A Mayo man has completed a 6,000km barefoot walk from Istanbul to west Kerry.
Eamonn Keaveney undertook the arduous trek across Europe in an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for the world's longest barefoot walk.
The 33-year old from Claremorris began walking on 4 March last year. His route took him through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, England, Wales and across Ireland.
After walking barefoot for 340 days he has finally reached the headland of An Dún Mór in Co Kerry, the most westerly point in Europe.
Eamonn says the barefoot walk has been extremely challenging, but that he has thoroughly enjoyed it.
"There’s a lot of challenges with physical discomfort, my feet and my back in particular. There’s the logistics, planning, where you’ll stop, where you’ll stay and where you’ll get food.
"I think the biggest challenge though is how big it is. There were times especially in Hungary during the severe heat in the summer, where you’re saying to yourself 'Oh no, I have another six months of this. I have thousands of kilometres left to do'," he said.
"It’s easy to get disheartened by how far you have to go, this big long road looming ahead of you. You simply have to take it one day at a time and keep walking."
Eamonn was grateful for the company of his girlfriend, Ellie who walked with him for the first six months as far as Geneva. Since then he has walked alone. Eamonn says he is extremely grateful for the generosity people have shown him along the way.
"I’ve basically been living off a lot of bread and cheese, fruit and biscuits, whatever I can carry.
"I was camping as far as Germany but it started getting a bit too cold then. After that I was kind of doing a mix of couch-surfing and paying for the cheapest spot that I could find.
"People have been wonderful giving me a bed in their homes and welcoming a total stranger. The support has been incredible. Since I've arrived in Ireland I've only paid for one night's accommodation."
Eamonn has past form when it comes to walking barefoot.
He has climbed a number of Ireland’s mountains (including Croagh Patrick) barefoot and in 2016 he completed a 2,000km barefoot walk around Ireland. His latest challenge was a big step-up, however.
"You might say I’m a mix of mad and stubborn! I don’t know, I get asked that question a fair bit. 'Why am I doing it?' I don’t really have a satisfactory answer for it.
"People might think that there might be some particular thing in my life that happened that made me think 'God I need to walk across Europe barefoot'. The truth is that it just appealed to me. I wanted to do it.
"I did a walk around Ireland years ago and I wanted to do another big walk. I don’t know if anyone can explain wanting to do it beyond wanting to do it, when it comes to something like this."
While Eamonn's aim is to set a new world record for a barefoot walk, he is also raising funds for Jigsaw, a mental health support organisation for young people and Friends of the Earth.
In order to undertake the monster trek Eamonn took career break from his job in the civil service. While the 6,000km is an extremely long walk, he says walking barefoot presented additional challenges.
"I find it very difficult when the road surface is poor. Gravelly surfaces can really hurt. I have to walk very slowly.
"You can have a lot of aches and pains and I’ve had some back issues. I picked up a bad infection from a thorn a few weeks ago. That was pretty bad. I had to get some antibiotics for it, but thankfully it cleared up."
While he has reached the most westerly point in Europe, Eamonn says he will now walk barefoot from west Kerry home to Claremorris, adding a further 500km to his barefoot walk and his world record.
