Rostrevor to Newry, this leg has the singular advantage of being short. Only 16K but almost all along the length of the A2 dual carriageway, the attached sunny photo does not do it justice – its actually shit but the photo makes is look not unpleasant. It’s all a bit frustrating as the road runs parallel with the Narrow Water Wood with its forest tracks and trails for 2k and the Narrow Water Roadside Rest Area offers a pleasant half kilometre ribbon of parkland along the road – however the council have locked the entrance gate at one end so I had to walk up the road verge looking enviously at the lush grass on the other side of the fence.
Rostrevor and Warrenpoint are nice little village/towns and really only semi-urban. For those who get some pleasure from gawping at the wealth of others the shoreline properties between the two locations jostle to display their sometimes dubious taste but very evident endowment. If your voyeurism tastes are less contemporary the estuary banks are dotted with the well preserved buildings of previous generations of rich bastards.
One advantage of this routes unsympathetic treatment of non-motorised travellers is that the bird-life of the estuary have learnt to ignore traffic noise and not expect human attention. So while I’m not a bird watcher myself I suspect those who get excited over sightings of grey-backed nipple warblers and lesser crested bingo callers would very much enjoy the avian spectacle of the mud and marsh banks along the water’s edge.
On the plus side about 4k from Newry the route turns onto what on a map appears to be an unlovely industrial estate but is in fact a very nice grassy raised embankment running alongside the canal spillway. Trumping the earlier birdwatching opportunities this embankment is used for bird shooting (the regulations relating to this are posted at the entrance) and there are 20 or so shooting posts positioned along the length of the embankment. I imagine that during the troubles strangers travelling along the B79 road on the opposite bank must have thought things had got really bad as they contemplated the sight of 20 gunmen lining up to volley.
I should record that now I have moved away from the eastern seaboard I have run out of family to sponge off. Up to now they have been supporting me with lifts, food, bed and medical attention all provided with such unquestioning open-handed good humour that I think I sometimes neglected to thank them appropriately. Over the coming weeks I suspect I will have occasion to look back at their assistance with some envy.
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