Killiney and Bulloch

Bright blue skies and unusual clarity; a tanker anchored in the glistening sea, the odd yacht sailing slowly in the light airs and lots of stiff winged fulmars gliding in the foreground, Killiney Bay resembled The Bay of Naples. A bit colder perhaps as we walked Vico, Sorrento and other Italian grand tour memorial roads. Watchful magpies patrol, basking pigeons listen on telegraph wires as we discuss 1916 and far flung destinations like Quebec, Denver, Bordeaux, London, Barcelona and Auckland.

The whole 8 km walk was an explosion of May colour; droopy yellow laburnum catkins, proud copper beeches, lilac flower heads and multi-hued varietal maples adding tree borne colour to replace the fallen cherry blossoms that litter so many pathways. From Bulloch Harbour where boats were for hire, crabs and lobster on sale, we returned past suburban houses with their differentiating motifs - an ecclesiastical gateway eventually leading to a window-hung wooden dinosaur and a faux Roman mosaic of Neptune or was it Mars?

Rushing Leinster flagged German cars and Jaguars passed too close with their distinctive designer features; the smiling aspect of the new Audis, the horseshoed good luck lights of the BMW and the low throated burble of the XK. Their paced and perhaps carefree comfort discomforted us, inconvenient, squishy pedestrians.

We returned via the planning denied Barnhill (half) Stores and the Reservoir Park that has none, overtaken by the double decked 59 bus without a passenger, to continue life in a surreal world where the council soon won't collect any rubbish bins because they can't afford to support those who can't afford to pay.

Sponsor wanted: 8km

Killiney Loops

Ready to walk after a feed of pancakes and coffee on a hazy but dry day without too much pain in my foot. The iPhone being set up, the walking gear on, I set off about nine into a chilly easterly breeze. Round to Roches Hill where the crushed booze cans and general detritus make you sad and anrgy that no one cares to clean up after those who can only afford to watch the golfers in Killiney. Overcast, there's no bird song today but the bright yellow gorse somehow compensates. Cross the highest point and on down towards the sea, using mostly walled rights-of-way. An early encounter with a Black Suvdriver reminded me to watch out for the local wildlife. Overgrown pathways attest to an ongoing conflict in the area; unrestricted access might attract walkers and others into places they are not really wanted.

Reaching the beach, having passed the gum treed garden of the Canadian ambassador, I saw a Greater Breasted Ball Thrower. She was entertaining a dog where it is alleged that sandwiches were once offered to a tramp seen on successive days sitting below Bono's home - except it is said it was Bono.

Killiney beach is where Robert Mallett demonstrated in 1862 that seismic energy propagated in the near surface thereby explaining the destructive forces of earthquakes. This knowledge was used to triangulate artillery locations in the Great War and is now a fundamental tool in exploration and exploitation of sub-surface natural resources.

I watched a Blousy Backcombed Bun bird walk across the small promontory that separates Killiney and White Rock beaches. I was rock-hopping my way across the storm driven boulders, varifocal glasses inspired bone breaking noises whispering in my sub-conscious. The outcrop is the contact or metamorhic aureole between the granite pluton and the country rock into which it was injected, a fact that explains a few adits that memorialise unfulfilled Victorian ambitions. I could still see aligned, black rectilinear tourmaline crystals on some exposed surfaces of the schists.