What a difference twelve hours make – the day dawns with bright sunshine and blue sky.
We skip breakfast and head to the gorgeous wide sandy beach of Rossnowlagh, primarily to give The Pup a big reward after being cooped up all day yesterday. She just loves the beach and she got a good workout as we walked quite a way to the other end to find a coffee. Armed with two steaming cups, we headed back to the beach, found a suitable rock and watched the surf school set up.
We wandered back to the campsite along the beach again – there seems a lot of stranded jellyfish here. There’s also quite a few surfers riding the waves too and you get the impression that it’s a surfers hotspot.
It’s 11.45 before we hit the road and weaved out of Rossnowlagh. Despite a couple of large static caravan sites and a windblown seaside vibe about it, there’s quite a lot of new builds going up, but built with sensitivity and with character and charm. They are quite smart houses. We pondered why the sudden surge in building here – it’s only 45 minutes from Sligo so is it becoming a small commuter community or are the static owners upgrading to bricks and mortar and making Rossnowlagh their permanent home?
We headed to Donegal for lunch and parked in the riverside car park where we had to pay the princely sum of 70c for two hours parking! Whatever next! We wandered into town within minutes, hoping to find a recommended bakery, but discovered it was closed. So we hunted down the second recommendation, the Old Castle restaurant, a beautiful stone building by the church and castle and enjoyed a seafood lunch outside. Afterwards we walked back to the van admiring Donegal for being very pleasant and having a lovely feel about it.
We had a plan to head to Killybegs and beyond and so followed the main R263. From this road we could see across to yesterday’s mountains, now free from cloud and rain. They looked very majestic and we were sorry to have missed all their glory – further in the distance, we could also see the Ox mountains and the Mayo coastline. We soon arrived at Killybegs and discovered that it was a huge fishing port with many sea trawlers tied up at dock with other associated industries that supported the fishing surrounding the dock area – fish processing plants, boat repairs, haulage and warehousing amongst others.
As fascinating as the scene was, we decided to continue on, stopping and having a coffee at Largy viewpoint, which gave us a panoramic 180 degree view of Donegal Bay, the mountains and County Mayo. In the sunshine it was truly stunning. We travelled a little further, a road sign invited us to take a lower back road to Muckros Head and the little village of Kilcar. With the Slieve Mountains in the background, the scenery here was probably the best and prettiest we had seen yet. Pretty bays and estuaries, lush green countryside with houses nestling in the hills, coastal fields running down to the sea, tiny hidden sandy coves – it had the lot.
We came up to the village of Carrick and followed the signs for Slieve League mountain which was an apparent must to visit. We ended up at the Visitor Centre as we were unable to get the viewpoint by car. Visitors could either walk there (2 miles and all up hill) or take the regular shuttle bus at 8 euros return each. We voted for the bus and fell in conversation with the English driver as we were his only passengers. The visitor centre information sheet told us the last bus back was 5.10pm but our kindly driver informed us that his last run would be 5.50pm. We double checked with him again as we disembarked and went off to admire the Slieve League cliffs and mountains.
The cliffs are better than the Cliffs of Moher, being as tall as the Eiffel Tower and plunging straight into the sea. The views were stunning and we walked up the stone steps to see if we could see into the Bay of Donegal. People were even higher, reaching the ridge and walking along. It was so beautiful and our day was made, as we came back down, spotting dolphins playing in the water – there was at least twelve of them, swimming in a group. Amazing and we watched them for many minutes. We sauntered down to where the buses picked people up and waited. There was a large Indian family too. A shuttle bus pulled up, but it transpired that it was a rival company, but we asked if our bus was coming. “Oh yes” came the reply, seconded by a private coach driver. 5.50pm came and went, but we were reassured again by the shuttle driver as he disappeared down the road. By 6.05pm, with no way of contacting the visitor centre, the Indian family set off to walk back while we remained optimistic. However when the icecream vendor told us that the last bus went ages ago, we had no option but to follow the Indian family as well down the sliver of tarmac.
It was a 2 mile walk, mercifully downhill, but at least 50 minutes! It was actually a very pleasant walk as we had chance to peer down to the sea and the little inlets as well as admire the long distance views. We overtook the Indian family with ease – we felt sorry for them as they had several young kids in tow. Thank goodness it was a lovely warm evening with the sun high in the sky still. It was to nice to actually stretch the legs to be honest. By sheer luck, there was a campsite right next to the visitor centre saving us having the stress to hunt down a campsite gone 7pm and it was our first point of call as we arrived. The Pup worked on the chap in charge and we checked in, left to choose our own spot, which was a sunny corner. The chap told us that the visitor centre had a habit of getting a tractor to tow vehicles away after a certain hour and put up barriers to stop overnight parking. That’s all we needed so we retrieved the van quickly, found our spot in the sun, got the chairs and beer out and thankfully sat down.
After some tea, we wandered down to the Rusty Mackerel around the corner for a pint of Guinness – a lovely traditional old pub with little cubby holes. It was heaving with people, while a small group played Irish music. Great atmosphere. The Pup was totally exhausted and crashed on a bench – she’s so tired. She sleeps while we’re driving, but it’s not a proper deep sleep – think it all catches up with her. So she was not impressed when we tugged her lead to wander back to the campsite gone 11pm. It was a gorgeous evening, not a cloud in the sky as we finally rested our weary heads on our pillows.
apathtosomewhere 