Far from the madding crowd

Sunday 28th July 2013

Ireland Trip - Day 4

Believe it or not, last night was the first night we'd spent in George with the pop top up! We'd been trying not to draw attention to ourselves when we've been having a sneaky overnight camp in a car park, so we'd kept the roof down, but as we were on a fully paid for camp site last night we could go all out with pop top and awning and everything. There were no leaks or other horror stories, and if anything, we must have slept a bit too well as we didn't leave the campsite until 11.30am!

We were both a bit slow to get out of bed, and I had to threaten to eat Claire's bagel to get her up. We had a fairly leisurely breakfast (we had 2 cups of tea with it instead of 1), and then packed our rucksacks with sandwiches made from bread baked on last night's barbecue, and some more pilfered biscuits, before setting off on our walk. It was baking hot this morning, and I even remembered to put sunscreen on. The first couple of miles of the walk was along the road, and it seemed to go on forever, but eventually we made it to the woods we were going to be walking round.

Our walk today was in Tomies Wood, which is on the other side of the lake from Killarney. Too far for most people to venture. About 20 minutes after arriving in the woods, and just as we were looking for a good lunch spot, it started throwing it down with rain. We were so hot and sweaty from the sun, we didn't put our waterproofs on, and got soaked, and ended up eating our sandwiches huddled under a bent over tree trunk. Claire was pretty grumpy about it, but I didn't mind too much as it wasn't cold rain. Just very wet.
When the shower stopped, we managed to dry out and cool down, and put our waterproofs on before the next downpour. We could see the rain coming in over the mountains so we knew there was more to come.

Towards the end of the walk, there was a waterfall called O'Sullivans Cascade. We had it to ourselves, and it was actually a much nicer waterfall than the one we went to yesterday that was over run with tourists. The only problem with it was the midges. Nowhere near on a level to rival last years experience at Loch Awe, but certainly enough to spoil a cup of tea and a shortbread finger.

We passed a little bungalow by the road as we left the woods. At the exact moment we walked past, the door opened, and a man stepped out. He seemed like he was surprised to see us (although I think that was an act), but started chatting to us anyway. Claire had warned me about friendly Irish people, but this was my first encounter. The best way I can describe the 10 minutes we spent with him is as a friendly interrogation. I realised afterwards that he'd learnt loads about us - our holiday, our employment status, and how the recession affects us, and we knew nothing about him. Not even his name, which I would have like to put in the blog. We've decided he was called Paddy though, so it doesn't really matter.

We arrived back to George in the longest shower of the day (is it still a shower when it's been raining for over 2 hours?). We sat and had some wine and read our kindles for a while until the rain had stopped for long enough for us to light the barbecue. Sausages and beans tonight, and then we'll be baking bread and chocolate chip muffins on it afterwards. We need to go shopping tomorrow for main meal ingredients and chocolate. Supplies are getting low.

We're very pleased about how comfortable George is. We're quite happy to sit in him all evening, even when we've got the option of sitting in the awning or outside. It's like having a caravan, without all the uncool baggage that goes with caravans. Everyone knows that campervans are cool, like their owners.

Tomorrow we're heading over to the south west coast. We'll be spending the remainder of our trip visiting the Dingle peninsula and the coast to the south. We still have one shower token in hand, which I plan to cash in tomorrow morning to make my cleanliness last as long as possible.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Killarney National Park