Doesn’t seem like we’ve only been in Ireland for a week. Feels like we’ve been here for ages.
Another nice looking morning – we’ve cracked the weather. The Pup heads down to the little stony beach with Hubby and has an early morning swim (just the pup). We haven’t really organised the day either and reading the bumpf, think we’ve missed the boat trips to Skellig Island, which we were thinking of doing today.
A little further up the road, is Derrynane Beach and historic house – our camping neighbours recommended that we go as the sands are beautiful. So we packed up the van and headed down the snaking single track to park in the large Derrynane House car park. There was a little walk to do – down a grassy lane and then onto a wide grassy area with the beach beyond. The Pup was let off lead and was happily running around, when a large Golden Retriever came barrelling down the slope towards us. Off went the two dogs chasing each other in huge circles and had a whale of a time – The Pup needed to burn off some excess stored energy – until he went off to catch up with his owners. We hadn’t gone far when a collie and his greyhound partner also wanted to play – The Pup was exhausted before she had even reached the beach!
The beach was gorgeous – soft golden sand and blue waves crashing. There was a big sweeping beach with two or three other beaches in their own little coves. The Pup swam in the sea, chasing tennis balls and retrieving them. She was so happy. We tried to get to the other little coves, but couldn’t find a way so we satisfied ourselves with this one. We wandered back along the beach, The Pup chasing seabirds in flight until they flew across the water and meandered back towards the Derrynane House gardens where we found a lovely little shady cafe with toilets. Perfect. We had a coffee and fell into conversation with various people, starting with how beautiful The Pup was. This is pretty normal. We are usually ignored while The Pup soaks up the admiration. Hey ho. Her speciality today was charming all the American visitors who thought she was sooooo adorable.
With it getting warmer, we decided that our destination today would be Cahersiveen and the Mannix Point Camping and Caravanning. We tried ringing but couldn’t get through and an online booking by credit card would be 10 euros admin fee. We would take the risk of just rocking up and hoping they had space. So we hit the road and came across one of several viewpoints between Derrynane and Waterville. We instinctively pulled in beside a lone motorbiker having a smoke while taking in the vista and chatted. As we did so, all of a sudden, several cars pulled in too and the little lay-by was awash with camera wielding people and badly parked cars. Wow, we had started a trend. The view, by the way, was jaw droppingly beautiful with farmland rolling towards the Atlantic Ocean.
We drove onto Waterville, a pretty settlement stretching along the main road. It had several statues and monuments to Charlie Chaplin – didn’t think he had any Irish connection, but a quick Google revealed that he actually came here regularly for holidays and the town celebrated that. Fabulous. We didn’t stop – only briefly to post a birthday card – as it was a tourist hotspot with coaches in the car parks and people posing next to Charlie’s monuments, though it overlooked Ballinskelligs Bay which was beautiful.
We had noticed since we had arrived, that there weren’t many really old stone buildings or houses around, the old crofter’s places. It was all modern rendered bungalows or houses, surrounded by a paved forecourt and a large lawn, sat in a large plot of land. They reminded us of middle class American suburbia housing. The 1800’s famine and clearances saw Ireland’s population plummet and has never really recovered (the Beare Peninsula had 39,000 at one point and now has a full time population of just over 6,000 – a lot of residences seem to be holiday homes or second homes). Some of the roads had the feel of southern Europe – you half expected to see olive and orange groves in the fields. Also, the brightly coloured villages have disappeared too – maybe they’re a County Cork thing.
Hubby had found there was a chocolate factory en route, though we seemed to take a rather convoluted route down country lanes to reach it. The Skellig Chocolate Factory over looked St Finians Bay and was reasonably new. Inside, behind glass, you could watch the chocolate being produced on the factory floor, all gleaming pipework and stainless steel. There was a shop and a cafe too and we spent a small fortune after we had a taste of each of the different types of chocolate. Somehow we fell into conversation with the staff about ceilidhs and ended up with a couple of musical downloads on the phone, like you do. One of the staff was really into her music and could of talked all day…….
Just down the road was a lovely little golden beach with a little food hut opposite. We stopped here for lunch – basically to eat the rest of last night’s pizza. Hubby went off to get a cold drink from the hut and came back with the most delicious chips ever. We sat overlooking the sea, before taking The Pup to her third beach of the day and chucked the ball into the surf. Again, there were warnings of dangerous tides and rip currents.
We could see the Skellig Islands way out at sea. It was a shame to miss out on them as apparently they were the location in the last Star Wars film where Rey tracks down the reclusive Luke Skywalker on his isolated island. Apparently you can land on the island and wander around the 6th century monastery. It is primarily a bird sanctuary, home to kittiwakes and gannets amongst others. We then wondered how location scouts ever find these places and manage to get a film crew on them!
We drove to the little village of Portmagee, where the Skellig boat trips start and parked up for a wander. We went to the Skellig Michael boat tour kiosk for a nosey and found, to our delight, that they had several tours during the day – maybe we would get our boat trip after all. So after a quick deliberation, we booked for the following days 10am trip – this tour doesn’t land on the islands and anyway dogs aren’t allowed on them anyway because of the birds. Knowing we would be back tomorrow, we decided to have a good look at Portmagee after our boat trip and have lunch there too. So we jumped straight back into the van and headed off.
We set off towards Mannix Point Camping, hoping they would have space – it was a bit of an anxious time, but we got in okay and booked two nights here. A later wander around the site revealed plenty of empty pitches, so we needn’t of worried. We set up, putting up the awning, as it was now really hot – 26 degrees according to the van and no shade. Well, we had to abort briefly as we realised we had failed to stop at a shop for milk and other supplies so we popped up the road to a SuperValu and stocked up. Our pitch was right on the edge of the water and overlooked the mountains of Carrigower in the distance which was fantastic. The Pup made friends with the German collie next door and we settled down. I went for a shower and was rather impressed to find modern and relatively new showers, toilets and basins. The outside was a little bit of a hotch potch, but on closer inspection it was all freshly painted and surrounded by flowers. Further investigation found a large sitting room for campers and a covered outside area with sofas and dining tables. Across the way was a pizza oven, garden table and chairs and a bow top room for reading and chilling. It was all very nice.
We chilled under the awning, The Pup on her charging mat, had a picky tea and then sat and watched the sun go down. Rowing boats with the coxes shouting at their crews of twelve rowed up and down, disappearing into the distance, but the noise of their oars carried over the silent waters, a ready beat thumping in the evening air.
The sun disappeared behind a nearby hill, the temperature started to drop quickly and various insects began to come out to play – our cue to close windows and doors on the van and head inside. A fair amount of flying bugs hung around our mesh window in the roof space and not wanting to share the van nor our exposed flesh to them, quickly showed them the door. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and a pinkish hue overtook the blue of the day – a good day beckoned as they say “red sky at night, shepherds delight”. We had our boat trip tomorrow – perfect! What more could we ask for!
apathtosomewhere 