Monday - The Bus didn’t come

The sun came out. We bought some pasta and cheese for diner and headed back to the hostel.

We planned to catch the CC bus at around 4 to go see the marriage stones at the north tip of the island. The bus always meets the ferry at 430 so since it was only 230 we had some time to fill so I headed up to the old lighthouse and watchtower while Maureen stayed on the beach reading and relaxing.

There is another really steep hill on the island and it is on the way to the old lighthouse and watchtower.

I past little farms and talked with one fellow who was working on his house. He had just moved there from the mainland. He asked me if I thought I could live on the island. You know I thought I could. It was big enough and there always seemed to be things going on.

I ran into some lovely views from the different turns in the road and even found some cows in a field behind a scary “Beware of Bull” sign. They seem to have a thing with bulls.

I got to the tower and was duly impressed with both the buildings and the views. You could practically see the whole island. and the ocean was gorgeous. It was very windy though.

The location of the old lighthouse was all wrong as when the fog came in it was to high on the cliff for the boats to see it so had been replaced by a newer one quite some time ago. The old watchtower was very cool. Very lord of the rings.

Returned to the hostel by the same route I had come by but it was much easier as it was all downhill.

Maureen and I went into town to catch the bus. We got there and waited but no bus came and when we went in to ask about its schedule we were told that the bus would not be coming that afternoon. A passenger had a heart attack on the bus and had died about a 1/2 hour before. The driver was bringing him down to the ferry right then.

Well that must have been horrible for the poor driver and the poor fellow who died too, for that matter. We stayed at the café/pub and I had a beer and Maureen some wine. We bought postcards and batteries and chatted. I took a picture of the door in the café that splits lengthwise so that the staff can slip through sideways when it gets busy.

Then went up the hill towards our hostel one last time.

It was sunny but windy. We know why everybody on the island drove everywhere.

The hills kill your knees and the wind your face and ears. Maureen says ‘120 inhabitants – counted 35 cars!! Everybody drives everywhere – 2 blocks!!

Yesterday I got a little sunburned but it might just as easily have been windburn.

We had a lovely dinner of pasta with cheese and zucchini and a little wine and beer to wash it all down. Afterwards Maureen went on the computer and I went for a walk aiming for the Pointe na Bailge at the tip of the island to see the sea bird colony there.

I didn’t make it. There was this hill and I was actually tired of walking up hills so I poked around the beach and seawall by Irish language school

that had no students in right then. It is right next to the hostel and I believe the seawall was part of the old boat moorings for the old coast guard station. I could easily spend another few days on the island.

After a lovely explore of the seawall went back to the hostel and talked with Archie and his wife. Archie wants to build a chicken coop out behind the hostel. He has a lot of projects in mind and I am sure that he will get to them all eventually.

Then we packed things up as we were leaving the next day, we had to catch the bus for the ferry and the owners loaned us a clock to use so that in the morning we would know what time it was. I booked our hostel in Killarney for the next night. It was an early night for us and we were actually quite tired from our very busy day. .