Emper

At Emper (or at least where there was a sign saying Emper, I think the place itself was a kilometre or so away), I’d been walking for an hour and so decided to take a break as there was a nice comfortable lock to sit on. So I poured myself a cup of coffee and had a little bit of own-brand Snickers bar.

After this little break, I packed up and headed on towards Ballynacarrigy which would be the only village of any size I passed through until Mullingar. The terrain was rising a little at this point and there were another two locks to pass through.

 

 

I left the path for a minute in Ballynacarrigy to nip into a shop as I was concerned I didn’t have enough water and fancied a banana. After buying some water from than must have had gold in it considering the price from a strangely bare shop, I pushed onwards without another break. This is Ballynacarrigy harbour.

 

I did another couple of kilometres until I came across another convenient lock to take a break on and had another cup of coffee and helped myself to a handful of nuts. While I wouldn’t say it was getting hilly, the terrain was certainly a lot less flat and I came across a sequence of three locks in a few hundred metres near Kildallan bridge.

There were a few beautifully kept lock-keeper’s cottages on this stretch although some had fallen into complete ruin.

 

At this stage, I was starting to get hungry and I reckoned I was around the half-way point so it was getting time to stop for lunch. I resolved to give it one more lock before stopping and the I came across the beautiful little harbour of Coolnahay and stopped there.