Leg 25, The Ulster Way wrings 32k from the 18k between Belleek and Pettigoe by looping around the loughscape surrounding Rushen Hill. This route is classed by WalkNI as a ”Link” section i.e. it is recommended that you don’t walk it but rather take public transport. However, WalkNI also accepts that there is no public transport that services this route (partly because the route crosses and re-crosses the boarder) so car shuttling and/or taxi services are required. That said, today’s gorgeous sunshine made the loughs especially beautiful.
Today is Halloween, the one day in the year when we encourage children to dress in rags and go door to door in gangs soliciting food by pleading need, but including an undercurrent of threat. Its all the fun of begging without any of the hassle of heroin dependency, DHSS bureaucracy and systemic police harassment. However, I had forgotten that it was Halloween so try to understand my anxiety when I turned the corner of one of these isolated country roads and saw the figure of a strangled man dangling from a telegraph pole – strange fruit indeed.
Halloween may also have been the rational behind a couple of other pieces of temporary roadside signage. The first, just outside Belleek brought to mind the disturbing impact of Hitchcock’s movie “Psycho” i.e. an isolated promotional road-side sign simply informing me that Grandma’s Attic was now open – no indication was given on the sign or anywhere else to hand as to why I might wish to access the attic of someone else’s grandmother. If granny was selling something her next generation of signs should really include some information relating to the nature of her business. The second sign will perhaps be well known to Irish people but may strike my English and even more foreign friends as odd: The directional road sign indicating that there is a wake for the dead along a given road. In Ireland people understand that such signs give notice to expect traffic delays, slow down, show some respect, and possibly help the family grieve by making some inroad into the tonnage of prepared ham sandwiches and apple tarts. These Wake signs are usually a practical expedient but I was a bit concerned that on Halloween people might think its just a sign to a party and so turn up dressed as a slut vampire or transvestite zombie. In my experience even these pretend un-dead would probably be made welcome.
When I got to Belleek I treated myself to tea and a piece of cake in the Thatch coffee shop and took a photo to mark the event. I was going for a jaunty casual pose that didn’t betray any of the frustration I felt with (a) attempting to set the timer on my phone’s camera, and (b) getting it propped up in such a way that it took a photo of me and not either the pavement, or the wonky satellite dish on the roof. On considering the end result now I am a bit concerned that I appear to have the legs of a badly made Guy i.e. poorly attached to my torso and one at least possibly affixed back to front. I can at this moment clearly hear Fern’s exasperated voice in my head “Why didn’t you just ask someone to take you photo you plonker?”. I think it’s because I secretly fear if I ask a stranger to take my photo they might just reply “A photo of you. Why?”
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