Ireland day 17 - Tuesday 21st June. The final blog of this trip.

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Our last full day, and the last blog for this adventure.

We needed to drop Sherri off at the airport before 17:00, and planned our day accordingly.

Susan wanted a final waterfall fix, so we left Kilkenny and drove northeast to the Devils Glen forest and waterfall. The drive took us through a beautiful mountain pass, with long ranging views up the valley. It was only marred by the roadworks which delayed us by about 15 minutes, but hey ho!

For the first time in this adventure the sat nav took us the wrong way, and we ended up driving along a rough track to a locked gate, which on further inspection was the entrance to a rehab facility. Well, we have imbibed a drink or two over the last 3 weeks and wondered whether the sat nav was trying to tell us something, but turned around and reprogrammed her. About 10 minutes later we arrived at another rough track - the correct one - and after checking with a local dog walker who informed us she has hay fever, we ended up at the lower carpark. There was a geocache nearby, so I grabbed it before we set off.

The waterfall walk was about 4.8km, and we needed to follow the red arrows. It was a wonderful forest walk, with the sun dappling the shadows as it shone through the foliage. The birds were singing in the trees above and the scent of pine trees was tickling our noses. There were stone plaques with random phrases dotted along the way; ‘I lost the dog’, ‘it’s good to be alive and here’ and so on… There were other rather ageing art works in the trees, which according to the information plaques were installed in 2001, so I guess they weren’t doing too badly.

We arrived at a place where another cache was hidden, but after searching for about 10 minutes we gave up. Unfortunately, I had no signal so couldn’t download the additional clue.

We carried on and arrived at the waterfall. It wasn’t a huge one, but I thought it was delightful and charming. A young couple were swimming in the pool at the foot of the falls, and I really wished I’d brought my cossie with me! We took some photos and carried on, while Susan commented about how underwhelming she thought it was.

The walk back took us along the stream flowing away from the waterfall. The clear shallow water babbled along between the rocks, and we spotted some small silvery fish in a pool. There were more plaques to ponder over, and a wooden sculpture called Wound. I thought it was a bit ‘dark’ for this beautiful place, but maybe I was missing something.

We arrived back at Sherri, hot and in need of a drink. We had a few sips of water left in the car, so shared that before heading off in search of something more thirst-quenching. Driving back up the narrow dusty track, I was really glad we didn’t meet any traffic coming the other way – passing each other would have been tricky!

A few minutes down the main road we came across a village with a very nice little shop selling food, drinks and with a great little deli section. We sat outside in the sun, quenched our thirst with lemonade and filled a hole in our bellies with a light snack.

The drive onwards to the airport to drop Sherri off was pretty straightforward, taking about an hour. The last part was on the M50, and we met our first traffic jam of the trip! Loads of vehicles were heading north around Dublin, and after not having to deal with wide multi-lane roads and a mass of traffic around me for over 2 weeks it certainly woke me up a bit!

Anyway, we dropped Sherri off safely, having driven her for just under 2500km in 14 days. Not bad going!

We took the hotel shuttle bus to the Clayton Hotel for our last night. It was a busy airport hotel, so nothing special, but it did the job. The beds were fantastically comfortable, and the shower was powerful; we each used it to get rid of the sweat and dust from our walk before going to dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Let me tell you about what will be known as Sodagate. We were seated at our table sipping wine and chatting about our adventures past and for the future when a man was shown to the table next to us. He was a probably in his 60s, dressed in dark trousers and an open necked shirt, carrying a briefcase stuffed with papers. I’m sad to say that he had an English accent. He sat, ordered a campari and soda and his food, and started looking at his phone. The young Asian waitress returned a few minutes later and apologised that there was no soda in the restaurant, and asked whether he would like lemonade instead. He retorted, ‘No, it’s too fattening! There must be soda in the hotel bar. Go and get some from there.’ Susan and I looked each other shocked that anyone would be so rude. The waitress departed.

A different member of the waiting staff arrived with his starter, and the man told him to take it away; he wasn’t going to eat until he had his drink.

A few minutes later a young Irish waiter came and informed him there was no soda. He replied, ‘There must be some in the hotel. Send the waitress to the bar to get some.’ The waiter replied that there was none in the hotel, and asked whether he would like slimline tonic instead. He stood up, commented how disgusting it was that there was no soda water in the hotel, and walked out saying he was going to find another hotel to eat and stay in. We couldn’t believe such a fuss had been made over soda water, and that he’d been so unpleasant to the waiting staff who had been nothing but polite and helpful to him. We crossed our fingers that any other hotels he tried were either full or didn’t have any soda water!

We ate our dinner and decanted to the bar for a final bevvy of the trip. The waiter in the bar asked us what we’d like to drink, and we commented with a laugh, ‘As long as it doesn’t have soda water in it, right?’ He looked a bit confused, and confirmed that there was soda water available should we want some. We looked at each other and giggled!

After a cocktail or 2 each we headed upstairs, and settled down for the last night, setting our alarms for 06:30 to ensure Susan got to the airport at least 2hours before her 10:20 flight to Toronto.

As far as I know Susan is already safely in the air as I write this blog. I’m through security, but my flight to Bristol, originally due to leave at 12:25 is already delayed by 25 minutes. I’m 2 coffees down, and its only 10:45. Ah well, I should get home at some point today.

The next scheduled Susan & Bee Adventure is Vietnam and Singapore in November. We’ve got our fingers and toes crossed that it will go ahead ???

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