Only in Ireland!!! And an argument with a low branch.

Monday 16th July

No rain fell during the night and not a sound heard from the cemetery.  Fully expected to see the water over the grass as the tide was almost in but the water stopped a fair way below the road. So I expect what we had last night was a high tide. Anyway, we used the water tap by the wall in the cemetery to fill our tank (having drunk from it first to make sure it was clean and had no taint) and set off for the Ceide Fields.

Took a good 90 minutes to get there, some of the roads were atrocious especially in the towns and villages (have I mentioned the roads???) Funnily enough while chatting with a lady in a pub and enjoying a pint of Guinness, she happened to mention her BMW car road tax was €1300 for one year!!!! Ouch, we thought, makes what we pay just pittance.  She was outraged at the state of the roads and wondered exactly where her money was being spent.

Oh dear....seems my train of thought has drifted....again.

Irish sense of humour perhaps?

 Anyway, we were almost at our destination when all vehicles came to an abrupt stop. Reason.....Cows and calves in the middle of the road. First thought, they had escaped but then a lad on a motorbike was seen behind the herd. So the beasts got past several cars and we were next in line for them to pass. On they came and then just stopped. Where was that herdsman? Chatting away to a chap in the last car for a good 5 minutes before he finally got underway again. It was a good job them cows knew to stay put. As I said in my heading....only in Ireland that time is not important.

There he is chatting to the car driver.

And still chatting. This road is an N road and well used as it is the Wild Atlantic Way.

Finally.

 Ceide Fields was not quite what we expected. Had hoped to see proper megalithic tombs but just a circle of stones were displayed. There was a tomb about 5km away but down some very narrow lanes so not a good idea to take the Beast to it. However, it was interesting to see the bogs and how the ancient stone walls (well over 5000 years BC) became visible after digging down some 1.5 metres. 

This 200-year-old pine was found in the peat bog. Dated some 4,400 years ago.

Some of the bog could be nearly 2 meters in depth.

Some of the bog mosses that make up the bog.

And growing within. Orchid, Sphagnum moss. Purple plant ??? and Cotton bog grass.

The cliffs with it's many layers of stone laid down over thousands of years.

  Took roughly 70 minutes drive to arrive at our next port of call. Glencar Waterfall. Only 2 km to go and disaster struck. A very low branch hanging across our side of the road which Ian only saw at the last minute and could do nothing to avoid. Consequently, our areial was ripped from the socket severing the wires and launched across the road. Ian stopped at the first convenient spot and legged it back in the hopes of finding it.

Nice spot to stop!

Ian tried to repair the fixings but to no avail. Seems a new aerial needs to be purchased. So with nothing else to do we parked up and walked to the falls.

With no notice to say we couldn't stop for the night, and not really wanting to go much further, we pulled forward towards the end of the car park, got the TV out and watched the recorded films on memory card with a glass or two of vino.

 And wildlife today,