoy this time.

This was somewhere around the 28km mark and I was definitely feeling the pain by this stage. I was also was paying increasingly less attention to what was around me but I did remember to take this shot across the road from Windmill Lane studios. I was aiming just for the picture but I caught the text by accident and it really makes this a great shot. Love it.

By the time I got back in to Wellington Quay to catch the bus back to Celbridge I had hit 35km. On the way I stopped in Liffey Valley and just walked around in circles until I’d hit the 38km total that. I was quite tired by this stage.

I came in to Dublin about two hours later for Ed’s going to Cork party. That allowed me to put in another hour’s walking along the way which brought the day’s total up to 45km, and just over 60k steps. I don’t think I’ll be trying to exceed that for a while. Along the way I finally managed to get this shot on 4 Dame Lane – it’s always been hidden behind shutters when I’ve gone looking for it before.

A Walk In The Parks - Part 3

And then on the way home I thought I might as well try to take a picture of the one other bridge in county Dublin that I’d failed to take a picture of on Paddy’s day jaunt – the pedestrian bridge across the Liffey in St Catherine’s Park between Leixlip and Lucan. I think that technically it is the last bridge across the river in the county as the bridge in Leixlip itself is at least partially in Kildare.

It’s a very nice park. I haven’t been there in a while and quite a lot of work has been done on the northern side: new car park, lots of new paths sign posted and yet again more of those open air exercise machines. It was all relatively low key after The Botanic Gardens but it’s good place for a walk. I parked in Lucan and went in from that side but I think I need to go back and check out the northern side next week.

The bridge isn’t anything to write home about. I think the two sewer mains are probably far more important in the greater scheme of things – I suspect lots of people would be very miserable if that pipe was damaged. The bridge is tagged on to the side of an identical pipe that you just about make out on the left hand side of the photograph.

And on my way across I noticed that the some of the stencil / street art crew had been around. I really like these three as a set. I don’t think anyone ever notices them, I nearly missed them and I’m really looking for this sort of stuff everywhere now. In any case they really wrapped up the day well for me.

A Walk In The Parks–Part 2

Second park of the day was not really a park. I haven’t been to the Botanic Gardens since last summer so a trip was long overdue. Spring is just about taking hold, it will probably be at its best in another 2-3 weeks. Still it was a nice spot to have a walk around in the rain. Not a lot of rain but enough to get me thoroughly wet just as I set out. Oh well, it gave everything a nice crisp shine at least.

First up the Glass House with the various South African plants – love the Strelitzia. Used to have them in my garden in Johannesburg, quite a demon of a plant to keep under control. I’m not even going to try to name the rest, that’s way beyond my botanical skills.

The daffodil meadow was looking particularly splendid. I _really_ regretted not having a good zoom lens for these. It’s very hard to capture these with a fixed lens.

And then I closed out with a few final bits – one of the few Orchids that was in bloom in the Orchid\Palm house and I dunno what the pin cushion thing is but it was in a very pretty flower bed arrangement by the cafe.

Anyway two down. One more park to go.

A Walk In The Parks–Part 1

I decided to take a break from pounding the streets and hit a few parks today for a change.

I started off hunting around in Palmerstown for the park that I assumed would give me a shot of Farmleigh bridge. The only Dublin bridge I’d failed to take a photograph of on St Patrick’s day. After a little bit of aimless wandering I found Waterstown Park, abandoned the car and took a look around. It’s a really nice place. Open air / public exercise machines like those we all thought quite odd to see in Istanbul. Cool idea. Great walking paths and a nice paved and very well maintained cycle path. Excellent 2.5km circuit for those interested in such things. You can get right under the M50 bridge from it, although you have to clamber over a few rocks and take care to avoid the rubbish as you exit the eastern edge.

Lots of blossom happening. The Whitethorn is particularly striking but the dominant colour was yellow from daffodils, buttercups and dandelions.

And then at the eastern edge of the park there was my elusive bridge – the now thoroughly abandoned Farmleigh Bridge, on of only two specifically pedestrian bridges across the liffey in Dublin up until the Millennium Bridge was added in 1999. All shuttered up now, and there’s nothing left apart from the frame. It’s a pity really, I’d love to see it open and providing a link over to Phoenix Park. I also need to figure out how exactly it connected to Farmleigh, which is just across the river but it is quite a ways up and over the hillside that you can see in these pictures. 

On the way back I noticed an odd flash of blue and silver in the trees and found a rather eclectic rag tree lurking slightly off the main path. I love the madness of the items that are left in these places. Little fairy ornaments, giant rosary beads, pint glasses, Buddhas, dried flowers, plastic birds, lamshades, dream catchers, wind chimes, angels, plastic dolphins ..

Dublin bathes in Sahara Dust

Sometimes when the wind is just right we get some African dust in the air. All I’ve been hearing is that people’s cars are “ruined, I tell yez, just ruined” which I think pretty much indicates that we’re probably on the road to recovery. A few years back most people wouldn’t have noticed.

Anyway, I like dust in the air because it does magic things to the light. This one is straight off the camera, no messing with the colour, just cropped to get the classic profile of the Ha’penny Bridge lamp as the focus.

And then I had some fun with the colours. To be fair to me when you were actually there it felt a lot more like this. And I don’t care if you all think it’s OTT, I just love this view,

The tide was really low and for first time ever I noticed that the Liffey’s river bed is mostly slabs of stone and not mud or debris. I find that quite odd given the tidal behaviour at this point. I assume it’s because of the upstream dams and weirs combined with a lot of dredging over the years but perhaps this is just how it is. It’s definitely not like any other river I’ve looked at this closely. And, yes, the light was a lot less dramatic facing east, but look at those slabs!