Kinsale 23Aug

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Rivermount House is simply stunning. The magnificent residence is perched on the side of the hill overlooking the valley. Not long after signing off yesterday, the weather came in and the view disappeared. It rained all night, not that I really know with the double glazing and quiet rooms. Breakfast was unsurpassed, a cooked breakfast with all the trimmings, with full dinner service and cutlery.

After breakfast I packed up and headed outside. Whilst it looked as if it was raining, it was actually just low cloud. The cloud that skips by the top of lofty, but here is drifts along the surface. So it was 17 degrees, dry, with visibility to 100metres. Yey, the Irish are metric, a nice change after the yards and miles back in UK.

Drove 5km back into Kinsale and went to the James Fort (named after James II). It has had other names, but James liked it so renamed it. This fort has the central area still standing, however the surrounding bastions are gone. They still have the trench and mound, which are better than those in UK as these are sopping wet 24/7, no one is even going to contemplate crossing them. The fort was designed by Paul Ive in 1602 and endured the Williamite War in 1690 and the Irish Civil War in 1922-23. After squelching around the site, taking photos and checking the view, I hopped back in the car and headed off for a short ride across town.

On the opposite headland is Charles Fort. A good portion of this fort is intact. This one is also steeped in history built to European designs, particularly by Sebasien de Vauban, the chief engineer of Louis XIV. This bastioned fortification deviated from the traditional pentagonal fort of the time, and introduced a star fort design lending it to is position on the headland. Although a formidable defence for ocean attack, it was vulnerable to attack from land based forces. I had a coffee at the fort, and headed 2km back to the main road, and perched myself in readiness.

The tour de Ireland (a mere 3 day event) is in its third day, and strike be lucky if they arent riding through Kinsale. After a small group gathers on the exiting hillside from Kinsale, I climb up on the mound for a spectacular view. Lance Armstrong and Cavendish were in the group, and they wizzed past. They werent smiling for the crouds, soaked to the core, dirty from road grime and tired from the up and down hill torture this lovely country has to offer. What a buzz. Got over a minute of filmed footage of the peleton. Not sure if they heard my lonesome 'Cumon Aussie' from my vantage point.

I reprogrammed the Satnav for an alternative route, and headed to Blarney Castle, the home of the Blarney Stone. This is a national treasure, not that you would know given the width of the roads they provide for access. By this time it was chucking it down. Had the wipers on full tilt, they were likened to oars on a boat there was that much water to disperse. There were a group of us trundling along the motorway doing 60km/hr rather than the 120km/hr limit. The road to Blarney was about 20km from the motorway, but probably about 4km as the crow flies. the road doubled back on itself weaving in and around, there is no way one could find it without a satnav. However there are only about 90% of the roads on it, so its really a life size maze for navigating is partially by signage and mostly by satnav with non-existent roads.

Signage - one cant help but grin. Your whipping down an alley the width of a horse with blinkers flapping, hoping like crazy theres no one coming the other way. out of no where is a junction with sign posts nestled in the trees. if your lucky enough to see the post, you wont be able to tell whats on it til your right there. The sign is in two languages and rarely is oriented in the direction of the streets at the junction. So looking for traffic, changing gears, hard on the brakes, you read 15 signs pointing any which way, half an ear on the satnav telling you to 'bare right' when theres no road that way, make a decision and get out of there before someone else arrives. Great fun, only complicated by a local that has followed you for the last 2km along a non-passing lane and has his number plate fair up your exhaust pipe.

Blarney Castle is great, they have a car park, a treasured thing in this part of the world. The idea is that if you need to park you find a bit of road that is slightly wider than 1 cars width, and nestle it into the trees. Frontway or backwards, left or right of the roadway, just park and run. In the countryside this is ok, but watch them in the towns, where the roads are thinner, they park both sides making it a one way road. I think they learnt this from the brits, who have it down to a fine art.

Thats right the castle. It is an amazing part of history. Atop of the tower is a stone, much revered for its gift bestowed. It is said that if one kisses this stone you will have the gift of eloquence bestowed upon you. Great, i need me some of that. So I climb the 100 steps and walk along the narrow ledge. I can just see the builders grin now. He thought that if people were going to be bestowed upon, it was going to need a little committment. He put the stone at the top of the tower, 50cm away from the ledge, and 40 cm down from the walkway. To kiss the stone, you have to hang upside down and hang your head over the edge of the precipice, reach out and down, and kiss a cold wet rock. The guy who put it there is laughing his head off, together with his best mate who propogated the story. Couldnt resist, had to do it. Came all this way, not gonna wimp out now. Not sure if it had any effect, might have to wait a while.

Directly after I bestowed my gift to the stone, the clouds parted and blessed us with streaming rays of sunshine, and it remained that way for the remainder of the day. I am claiming it was due to my actions, good old aussie influence wins out. I wandered the grounds and saw some amazing things, including the parkland gardens, the rock close, wishing steps, witches Kitchen, the fern garden, old ice house and more. I took the lake walk (50 mins) which took longer due to the photo opportunities it offered. I think i have taken around 600 photos today.

Went back into Blarney and stopped off at the local for one of the best meals I have had in a long while. Might have been all that walking. Drove back home to Rivermount house and putting my feet up, thinking about how lovely Ireland is, the countryside, people, narrow roads, everything.

An Amazing Day. Big Grin, looking forward to tomorrow.

Love to all.

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