Tuesday 8 September 2015
08 September 2015
Oh dear, it's been a while. I'm not even going to try and remember the order in which or when we did various things, but I'll just give a summary and try to remember the highlights.
So, we went to Blarney Castle and , yes, Chris did kiss the Blarney stone. I didn't see the point, even after waiting in line for about an hour or so up those 400 steps; I probably would have done my back in hanging upside down like that anyway(and besides I didn't think it would be exactly ladylike).
We spent more time at Inchydoney Beach (Clonakilty) and Garretstown Strand (Kinsale), both favourite places. Chris braved the water on several occasions and the doggies had wonderful times on the beach and in the water - nothing happier that I know of than a dog on a beach!!
We did the whole Ring of Kerry - beautiful - and the Ring of Beara. I have a lot of photos that I can't even remember where they're from so there should be a random lot of Irish scenery photos coming sometime, just loading them now.....
We did zipit at Farran Forest Park, check it out here:
http://www.zipit.ie/courses/farran-park-cork/
Damien would have been proud of me climbing those obstacles and launching myself on ziplines - only moment of panic was at the end of the second course we did where you had to bungy to finish - it's like the first time you use the auto-belay at the climbing wall, scary. I got Chris to hold the rope before I launched myself off, then I was ok!!
We haven't done much running - there just aren't the footpaths and rights of way like in the UK; everything is privately owned and although there are nice nature areas, generally (especially here in the Bantry area) dogs aren't allowed. We did do Clonakilty Parkrun which was ok - a 4 lap course, so no Killerton Park!! We have not yet come across a Parkrun that beats our home run!! We are planning on doing Bere Island Parkrun this Saturday - it's offroad and hilly - my style totally , especially if it's muddy!!; I'm not expecting to be able to run much of it after having such a horrible kidney infection, but I'll trot around at the back with the backmarker just to I can cross it off the list; sounds like a real fun one, you have to take a ferry over to the island :-)
Feeling really sad about leaving Ireland next week - I really don't want to go; can quite imagine living here.
So, some observations as a first time visitor to Ireland........Every town has 3 things that you always notice as soon as you get there: a betting shop, a barber (often Turkish), and a vet (well, that's what we've noticed anyway). There are a lot of butchers - in every town there is at least one, and that's great to see when there are so many empty shops.
Drivers are rude - seldom do you get a hand wave in acknowledgement of pulling over for somebody on the narrow rural roads, whereas in Devon everybody thanks you.
We didn't find people as friendly as we were lead to believe they are, and certainly the farmers are not like in Devon where they are usually very friendly. We think rural Devon is friendlier.
We've been based in Bantry Bay; not sure if Bandon is a city or just a big town, but Cork is the nearest city at 3 hours away - I can definitely live with that. Few shops means little choice, but here in Bantry we have Orgnico (where I'm sitting right now) which is a wonderful health/organic foods shop and cafe. I've been able to get all my usual things which I was somewhat worried about before we came. A lot of towns do have health shops but I'm sure nothing like this :-)
Don't know what the doggies have thought about all this; they've certainly enjoyed all the extra time and attention we've had for them!!
I will be adding more if I think of anything else, and of course, photos, but there are hundreds of them and it's taking ages......I may spend the 4 hours on the ferry sorting out photos :-)
Oh dear, it's been a while. I'm not even going to try and remember the order in which or when we did various things, but I'll just give a summary and try to remember the highlights.
So, we went to Blarney Castle and , yes, Chris did kiss the Blarney stone. I didn't see the point, even after waiting in line for about an hour or so up those 400 steps; I probably would have done my back in hanging upside down like that anyway(and besides I didn't think it would be exactly ladylike).
We spent more time at Inchydoney Beach (Clonakilty) and Garretstown Strand (Kinsale), both favourite places. Chris braved the water on several occasions and the doggies had wonderful times on the beach and in the water - nothing happier that I know of than a dog on a beach!!
We did the whole Ring of Kerry - beautiful - and the Ring of Beara. I have a lot of photos that I can't even remember where they're from so there should be a random lot of Irish scenery photos coming sometime, just loading them now.....
We did zipit at Farran Forest Park, check it out here:
http://www.zipit.ie/courses/farran-park-cork/
Damien would have been proud of me climbing those obstacles and launching myself on ziplines - only moment of panic was at the end of the second course we did where you had to bungy to finish - it's like the first time you use the auto-belay at the climbing wall, scary. I got Chris to hold the rope before I launched myself off, then I was ok!!
We haven't done much running - there just aren't the footpaths and rights of way like in the UK; everything is privately owned and although there are nice nature areas, generally (especially here in the Bantry area) dogs aren't allowed. We did do Clonakilty Parkrun which was ok - a 4 lap course, so no Killerton Park!! We have not yet come across a Parkrun that beats our home run!! We are planning on doing Bere Island Parkrun this Saturday - it's offroad and hilly - my style totally , especially if it's muddy!!; I'm not expecting to be able to run much of it after having such a horrible kidney infection, but I'll trot around at the back with the backmarker just to I can cross it off the list; sounds like a real fun one, you have to take a ferry over to the island :-)
Feeling really sad about leaving Ireland next week - I really don't want to go; can quite imagine living here.
So, some observations as a first time visitor to Ireland........Every town has 3 things that you always notice as soon as you get there: a betting shop, a barber (often Turkish), and a vet (well, that's what we've noticed anyway). There are a lot of butchers - in every town there is at least one, and that's great to see when there are so many empty shops.
Drivers are rude - seldom do you get a hand wave in acknowledgement of pulling over for somebody on the narrow rural roads, whereas in Devon everybody thanks you.
We didn't find people as friendly as we were lead to believe they are, and certainly the farmers are not like in Devon where they are usually very friendly. We think rural Devon is friendlier.
We've been based in Bantry Bay; not sure if Bandon is a city or just a big town, but Cork is the nearest city at 3 hours away - I can definitely live with that. Few shops means little choice, but here in Bantry we have Orgnico (where I'm sitting right now) which is a wonderful health/organic foods shop and cafe. I've been able to get all my usual things which I was somewhat worried about before we came. A lot of towns do have health shops but I'm sure nothing like this :-)
Don't know what the doggies have thought about all this; they've certainly enjoyed all the extra time and attention we've had for them!!
I will be adding more if I think of anything else, and of course, photos, but there are hundreds of them and it's taking ages......I may spend the 4 hours on the ferry sorting out photos :-)
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