What a difference a day makes!


Storm Bronagh hit last night in the wee hours (and as you get older the phrase is more and more accurate). However it had none of the viciousness of Ali and by 10am there was sunshine! Mind you, it was very breezy, and quite a bit colder than of late. Time to tour Achill Island, and the beauty of a motorhome meant that the time between decision to go and actually leaving was only a few minutes.

Achill isn't very big, but if you are not on main roads progress is leisurely. First port of call was just over the headland from Silver Strand (our beach) to Golden Strand (rival campground beach).Ours was better!  Incidentally, there was a Presbyterian mission here aeons ago to convert the heathen catholics, which accounts for the large number of Ulster names here.

 On the north east corner is Bull's Mouth, and a stretch of water across to the island of Innisbiggle. This apparently has the strongest tidal current in Europe. I didn't test it out. A little bit of tittle tattle - Bull's Mouth Primary School, with two teachers, opened in September with only one pupil who didn't turn up the next day. All the other parents refused to let their children attend, but wouldn't tell the press why. Umm, it was a catholic school with priests, so surely no connection.



We needed some groceries, so called in at Achill town for supplies. The little supermarket (surely a contradiction in terms) was well stocked and even had a small fresh meat and fish counter. We bought some salmon, and it was delicious cooked on the bbq. The road then lead south and the views were getting much more dramatic, but at the bottom of the island you turned the corner northwards into Ashleam Bay and the real visual explosion happened.



The crane you might see on the right hand cliff was erected in 1910 to salvage a Greek ship bound from Cardiff to Buenos Aires with a cargo of coal.



The road after Ashleam turned inland  (and hence less interesting - mainly peat bogs), but once back at Keel normal visual service resumed. This called for lunch at The Beehive, and very good it was too! After that came Dooagh and then the climb over the cliffs to the cul de sac at Keem. After this it would have been a walk to Cruachan, the highest Sea Cliffs in Europe. Discretion ruled.



The return journey to Dugort went past some deserted villages (famine) and a neolithic burial chamber. All in all a great day, and exactly what we wanted to see.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iberian Adventure - part 1

Image
 My first night away was at Telford to say goodbye to Mum, as she was off on a trip herself to Llandudno with Lois, Kerry and Kay. Monday night saw me at Wallace's house in Blaina, down in the welsh valleys. We tried to have a look at the local sites, but the weather was atrocious - but we did find a good pub to commiserate in. On Tuesday we travelled down to Newhaven, and stayed overnight in the ferry carpark (they let people catching the ferry do that) and were afloat by 9.30 the next morning. We got to Dieppe early afternoon after a very smooth four hour crossing. Our first stop was in an aire in the small town of Forges Les Eaux. It is an unremarkable French town, but pleasant enough.  Thursday saw us driving to Vouvray for what should have been a four and a half hour drive that turned into five and a half hour drive. The last twenty miles were spent at twenty miles and hour or less, stuck behind two huge lorries carrying what looked to be either silos or wind turbine bodi...
Read more

Iberian Adventure part 8

Image
 Porto Covo was a pretty little town, immaculately painted \in the blue and white colours prevalent in this area. It had the now usual couple of lovely little beaches either side of a rocky promontory. Unfortunately it had only one street, and whilst there was a selection of bars, restaurants and a small corner shop, we very quickly ran out of things to look out. So we only stayed one night. The next stop was Faro, which really has two parts. There is the ancient old town, with cobbled streets, a enclosing wall, and some nice buildings. The wider streets were lined with jackaranda trees, that gave of a heady scent. In front of the town is a lagoon, and then a long spit of land with one huge beach on the ocean side. The beach is phenomenal, and was just a few meters from the municipal camp site - very well maintained and looked after, but a bit devoid of shade. And that was the end of the Portuguese section of the trip, and we headed east into Spain again. First stop was a place I v...
Read more

Iberian Adventure - part 2

Image
 We stayed on Saturday night in an Aire in Perigueux that had been set up by the Council especially for motorhomes. It was a flat, concreted area with enough marked wide bays for about 40 vans. No electric, but the usual waste and fresh water supply. Usually the charge was E10 per night, but as the automatic pay barrier was down it was free. Perigueux was another old French town with plenty of squares, some open and some under magnificently shady plane trees. There were many tiny passageways, but they looked a bit dank and dark, and just that little bit less interesting than Tours. Sunday was a long drive down to the coast to Saint Jean De Luz, just above the border with Spain. Although I had been here before (last September), the site and town were well worth coming back to. On the first night the clubhouse put on a band that played Santana type songs (and very well too) and laid on a cote de beouf - rib of beef. Delicious, if a little pricey.  The band went down a storm, bot...
Read more