The last drive for the BBA V2 and Dublin here we come

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With a relatively short drive of just over 140km to Dublin today we enjoyed a restful lie in deciding not to look at what the weather had in store for us given how wet yesterday was which put a damper on our coastal drive from Cork.

Having switched the east coast we are noticing the daylight is coming a bit earlier than earlier in our short stay in Ireland when we spent time in the west and south west. And this morning when we pulled back the curtains that was a weak sun in the sky and the fresh breeze of yesterday had died away. With the temperature still warm for this time of the year at 15C the leaves on the trees are taking their time to change colour en masse and we haven’t seen the autumn colours as we had hoped for.

We are going to try the coastal road again today and hope that we might get to see and enjoy some sea views.

Leaving Enniscorthy we drove east on the R744 through fertile and lush green pasture land with small herds of cows out grazing. Despite seeing a lot of dairy herds we haven’t seen any milking sheds as you would in NZ driving through such prolific dairy country so we assume because a lot of the herds are small in number that the milking must be done in sheds that are not obvious. Although come to think of it we haven’t also noticed any milk tankers on the roads around dairy farms. We have seen more dairy cows than sheep so just what happens to their milk will remain a mystery to us.

Desperate to get to the coastline seeing as how it wasn’t raining and blowing we took a rural lane between Blackwater and Kilmuckridge that had a sign pointing to a spot where you could fish off the beach which we thought would provide adequate vehicle access for us.

We hadn’t had too many challenges recently but this narrow lane with grass growing in the middle of the road was going to provide a test if we met anything coming the other way. So isolated was the lane that nothing did oppose us although there was another car at the beach when we finally got there after many twists and turns of the road.

However, it looked like this area of the coast from Wexford north to Dublin the land was flatter with fewer headlands than further south where there were more cliffs to provide elevated and expansive sea views.

Heading towards the beach we had seen a notice for a ’holy well’ something we have seen in a couple of other places over the last week but haven’t stopped to check out what exactly the sign meant. On the way back from the beach to the R742 we stopped at the sign and observed that there was an old cemetery in the middle of the paddock but the ‘well’ wasn’t obvious. The sign had the name St Machains Well on it but nothing else to explain what it was all about or where it actually was. So more investigation was required. Opening the gate we were confronted by an electric fence installed at height too tall to jump over and too low to get under without risking touching the wire unless we did it on our stomachs. We just felt we weren’t up to the commando type entry and anyway there were a couple of bulls further away in the paddock. So the ‘holy well’ will go uninvestigated. We have since read that these wells which appear in several places in Ireland and relate back to pre-historic times where rituals and sacrifices might have taken place in days gone by. Today, people could go to them to look for inspiration by looking into the waters or someone who was crippled may swim in the water looking for a cure.

At Courtown the misty rain came back and the sky further north looked like rain was about there too.

We continued to follow the coast road with occasional glimpses of the beach along Brittas Bay.

With lunch time due we had high hopes of being able to get out to Wicklow Head and have lunch there and enjoy the sea views from an elevated position. No luck again as the road to the lighthouse was off limits to the public so we had to make do with the car park from where we had a partial view of the sea.

So we had been foiled a few times today to get to see the sights we had come across and now Dublin was just an hour away.

We are staying at the Travelodge near the airport for a couple of reasons. The very good nightly rate we got was one of them compared to what we would have had to pay in the city. We also had to deliver the car back to the airport depot and the location will be handy when it comes time on Friday to leave Dublin for the flight home on Emirates.

Getting the car back was easy after topping up the tank. We were pleased we took the 'full return 'option when we picked the car up as it has been real miserly on diesel. We have travelled over 1400km on €70 worth of diesel. Trying to run the car dry if we had taken the other option of buying the diesel in the tank in the first place would have meant we would have lost out financially big time.

The hotel is located in the suburb of Swords and we thought there would have to be a pub or two to choose from for dinner but as we started to walk the kilometre to the town steady rain started to fall, foiled again! So we made do with the rather bland restaurant attached to the hotel. Here’s hoping the weather improves for tomorrow. Seems we have been saying this each day since we have been in Ireland.

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