A day of annoyances on the Ulster Way

It was back to Downpatrick today to get restarted after my couple days off. Translinks "journey planner" told me there would be a bus to take me to Downpatrick at 11, however obviously nobody told the drivers this as it was an hour before one showed up. By one o'clock I was in Downpatrick and set to start off again. I had decided to head back on myself and avoid walking on a main A road by crossing castle and hare island, which straddle the Strangford Lough.

Everything was good until hitting the far side of castle island, where Qouille sailing club have there premises. Private land and no entrance to mere Ulster Way pilgrims meant that, except for swimming the 800metres i needed to get to the other side of the Lough (no chance, never mind thinking about the rucksack) I was going to have to double back on myself all the way to Downpatrick and then start from scratch.

One was not in a good mood, however there was very little I could do about it. An hour later I walked past the little tag which is pictured. It just reminded me to laugh about it and have a sense of humour, could have been a lot worse especially if the weather had turned. Talking of which I don’t know who was doing the forecast, but except for a couple showers in the last hour, I haven’t seen the rain, the Weather God's must have taken pity on me.

A further 4 miles took me into Delamont Country Park, a place I know very well due to organising quite a few orienteering events there. It was nice to be on familiar ground, even if I could see across the Lough to where I had previously been a couple hours past, before having to make a major detour! Continuing on another mile took me to a Lough side road and with the weather looking like it was going to close in, it was time to find somewhere to throw the tent up and get the stove on. Progress for today has been rather irritating, I have roughly counted up a total of 15 miles walked since starting, however I am only just over 5 miles further on from Downpatrick. Today will be getting filed and forgotten; tomorrow is a new day and will hopefully bring similar weather!

Time for some Z's