Wanderlust

Lately I've been suffering from a strange disease. I think it's a problem with my feet, but it might be a mental thing. It's hard to tell. Perhaps something's off with my nerve endings, or messages aren't being communicated quite right. Anyway, what happens is that I start walking in a direction, and then... it's not so much that I don't want to turn around, as something won't let me. My feet keep moving, regardless of how much they hurt, and the thought of home and bed is infinitely distasteful merely because they are places I have been before.

This, friends, is how I found myself on top of Bray Head this evening. Bray is the last stop on the Dart, the commuter train which accepts our student bus passes. But I mentioned Wales, right? Yes, I was in Wales today. For about long enough to feel the wind, and climb halfway up this old stone tower. The boat ride was fun, though! We got back way earlier than I expected, around 5,  and I just didn't feel like going home... so I started walking. With the full intention of turning around and taking the Dart back home. Except continuing seemed easier than turning around, and then I realised I was in Sandy Cove, which is the next stop in the Dart. Figured I might as well get on there. But then I saw a sign for something in Dalkey, the next stop, and figured it wasn't too far away. Keep in mind that this whole time, I was walking by the sea in Ireland. I found the station in Dalkey... but I still didn't want to go home. I had heard that Bray is pretty, so I decided to head out there instead.

Bray is very beautiful. There's a beach, and at one end there's a large rocky hill called Bray Head. Here's an internet pic for you to get the general idea. I walked along the beach, and started climbing around 7. I figured I might as well. At least when I got to the top there'd be no where else for me to go:-p. It was beautiful up there, of course. It's beautiful everywhere I go here. There's a big stone cross on the rocky top, and I sat beneath it with a gusty wind blowing in my face. Then I decided perhaps it was time to go back and catch a train... but when I stood up and turned around, I realised that there was more to the trail. The hill turned into a ridge, and the path led on further to weave among other hilltops.

The road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began

Now far ahead the road has gone

And I must follow it, if I can

I swear I told my feet to go on back down, the fast way home. Somehow I ended up on the southbound trail instead. It was the weirdest sensation. I really just wanted to keep walking forever, to keep going farther and never have to turn back. I wrote a whole book called Wanderlust once, and right now I understand the main character really well.

Home is behind, the world ahead,
And there are many paths to tread.
Through shadows to the edge of night,
Until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead,
We'll wander back to home and bed.

I finally turned my feet around, but only after I got around the next hill and got a view of the coast to the south, with the falling sun turning the far off hilltops gold. Even then I dithered, and only convinced myself because I didn't want to have to run for the last train. I sang a bit, cried a bit (it was honestly just the wind in my eyes. There was some hard-core wind) and set back down the road I came from.

Since then I looked it up on the internet, and I was on a four mile ridge trail. One of these days I'm going to have to pack some food and hike the whole thing. Google maps tells me I've walked about 6 miles today, and that doesn't even include the actual hill-climbing and beyond, the walking we did in Wales, and the 15 minute walk from the Dart station to my house. No wonder my feet hurt.

I'm going to Glendalough tomorrow, so I want to get some sleep! Goodnight!

P.S. The quotes are from The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, copyright J.R.R. Tolkien.