Day 379, 26 June 2015, Dunmore Cave, Co. Kilkenny. Rumours of us turning into complete hermits after the 4000 km road trip are somewhat exaggerated. We are about 90% hermits - not complete. We took off for a drive to Dunmore Cave today - didn't really know what to expect but decided to use our Heritage Cards and just enjoy. Like Dr Who's Tardis, Dunmore Cave is bigger on the inside. We missed the first part of the guided tour, but with the threat of the next one being accompanied by 100 schoolkids, we joined the tour in progress and heard the history of this ghosty place. Apparently there was a massacre here in 928 when the local Irish came to hide and the Vikings came a-looking. Massive caches of bones have been found generally separated by gender. They believe the section containing women and children wasn't even meant to be murder... rather the cave has not an ounce of natural light (he turned the lamps off to prove it). They crawled into a sub-cave and the Vikings lit fires to smoke them out. Between the smoke and the dark, they couldn't get out even if they wanted to. The cave has been giving up secrets at a miserly rate and as recently as 1999 a guide was picking up litter near a pile of rocks and saw something silvery - probably foil. He bent in, wiggled it out and it was a Viking silver bangle - in total over 50 pieces of Viking silver were found. It prompted us to think, be it bank accounts or hoards in farmers fields, how many people have stashed their money and valuables in the face of danger and not returned. Sad. We enjoyed our cave visit though and though treated with superstition by locals for centuries, not a particularly haunted or haunting location. We moved on for a scenic drive to river-side New Ross and shared fish and chips (first since we left Spain on 30 April). Lush. Final stop on our big outing day? Aldi. Groceries. The tax you pay for living in a house with a kitchen. After 5 weeks it was definitely time to move on from Marrakesh, but certainly not ruling out a return visit to Morocco someday, housekeeping, food, lodging for €35 a day? Sensible for financial reasons if nothing else. Next week? Packing, cleaning and looking forward to returning to our wishful-thinking home, Spain.
(Today's picture is Market Cross - the tallest stalagmite in Ireland. Stalagmite? Might reach the top one day).