We wondered what kind of adventures. Farming, maybe boating as they were close enough to the bay for a quick drive and then sailing or kayaking? We knew we were getting closer to Skibereen when we noticed that there were lines on the road and a sidewalk. We navigated a small traffic circle and then we were through Skibereen. Well actually the outskirts of Skibereen. On our way to Baltimore we passed through Carrigfadda and Gortshanecrone before we came to Loughine which is about half way. The road narrowed and we passed a pretty little golf course. The sign said Golf Club. You would think you would need more than one club. Why, I know people who have a whole golf bag full of them. We entertained ourselves. Maureen actually groaned when I said the golf club line.
The scenery was very nice, farms and fields, villages and narrow roads and all in sunshine. Then there was this very large blue truck in front of us. I would have been happy staying behind it for the rest of the way but Maureen wanted to try and get by. At one point we came to a corner and realized it was a tractor pulling a very large blue trailer. We waited for a safe stretch of road and passed with out incident. My, we were getting braver weren't we.
After the excitement of the tractor trailer we thought that it might be nice to not have any more excitement like that but the road narrowed considerably and kept us in a state of anxiety for quite some time.
We pulled into Baltimore and found the docks with only a little bit of trouble. Parking was another story.
We had left the castle early so that we could catch the noon ferry over to Cape Clear. We arrived at 1130 in Baltimore so thought that we had at least half an hour to get ourselves arranged and in order before we would have to leave. When we pulled up to the docks there was a ferry there already, so we parked in the one hour parking and went down to enquire what time they left.
They said they were leaving almost immediately which threw us into a small panic as we were not ready.
They did seem most helpful in that they told us that we could park in the area that seemed to be under construction to become a parking lot and was marked no parking. They told us that the town had run out of money and that it had been like that for quite some time and on top of that it was a long weekend and no work was ever done on a long weekend anyway.
Well, we did not know quite how to take this. After all, if we went to the island for two days and came back to find the
car towed away somewhere or with a ticket for some exorbitant amount of money because we had parked in the wrong place which was clearly marked No Parking, would we not be a little upset, inconvenienced and sad to say at the least? But all the other parking lots were full so we decided to live on the wild side, believe the ferry people and just do it. So we parked in the clearly marked No parking under construction parking lot, grabbed our bags and hurried down to the ferry.
One the the ladies who worked on the ferry came to meet us halfway down the pier said we had to hurry as the ferry had to leave as the next ferry was coming. Now this confused me all to pieces but she had already taken my luggage and was climbing into the boat. We jumped on and purchased our return tickets.
Now I say that this confused me as, when I was researching the access routes to the island ,the ferry only ran twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. So what other ferry was she talking about? I thought, maybe there were ferries to other islands and thought no more about it, just enjoyed the views.
The trip took about an hour and was lovely. The Captains of these vessels must certainly know the waters well as in some of the channels that we went through I saw rocks just under the surface seemingly not so very far away from the boat. We pulled into the very sheltered little harbour at Cape Clear island safe and sound. We past natural caves in the steep rock walls on our way to the dock. Once we were moored and off the boat we were so ready to start our first small Irish island adventure.
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