9 to 17 August

9 to 17 August 2023

Wednesday 9 August   Domestic chore day - there's a leak from one of the (unlabelled) bits of plumbing in the 'garage' (rear storage area) and so we take everything out, including a layer of the floor covering, to dry and John tries to work out where the leak is coming from.  

I use the on-site laundry to do some washing (a lot cheaper than the drive up launderettes) and am firmly told by a chap there that I should be out 'enjoying the weather' (to be fair, it's not raining).

Try to clean the mo-ho roof skylights which have become a bit grungy, only to find that the grunge is on the outside and only accessible via a ladder. Or a cherry picker.  Neither of which, unbelievably, my boy scout, has brought with us.   

The weather turns to 'situation normal ' i.e. rain, in the afternoon, and we agree that the Irish weather has lost its charm, so book a ferry from Dublin to Holyhead for next week.  It's a shame not to go back to Northern Ireland to catch up with friends  there but time is marching on.   Study some Italian (in preparation for the next trip to Europe), write the blog and I transcribe some more of my great aunt's diary from 1917.  At this point of her diary she is in the town of Monastir (now Bitola) in what was then Serbia (now North Macedonia) which is being shelled by the Bulgarians. She is helping with feeding refugees, distributing soap (to help to reduce the spread of disease) and assisting in the hospital.

Thursday 10 August wake to cloudy skies but after a couple of hours the sun breaks through and we get clear blue skies. Get the shorts on quick!

We walk into Skibereen and admire the buildings on the main street.  To the Tanyard pub for a couple of drinks and it is just lovely being able to sit outside.  

Back at the camp site we're very happy to be able to get out the camping chairs and soak up the rays.

Friday 11 August  aaand, normal weather conditions are resumed and it's overcast again.  We pack up and get on the road, this time heading to Blarney Castle about 50 miles/ 80 Kms away.   We arrive and park and get our tickets for the castle.  Impressive tower built over 600 years ago and attractive park land gardens.   

But gosh, it's busy and when we queue to get into the castle realise that it's going to be a very long wait with not much to look at.  Also realise that the Blarney Stone is up the stairs where we're waiting, but I am 

1. not sure that I want to kiss something that's been kissed by millions before 🥴 and 

2. pretty sure neither of us need to be any more eloquent (which is what kissing the Blarney Stone is supposed to do) 🤣 so we skip it. 

Go instead to look at the Poison Garden ☠️, full of plants that will make you feel unwell or dead. I took notes 😉.  We already have an alarming number of poisonous plants in our garden at home e.g. foxgloves, lily of the valley and hydrangea.

Have some lunch at the old stables 

then drive to a fuel station to top up the LPG (gas), tho' the pump takes a bit of finding including driving the wrong way round the car park. 

Drive towards Cobh - slightly puzzled when the sat nav says 'turn left onto the ferry', as we weren't expecting a ferry, but we squeeze on board and it saves us a long detour north of the estuary. 

Looking for the 'Five Foot Way' car and motorhome park at Cobh. Take a couple of wrong turns - we can see that the motorhome park on the sea front has two or three spaces so it's a bit tense wondering if the spaces will still be there when we do arrive.  They are, which is a relief - County Cork seems actively to  discourage campsites and motorhome overnight parking, but has provided this 30 space park on the seafront for up to 48 hours at €10 per 24 hours.  One loo, no EHU, not supposed to put out steps or chairs etc but sea views, perfectly comfortable and only a 7 minute walk to the railway station.

Walk into Cobh (pronounced 'Cove') and enjoy the Georgian/ Victorian architecture. 

Visit Kelly's Bar which is fun but really busy and noisy. Go to the Rob Roy, which is much quieter.

Saturday 12 August. Leave the mo-ho in the motorhome park and walk to the station to catch the 10.00 am train to Cork.  A cruise ship, the AidaBella, has docked 

and it seems that most of her 2,000 passengers are waiting for the two carriage train to Cork....... blooming tourists!

We buy our tickets but realise that we can't even get onto the platform, so go for a coffee and wait for an hour for the next train. Busy on the train but hey, I've successfully got onto a pre Covid rush hour train at Balcombe by dint of using elbows and lots of 'excuse me-s'.  Then I realise that my ticket has fallen out of my bum bag so I have to get off the train, pick it up off the platform and fight my way back onto the train.  Standing room only to Cork but it's only a 25 minute ride.

Have a drink at an olde worlde pub, Dan Sweeney's, an visit an old quarry in the yard of the hotel across the road.

Look around the town, which is a bit run down

and then to the Franciscan Well Brewery & Brewpub.   Great service and good beer, and they have a fab garden with a pizza restaurant where we can sit and share a delicious quattro formaggio pizza.

Back to catch the 3.00 pm train.   Quite a few of the people from the cruise liner waiting to get on the train but this time we’re quick off the mark and get seats.   When we get back to Cobh I go and visit the Cobh Heritage Centre - Cobh used to be called ‘Cove’, then after Queen Victoria visited it became Queenstown, and finally Cobh, the Gaelic spelling of Cove (tho it doesn’t mean anything in Gaelic).   Long on tales of migration from Ireland to the Americas, Australia and New Zealand;  many Irish migrants left from Cobh, some voluntarily, but many more departed involuntarily as convicts to Australia or as forced labour to the colonies and the West Indies.  And of course the Titanic is featured - I hadn’t realised that Cobh was the last port where the Titanic dropped off and picked up passengers before sailing off to meet its fate.   

In the evening we go out for dinner to the Jacob’s Ladder restaurant, good food and service, lovely views across the bay, and watch the AidaBella leave port.

Sunday 13 August   Leave by 10.00 and call in for fuel and the Sunday Times - another article about the lack of tourists, and in particular about the challenges faced by the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival attended by crowds of up to 20,000 people during the whole month of September. The concern at the moment is lack of accommodation as many of the hotels etc have Ukrainian refugees staying in them.  

Cork is the end of the Wild Atlantic Way.   Since 8 July, when we drove into the Republic of Ireland and up to Malin Head, we have driven most of the 1,600 miles (2,600 km) of the WAW, plus some detours.

Drive to Waterford, famous for its glass, and park easily.  Walk into the town and down to the river.  Waterford has a history going back to the Vikings (who set up home here) apparently making it Ireland's oldest city. 

The 18th century was a prosperous time and there are handsome buildings reflecting that. 

We also see several plaques around the city commentating William Vincent Wallace, a composer who was born in Waterford but has ended up in Kensal Green Cemetery near where we used to live in London.

Today we are going to the Barrow Valley Activity Hub at Graiguenamanagh (no, I can't pronounce it 🙂) which was established in 2011 to support tourism in the area and develop and promote the town.  We have received an email to say when we can arrive, what the code is for the loos and that we can only have a shower between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm….?  Anyway, we arrive 20 minutes early, which doesn’t seem to matter, and the chap on reception is really pleased that I have read the email and remembered the loo code etc.  He shows us our pitch, explains the showers and points the way to get into the town on foot.  Nice site, with two covered areas for people to sit out of the rain and friendly other campers.

In the evening we walk into the town which is attractive with a stone built bridge over the river and narrow streets.   

A number of shops and bars are (permanently) closed so it looks like the council had a good idea when they opened the Activity Hub to attract motorhomes and walkers, and people to use the site for educational purposes.  

The Irish love their hanging baskets but the pizza place in central Graiguenamanagh takes the prize for begonia / petunia overload!

We call in to the Mick Doyle pub which looks more like a shop than a bar - there are about four rooms, one after the other, but all the customers seem to be in the front room.   We find seats behind the pub with a nice view of a river - when I go in to order our second round I am firmly told by the barman that he will bring the drinks to us.   

And when we go in to the pub to pay we see the chap from the camping reception, who is clearly thrilled that we have made it all the way into town (a six minute walk tops).

Monday 14 August  Leave after breakfast and drive north.  We have two nights booked in a campsite in a village called Roundwood.  The driving is relatively relaxed as it is not windy, and most of the roads are wide main roads or motorways.   

Get to the campsite and check in - there are quite a lot of ‘thou shalt not’ notices around the site

and you have to buy a token for €1 for the shower (which given the cost per day of the site is a bit cheeky).  They advertise a launderette service but gosh what a process - Lyndon pays the lady on reception €12 in cash for a wash and dry, and is accompanied to the locked laundry room to put on the washing.  An hour later Lyndon goes back to reception, collects the lady with the key, we walk to the laundry and Lyndon puts the washing in the drier and the lady switches it on.  Another hour later Lyndon goes back to reception …. at which point I seem to have proved my credentials as I am let loose with the laundry room key to go and collect the washing all by myself.   After all that excitement we go for a walk into the village to buy some essentials then back to base. 

Tuesday 15 August  Quiet day of writing blog, transcribing my great aunt’s diary, learning Italian and cleaning;  John has another go at fixing the leaky plumbing which seems to work this time.   He's a man of many talents and great determination.   Weather still mixed.

Walk into town and go to the Tóchar House Pub where we chat with one of the locals who had spent time living in Christchurch, NZ,  some 20 years ago.

Wednesday 16 August Leave the Roundwood campsite and drive north through the Wicklow Mountains towards Dublin. Very much tamer landscape than the west of Ireland.

Reach Sandymount Beach just south of Dublin which has three car parks at which we could park for the night. The first one is full but we get into the second and park at the far end, out of the way. Beautiful view of the wide bay and ships and sea, but also views of industrial sites off to the left.

Lovely mix of Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian properties along the road.

It is complicated to get into central Dublin on public transport - the buses only take the exact fare in cash (and we’ve only got €20 and €50 notes) or use their own travel pass card, so we go for a walk to try and find some lunch - it seems to be jogger central so we have to keep dodging runners.    

The first pub, The Irishtown, is definitely one for the sports fan, but they don’t do food. We buy a drink and the landlord recommends a couple of other pubs along the road. The first only opens Thursday to Sunday but the next one, the Merry Cobbler, is open and serving food. Good food and friendly service, and definitely quirky decor - you don’t see a stuffed bear in many pubs.

Back to the mo-ho and the car park is filling up. Later on a BMW squeezes in between us and the campervan parked one car park space away, which means we can’t open our driver door or the door out of the living area of the mo-ho. Neat parking but really....?

Thursday 17 August the alarm goes off at silly o’clock in the morning. We’re booked on a ferry from Dublin to Holyhead on Anglesey departing at 8.15 am so want to get to the port in good time. Dispose of any meat and dairy from the fridge and set off - not much traffic on the road and it only takes about 20 minutes to get there. Check in and sit on the docks for ages until we’re loaded onto the ferry at about 8.00 am. No-one has checked our photo i/d nor the fridge.   

Depart about on time and have a very smooth crossing which takes about three hours. Beautiful day - one of the sunniest we've seen for the last seven weeks. 

There are security points but no i/d or other checks at the Welsh end ….   There's so much drama about people smuggling from France, and not bringing the wrong sort of goods to and from the EU.   But our  experience into Northern Ireland and thence the Republic of Ireland, and then Republic back to GB suggests really patchy security - or we look so honest. 😀