Oh you lucky people! Here in Kenmare it's Wednesday morning and drizzling with rain that is forecast to be "persistent". As a consequence, the Ring of Kerry and the Dingle are not an option and therefore Ches has proposed that she spend a couple of hours shopping in Kenmare (here we go again) and at lunchtime drive to Killarney for the afternoon. The tourist busses should be out of Killarney by mid morning and not return till late afternoon so it could be the best time to see "Killarneyland" (it has a Disney reputation).

So why are you so lucky? I now have three hours to catch up on this blog.

I'll use this entry to catch up on our time in Ireland.

We flew in from Prague at 1.30 pm last Wednesday. We were up at 5.00 am to get to the airport and then had a couple of hours layover in Koln/Bern airport (our favourite airport on the planet - "not"). Ireland being in a different time zone meant subtracting an hour. That meant we had the extra time to drive north to Carrickfergus (2 hour drive) It also meant that Ches's pedometer, still set to Sydney time, would click over to a new day at 2.00pm. Explain? OK, Ches has been using a pedometer daily for the last 7 months to keep track of 10,000 steps per day. In Europe it has been 10,000 steps between 3.00 pm one day and the next. We (me being attached to her hip) have been averaging 12,000 steps per 24 hours.

Obtaining our rental car was a very lengthy exercise however 1 1/2 hours after arriving at the rental desk (Sixt), they offered us a Series 1 BMW. A week later I regret accepting this car. How do they expect me to be happy with our Honda when we return home?

Off to Carrickfergus eventually, we walked the blustery boat harbour beside the castle and generally got a feel for the town. We finished the evening with dinner in the bar at our Pub (Dobbin's Inn Hotel) with a chatty neighbouring table. A couple with her Mum, "86 going on 6" to use her own words.

Thursday morning, nothing in town opened till 10.00. so we walked and photographed till then. Our Crawford family spent one generation in Carrickfergus (as far as we know), living in the Scotch quarter from around 1820 to the 1860's or so. Robert left Elgin in Scotland around 1821 for Carrickfergus and his son, my GG Grandfather, left there for Victoria in the early 1850's. This wasn't really a visit with any expectations of discovering any family links, just one to walk the streets they had walked all those years ago.

Interestingly (probably to me alone), the town centre had walls built around it across the road from the castle. At the south-eastern end, outside the walls was the Irish quarter and at the north western end, also outside the walls was the Scotch quarter. The English didn't want either living inside the walls. The Irish were primarily inshore net fishermen and the Scots deep water long line fishermen. That didn't make it any easier to establish exactly what my GGG Grandfather had done for a living. The only record we have says either "marine" or "mariner".

The best advice of the morning came from the guy in the information centre. Kinda! He said that the road north was boring and that we would be better going up inland and then cut to a narrow road around the north east coast too narrow for tourist buses. Thumbs down to the first and up for the second, Maybe on a day less shrouded in mist the inland would get thumbs up. We drove off into the hills and visibility diminished as the roads became narrower and the hedges thicker and higher. There was some initial bickering and dummy spitting between TomTom, Ches and I however as it was only for half an hour, no feelings were irreparably hurt.

We took a run up one of the Glens of Antrim (Glenariff) however most of the walks were closed due to an outbreak of a desease in the Larch forrest. Still, the views down the Glen toward the sea were worth the drive.

The information officer in Carrickfergus was certainly correct about the narrow road around the north east coast to Carrick-a-Rede. We only saw five cars in an hour or so, the coast is stunning and with the mist clearing, we could see Scotland across the sea.

At Carric-a-Rede, Ches talked me into overcoming my "issues" with heights. We set off on the 1km walk out to the rope bridge, a famous tourist destination. Yes it is. Hundreds of others walking the track and a full car park were testimony to the hundreds of thousands who walk the bridge each year. This little black duck made the mistake of trying to carry his camera in one hand and grip one side of the rope with the other. Big mistake considering the original mistake of entering the bridge with a group of kids. What with bouncing and swaying, I had my "issues" with heights reaffirmed. Once on the island, we took the obligatory photographs, calmed the nerves and recrossed. A helpful young woman offered to film Ches and I recrossing the bridge. We now have 2 seconds of us and 30 seconds of vertigo inducing footage of rocks and ropes. I have no idea of what she thought she was filming.

I forgot to mention that when we headed out from the carpark, the ticket guys said that we were likely to get drowned as there was an electrical storm only a few Km west of us. On returning, the storm hit as we hopped into the car and it bucketed down. The ticket guys had also said that it was a km walk. On returning, I suggested to them that it had been measured by a crow. They each confessed that when they had first started work at the site, they had though the same. One had actually brought a measuring wheel to check and it confirmed it as one km or mile I'm now not sure. It's a challenging walk with steep steps and paths anyway, and there is still some distance to go from the bridge to the island.

On to the Giants Causeway. The rain stopped on arrival. We walked the many kms along the shore and it really lived up to expectations with the pillars of stone in hexagonal shapes are amazing. Despite the fact that hundreds of people were climbing all over them, I managed to get plenty of photographs minus the terrorists. Slippery rocks gave cause for second thoughts, and they didn't clamber around for long. Once again it poured down as we hopped back in the car. We figured we were blessed. Little did we know that he was storing it up for one massive assult on us later on.

At the end of a long day, we made it to our B&B at Portrush. Now that was a navigational feat in itself and TomTom and Ches had no significant contribution to make or blame to accept. TomTom was correct in advising "You have reached your destination". But where was it. This is a beach resort and packed with tens of thousands of Irish holiday makers. The streets were crowded with cars and people, but where is the bloody B&B? OK Ches, I'll go around the block and don't you do anyting but look for it when we reenter the street. Some Kms later we reenter the one way street. I spot the B&B high up on my right and not accessible from our street other than by steps. There isn't any parking. 50m past the B&B, I take a right into a one way street one street over from the B&B. It leads down to the boat harbour from where we drive up onto a one way street coming back toward our B&B. Success. The hostess informs us that we did really well as most people do three circuits before locating them. Which raises a question not worth asking ... "Why don't you post the instructions at the website".

Hostess also suggests dinner at one of the restaurants, bars or bistros at the boat harbour would be the best bet.

OK, we decided ont he seafood restaurant. What we didn't know was that half the holidaymakers had also decided on seafood. Another thing we didn't know was that the seafood restaurant had a bar on the 2nd floor and restaurant on the top floor and reception for both was at the entrance. Dozens of groups were either at the outside bar (smoking) or the inside bar, with a ticket number allocated, waiting for it to be called for their table. We did the same and waited 50 min at the outside bar where it was at least cooler and I had the first of many Guiness (that's many in the following weeks).

Finally the number is called and we are seated at our table and instructed that "here is the menu, when you are ready, go to the end of the bar and place and pay for your order". Along with 40 or so people who had only just been seated, we fought each other at the bar to place our orders and then waited for another half hour for the meals to be delivered. Excellent meals they were too.

On the Friday we would drive down the middle of Northern Ireland and the Midlands through Enniskillen to Galway. This was the longest planned day of driving, and I certainly bit off more than I could chew.