Walking the Wicklow Way

Spend 3 days hiking the Wicklow mountains. Our group consisted of a Swedish couple in their 60's, another Swede (hereby refered to as "the Norweigian Batchelor farmer" - as Garrison Keillor referes to, he fit the bill to a T - except his was still living in Sweden, not in Minnesota, and he actually liked to talk), Two Australian sisters that were on the Irish trip to trace the family roots, me, and a very silly guide, Robert, born and bred in the Wicklow area. He had the "gift of gab" so they say, so we laughed solidly for two days together. We walked 12-15 miles a day, large portions of which were UPHILL and rather painful - the views were worth it though! Nothing over about 2500 feet but still amazing to see. Strangely, as we walked uphill, the great views were all behind us. hmmmmmm.... If you didn't hear the story already, we passed the "Crone House" in the Crone forest! Crone means "hard ground" so it's not really named after a family but it sure was fun to offer passage to the group for the family land! HA. Most of the group thought I was a little nuts but beware - you'll probably see these photos on a Christmas card coming to you in a few months!