Day 23 - 19/07/20 - High Tea in Caledon

After a lovely evening 200m from the border I woke to sunny sky's. Although, as there was no cloud cover it was a cold night and dew was on the ground and my tent.

I took my time getting ready, to let the tent dry out before putting it away and making a move for Aughnacloy.
Stuart who I work with had messaged and mentioned about getting some lunch together there, so we arranged to meet around midday.

It was 12km away which was doable in the timeframe I had. On route a guy in a van pulled up and asked how I was and we got chatting for a good 10min or so. He told me the most direct route to Aughnacloy which I took and was really handy.
On that route I also bumped into another man who was out working on his house. We also chatted for a couple of minutes before parting company.

All this chatting kept me back slightly and I was a couple of minutes late into Aughnacloy, but it didn't really matter too much.
Stuart and his wife (Miranda) and kids were there and we had a lovely brunch in a nice wee cafe at one end of the town.
That set me up for the day as all I had eaten up until that point was a banana.

I said goodbye to my fleeting visit of Aughnacloy and set my sights on Armagh. Moving out onto the back roads of the orchard county one step at a time as always.

I passed though a couple of small villages/hamlets on route to tonight's camp site but the only one I stopped in was Caledon. My mother had mentioned there were some lovely coffee shops there and she wasn't wrong.
I stopped in a quaint little cafe and sat outside in the sun eating cheese cake and drinking tea (of course they go together 😁). I even got the boots off for half an hour or so 😅.

It was around 1700 when I got going again and maybe did another 10km before looking for and finding a place to lay my head for the night.

One thing I did notice about County Armagh is that most of the trees are broadleaf as oppose to conifir style forestry blocks. This makes a nice visual change to the landscape.
I also noticed a substantial amount more dairy cows here, were everywhere else (so far) seemed to raise beef cattle. Least we know where our milk comes from now 🙂.
Not many apple trees yet and I'm only about 7km from Armagh City itself! A pint of cider is on the to-do list for tomorrow though 🍺🍎.

Today's totals are: 43km walked and 524m gained in ascent. Lowest ascent for some time. Maybe we're starting to get into flatter country??