Back from Holiday
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008Back home after a week caravanning in Ireland with Andrew and three of the dogs - Star, Magic & Leo. We were incredibly lucky with a week of sunshine; I don’t think we’ve had such nice weather in Ireland before. The first part of the holiday was in Killarney walking the dogs around the National Park and driving round the peninsulas such as Dingle and Iveargh. The dogs had a super time hunting deer around Killarneyand chasing the waves at Derrynane beach, for them it was their first encounter with sea and sand.
On the Friday we drove to Northern Ireland for 2 days at Belfast dog show aiming to stay near Newcastle, finally managing to find a site in the Castlewelan Forest Park. What a journey - only 300 miles but it took around 7 hours - roads in Southern Ireland can be terrible. By the time we got to the side we just couldn’t be bothered pitching properly just drop the legs and connect up the water & electric hook up and leave the rest for Saturday.
Belfast DS seemed a bit lacking in atmosphere an d it was strange on Sunday with Leo, being at a Championship show and not reallyknowing anyone there.
After two hectic days with early starts for the dog shows Monday was a relaxing day touring round the Mourne Mountains before driving back to Dublin for the evening ferry. We were travelling with Irish Ferries or East European ferries as they should be named judging by the majority of their crew. Its a pity those at the port are a bunch of officious jobsworths. Irish Ferries used to be a really friendly relaxing service to travel with but that’s changed over the years. Having said that the journey back was dramatic as we had to divert to rescue a yachtsman in distress with his yacht battered by the strong winds and waves. It was impressive watching them manouver the ferry alongside and then using a rescue launch to bring the sailor on board. With the delay we didn’t get home until 4:30 in the morning ready for a 6:30 start to go to a work’s conference.