Day 22 - 18/07/20 - Over the hills…

and far away. Is where I walked today!

After my relaxing and drying out night in Clones I set off with a full belly in a northerly direction looking to pick up my trail for Aughnacloy.
It was a cloudy enough morning although the sun was peaking through the clouds which I was happy about.

Roughly 6km in the weather broke again and it started to pour! As you can imagine I was not a happy chappy 😩.
Thankfully it only lasted 20min or so before easing off and stopping.

I passed a Mace shop at a crossroads and stopped to get some sandwiches and to take my gortex off.
Shortly after this I was on the road again and climbing a small hill when from behind me a small white dog was barking and running after me from about 60m away.
I wasn't over worried and kept walking, until I could hear him closer behind me and turned to see him about 10m away now.
As I faced him he slowed to a stop and at this point I took a step forward. Well the wee thing near fell over as it tried to turn and run. Only lasted a second or so mind as as soon as my back was turned it ran for me again all barking and snarling.
I gave it another fright and thus time when I turned around another dog was walking towards me from up the hill!!

Ah bugger I thought! I'm gonna get bitten here for sure 😬. Luckily though the second dog was quite friendly and came over for a pet before following me for the next click (1km) and a half before disappearing again.

I was on this road a long time going up and down hills before turning into a lane and following it for a couple more km. As I was coming back onto the road again a dog in its cage ran at me and scared the life outta me!!
I then got talking to the farmer there who was a lovely chap and we had a good old conversation for about 10min or so. During which he informed me I was in the south (again) though only be about a kilometre or so!
Reminded me of yesterday when not only did Les give me a lift to the next town but he also gave me a lift to a different country 😂.

I back in the north now although who knows how many times I've crossed the border this week?

By this stage the weather had picked up and around 1400 I stopped for some lunch and a lie down in the sun.

Continuing on after lunch was a long road and I was just dandering away when after checking the GPS I realised I had missed my turn about 700m ago!!
This is always a pain as I just added 1.4km to my day for not paying attention 🤨.

Anyways, I was back on track and now actually on a track as well. Today's walking was a fix of road and tracks and it ended up being very sunny until early evening when I was setting my tent up.

Today's stats: 43km walked and an ascent of 873m.