Ireland Trip - Day 5
We woke up this morning to sunshine, with looming clouds. We just about managed to get the awning down and get packed up, before it started throwing it down. We'd seen a sign for a German butcher nearby, so we took a slightly different route to take in whatever food supplies the butcher had to offer. We got some pork schnitzels, burgers, and frankfurters. Then remembered later that we'd brought loads of lemons to have with seafood from the coast. Looks like we have a lot of eating to do.
We also found a small general store and stocked up on important things like chocolate, crisps, scones and soda bread. There don't seem to be many village stores over here, let alone supermarkets, so we were relieved to stock up. The chocolate situation was reaching a critical level.
It rained for most of the journey, but we arrived at Inch beach on the Dingle peninsula in time for an early lunch in glorious sunshine. We were thrilled to be able to drive George right onto the beach, and thought he looked good with some sand on his tyres. We had a sausage and egg bap, and then a chocolate muffin (baps and muffins both made on the barbecue last night). After all that food, I was tired out and decided I needed a little power nap to recharge my batteries. After my nap we went for a walk, and then had a scone and a cup of tea, before we finally decided it was time to set off and find a good spot for the night, and of course, dinner.
But when I turned the ignition key, and nothing happened, I got the awful sinking feeling that goes with being in a vehicle that won't start, on a beach with the tide coming in. No matter how many frantic key turnings I did, George was dead as a dodo. No dashboard lights, no squelching noises as the engine attempted to turn over, no nothing. While I'd been recharging my batteries, he'd been discharging his. After cursing George for a few minutes, I jumped out and flagged down another car and persuaded them that they wouldn't mind jump starting us. I had packed jump leads (!) and knew how to use them. But even that didn't work, so we begrudgingly retrieved our rather hot jump leads and let our jump starter go on their way. Then I phoned the AA.
I'd spent ages last week sorting out George's insurance, to include both European insurance and breakdown cover. Last week I felt that I'd wasted hours of my left sorting it all out for a price that didn't involve taking out a second mortgage, but this week I was so glad I'd done it. It took a while to get it across to the AA that yes, I was actually ON a beach IN the broken down car. I'm sure it's not that unusual is it?
Whilst waiting, I started the latest J.K. Rowling book (she's called herself Robert Galbraith to try and avoid all the scrutiny, but written such a good book that everyone figured it out almost straight away), and also realised I'd left George's lights on. Oops. After some googling, I discovered that 3 hours of leaving the headlights on is more than enough to drain a car battery several times over, so George was off the hook, and I was on it instead.
The local mechanic arrived, with his super duper jump lead power pack, and George was up and running in seconds. I owned up to being stupid, and we both had a laugh about what an easy job this was for him.
We drove around as instructed, and then parked up with the engine running for a while, and hopefully everything will be OK tomorrow.
On the way, we found a kitten cowering at the side of the road. Claire leapt out to rescue it (god knows what we were going to do with it, but you can't just ignore kittens in distress). However, the kitten had other ideas, and ran off, despite all Claire's cat noises. It looked a bit scraggy, and we think it was probably feral, and wouldn't have like George much anyway. I don't think George would have liked having a kitten on board either.
We've parked up for the night just off a tiny road (so tiny there is grass growing down the middle of it), next to a beach with crashing waves, and a ruined castle. As well as the castle, we've got a view across the bay to Cahersiveen, which is our next destination in a day or two. It's still sunny, despite the fact we can see rain across the water, and over the mountains nearby. We've had a nice dinner of pork schnitzels and Ainsley Harriott vegetable spelt, washed down with wine, and followed up with pancakes. And maybe some chocolate in a bit. So all in all, not such a bad day.
Georges lights are off (triple checked), but if he won't start in the morning then at least we have the castle as a landmark for the AA!
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Location:Dingle Peninsula
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