Ireland – May 7th & 8th, 2013

Firing up the engines on the ferry to Ireland – what pollution?

I caught the ferry from Fishguard (what a name!) in Wales to Rosslare in Ireland – I thought the ones we caught between the Greek Islands were big but this one was absolutely massive, with 7 decks and a mile of places you could spend the few hours crossing. You have to walk an unbelievably long way from the ferry to the terminal, almost as bad as Dubai airport – on second thoughts nothing could be that bad, last time I came through there I had to walk twenty miles, go up and down about thirty levels in lifts then catch a train to get from where I landed to where I had to leave from – all in the same terminal!

An old couple sat with me after a while and we chatted almost the whole way, they were in their 80’s and were on a week long bus trip. They were so cute, he was all dolled up in a suit coat and tie, just lovely to talk to.

I have a car for the next 10 days – and red ones go faster!!

The Budget car hire desk was like none I’ve ever come across before either. There is one staff member, a lovely 70 year old woman, who was absolutely fabulous, full of laughter and tips; she also came out to the car with me and gave me precise directions to my B&B – which I then proceeded to drive past five minutes later! Clover Lawn B&B was gorgeous; coffee and home made biscuits with a few other guests when we arrived, and a lovely hostess to boot. Dinner at a little pub just down the road was a great end to a bit of a tedious day spent mostly travelling.

I had a ball the next morning, took me 5 hours to rack up 80 kilometres on the speedo – I took tiny little back roads, stopped all over the place to take photos and found some amazing places. I came across a castle in the middle of a small town, just sitting there in the middle of a grass paddock surrounded by houses and shops. Lots of lovely wild coastline, some nice beaches, lovely old farm buildings and so much bright green grass and trees it almost hurts your eyes. The only trouble is you can’t always stop when you come across something interesting  – the roads are VERY narrow with hedges right beside the road.

One of my first roads in Ireland – how cool are the trees meeting over the road

I did manage to stop at an old cemetery with the ruins of what I guess was a church in the middle of all the graves. I almost had heart failure – again – when birds came flying out of the tower part of the ruins as I walked towards it. It would be lovely to have the time to find out the stories behind some of these places but I’ll just have to be content with storing the memories of seeing them.

I stopped at Tintern Abbey for a look, but could only look around the outside, the inside part was closed for upkeep – while I was there another 3 cars of people stopped as well. Then I drove all the way down this peninsular road to see a place called Loftus Hall – supposedly the most haunted house in England – and it was closed too! They do tours on the weekend but not yet during the week, there were quite a few other people there wanting to go inside as well, so I wasn’t the only one disappointed.

It’s a tad frustrating when you go places and find them closed, especially when they nearly all have websites but don’t update them with closures. Oh well, I’d best not get on my soap-box, it’s bound to happen I suppose.

When it got to 2pm and I was still three or four hours from Cork I thought I’d better stop foofing around, so took to the motorway for the rest of the trip. I did stop in New Ross at the Dunbrody Famine Ship – by accident really, I pulled in to the car park to look for directions and realized the ship was right there beside me, so figured I was meant to have a look. I didn’t know anything about the Irish going to America so it was a real eye-opener and they tell the story through acting the parts of passengers which made it even better.

My first experience trying to navigate through a city to find where I was staying without a map or GPS – and it was raining too! I had looked on my phone before I took to the highway so had a bit of an idea and only had to stop once to have another look so it wasn’t too bad.

But……………… I had chosen my first crap hotel!!   It was the Windsor Arms Hotel, the bar downstairs was okay and I’d already walked back to where I was parked, moved the car into a car-park across from the hotel and taken my gear back with me – all in the pouring rain –  before I saw the room, otherwise I might have been tempted to leave and go somewhere else. It looked like they were sort of in the middle of renovating, it had been freshly painted, you could just about get high on the smell, the bed and bedding was comfy but that was about all it had going for it. There was a double bed, two singles and a tv on the wall that wouldn’t even turn on, and not one other thing in the place – it was just dodgy! But, I thought, don’t worry, it’s only one night, and it’s up enough stairs that I should be safe – stop being a princess. Then I tried to have a shower – mistake, big mistake – NO F’N HOT WATER!!!! I tried everything, left each tap running on their own for ten minutes, fast, slow – didn’t matter what I did there just wasn’t any hot water. I gave up in disgust because there was no way I was getting dressed again and go traipsing back down 50 stairs to the bar to complain at 10:30 at night. I went to bed in a huff, got up at seven the next morning and tried the water again with no luck – so I packed up and left without seeing anyone or paying them.I think that could be classed as my first tanny (tantrum, for the non-Australian readers) of the trip!!

I wasn’t quite as successful getting out of Cork as I’d been finding my way in, but thanks to a helpful customer at a servo I stopped at, I made it with only one little scenic detour. So, Cork was a big non-event for me, which is a shame really, but there’s plenty other places to go and see – hopefully with hot water!

Tintern Abbey walls, Ireland

Tintern Abbey from between the spars of old boat

Fethard Castle, Ireland

The tower of Fethard Castle, Ireland

On the side of the road, Saltmills, Ireland

Just near Saltmills, Ireland

Not quite roadworthy, Saltmills, Ireland

Shipwrecked!! Saltmills, Ireland

Flowers on Fethard Castle

Beach near Fethard, Ireland

Loftus Hall, Ireland

Loftus Hall, Ireland

Cemetery on the way to Hook Head, Ireland

Inside the tower at the cemetery

Derelict church and cemetery on the road to Hook Head, Ireland

Inside Dunbrody Famine Ship, New Ross, Ireland

Dunbrody Famine Ship, New Ross, Ireland

Dunbrody Famine Ship, Ireland