I lost the duvet last night.
Not literally, but The Pup beat me into bed and hogged most of it. She’s like several sacks of potatoes when she’s asleep – a dead weight and equally unyielding. She ended up on her back, feet up in the air and dead to the world. I used our “emergency” blanket for such situations and wrapped myself in that – it worked and I enjoyed a good night’s sleep.
We awoke to broken sunshine (whoop whoop no rain!!!) and by 10am it was 18 degrees. The little campsite was very quirky, with nice little touches and we decided that we liked it quite a lot. We were at the start of the Wild Atlantic Way and figured out some places we wanted to check out. First was Red Strand Beach for The Pup as she had so earned a sandy beach. So we drove to the bay passing through Clonakilty, a sizeable town and down some side roads. A wide sandy beach appeared and we eagerly parked up and released the hound. There was a little bow top shed and on closer inspection, we discovered it was a sauna and full of people. They suddenly came pouring out and headed to the sea for a quick dip. I suppose it’s like these Turkish Baths with hot rooms and ice cold plunge pools, but sort of al fresco. There was one of these saunas at the Mullingar site too. The Pup followed the humans into the sea, chasing balls and birds, digging in the sand and letting off two days of steam – she was so happy and we spent a good half hour there. We also found out that you could stay there overnight in your campervan free of charge – we might be tempted to do that later on in this trip.
We jumped in the Van and continued our journey – on impulse and fancying a coffee, we pulled off at Rosscarbery, just off the N71. A pretty little town with brightly covered buildings – it reminded me of Tobermory on Mull – with bright yellows, pinks, purples and greens. It was very attractive and one of a few towns en route decorated in this way. We found The Coffee Drip, a small but busy little cafe on the corner for coffee, a piece of cake and a window seat to do a bit of people watching.
Suitably refreshed, we headed back to the Van and to a place called Toehead, at the end of one of the headlands. On calm days, you might get to see dolphins and whales which attracted us. We drove down narrow country lanes, hoping not to meet a tractor or some other huge vehicle – the lanes had grass growing down the middle and others almost had a meadow going on. They also twisted round on themselves. It was very exciting. Finally the sea came into view and we squeezed into a small clearing to park, grabbed the binoculars and scanned the sea. Small fishing vessels and a buoy bobbed in the waters, but no pods of dolphins. The Pup had a run in the long grass and we admired the view. But somehow, we felt we weren’t in the right place. We decided to carry on and followed the road which opened up to a magnificent panorama of the adjacent bay, with little bungalows and dwellings dotted across the landscape, gentle hills, fields and the sea. It was beautiful. It was stunning. We dropped down and as we did so, we spotted a couple of cars coming down a hill to our right. Mmmm. We let them pass and then drove up the same hill and lo and behold, there was a sign saying Toe Head and more spectacular views! There was an old crumbling tower which was a Signalling Tower and looking along the coast, you could spot other similar towers. The Toe Head one was fenced off so we couldn’t investigate further so we just sat down on the grass and soaked up the views.
https://www.castles.nl/toe-head-signal
We headed back to the main road. The Wild Atlantic Way dives down these country lanes on each little headland, so you could spend a lot of time not getting anywhere. Sometimes the SatNav took you off the designated route, but we didn’t care. We were following our noses and if we wanted to check something out we did.
We drove through the town of Schull, hoping to see the Gourmet Street Market, but it only ran between 10am and 2pm and now it was gone 2.30pm. With it being a Sunday, all the shops were closed so we carried onto our next point of interest which was Crookhaven, down the most southerly tip of Ireland. Again, a series of single track country lanes and around a sweeping bay to a pub called O’Sullivan’s, where you can have the most southerly pint of Guinness, which we obliged. They also did food and we ordered a seafood chowder, which was delicious. We fell into conversation with a lovely local family and their little cockapoo, Dougal. The Irish are so friendly and easy to chat with. We spent quite a bit of time, talking about our dogs mainly before saying goodbye and heading to Mizen Head, a few kilometres further down. Again, the views were stunning, but the phone camera didn’t do it justice. There were fantastic sweeping bays with arcs of golden sand and clear seawater, surrounded by green, lush fields and hills. You wanted to stop and take it in, but the lanes were busy with cars and we would of caused chaos.
We arrived at Mizen Head and a large car park, at the head of which was a modern, seemingly brand new visitor centre. We waddled in and realised it was 4.45pm and they were closing. You had to go through the centre to see the rest of Mizen Head and to cross the Mizen Bridge which was a bit disappointing. We loitered around for about 10 minutes to read information boards and then jumped back into the Van. We needed to find some accommodation for tonight. There seems a lack of roadside notices pointing to small local campsites – so we relied on a book listing campsites or we just Googled them. One we found, didn’t allow dogs so that got crossed off, but the Goat Path Pods and camping near Glanlough sounded promising, though a touch expensive at 45 euros. I gave him a call and they had space so we plumbed the postcode into SatNag and within 45 minutes we had arrived. It was very pleasant – clean, tidy and very neat with at least 6 wooden pods sat on a small hill, one resembling a Hobbit house. They were very cute. We were shown a nice little sun drenched corner and we soon made ourselves at home with a Dutch VW camper in the opposite corner. After tea, we had a wander and peered into the pods with little picnic tables and wooden loungers – they were very sweet. Then we checked out the facilities, had a frantic game of table tennis on a purpose built concrete table and went for a walk to admire the mountains and Bantry Bay until the flies and bugs got too much. Back at base, a family of Canadians poured out of car and a couple in a car arrived. It suddenly seemed quite busy after the relative quiet we had enjoyed, but everyone soon settled down and only the local birds could be heard. It was a lovely warm evening with hardly a cloud in the sky. Tomorrow we had plans to visit Sheep’s Head further down the headland, a bit of shopping in Bantry and then whatever after that. The weather is steadily improving and it’s looking good.
apathtosomewhere 