Ever
been misquoted?
Well,
when I was on a publicity tour around Ireland to promote
my new book Hot Footing Around the Emerald Isle
I often wondered, as I sat relating details of my book
to journalists, just how much of it they were taking in
as they scribbled on a piece of paper whilst trying to
listen to me at the same time. Most seemed to get it right,
except one: The Irish Examiner.
During my
original journey around Ireland it occurred to me that
I had never really walked any significant distance with
my backpack. Yet the backpack is specifically designed
for this purpose. As I thought back over my years of backpacking
I realised that this was true of most backpackers I had
met. We take a bus or a train to our destination, then
either a local bus or taxi to the hostel or hotel, if
it is more than a few minutes walk. I remembered meeting
an American in Mexico who walked everywhere, through the
mountains, with his backpack. He made his living by rock
carving, and his pack was full of stones. So I decided
that if I was attain the status of Real Backpacker for
a Day, I must walk from one town to another with the full
weight of my backpack, and not take any form of transport.
This challenge
was met on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork, where I walked
from Glengarriff to Adrigole, Hostel to Hostel. However,
what should have been a relatively easy five hour hike
along the Beara Way turned into an eleven hour nightmare
after being misled by the Beara Way signposts.
I related this
and another story to the journalist at the Examiner, who
scribbled it down on a piece of paper. Naturally I was
excited about making it into a national newspaper for
the first time. However, when the piece came out I was
shocked to discover what he had written. He believed that
I had walked the entire two month journey around Ireland
this way, from Cork to Donegal.
Obviously I
was gutted about this. An email came in from a researcher
at Ireland AM, wanting me to appear on the show to talk
about the book. Naturally I had to explain the mix up,
but that I was still willing to come on the show. She
said that she would talk to the producers, but never got
back to me.
After a while
I began to see the funny side of it, and started thinking
seriously about actually doing it for a follow up book;
after all, I had succeeded, albeit somewhat painfully,
in being a real backpacker for a day so why not try it
for a whole journey. I had often wanted to do something
like this for charity, as many of my friends had, but
had never found the time because I am always travelling
or writing. This could be a good way to combine the two.
As I have been
living on and off for the past three years in Wexford,
in a great hostel called Kirwan House, this seemed a logical
place to start. During my first trip I had fallen in love
with County Donegal and during my promotional tour had
also spent much time there. I had met up with Andy again,
the owner of a fantastic B&B in Bunbeg and also a
famous character from my book and Tony Hawks' book Round
Ireland With a Fridge. My book had gone down a storm in
Donegal, selling out the first weekend in the bookshop
in Letterkenny. Thus I decided I would walk from Kirwan
House to Bunbeg
House
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