Blogging at 21:00 on Friday 18th August from intended overnighting spot N 51.76290°, W 09.59251° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:51.76290%2C-09.59251
Following our raucous Baltimore experience it was a real joy to spend last night disturbed only by the nearly-always-eerie sensation of absolute silence.
We awoke to low cloud and persistent drizzle but before breakfast was done the drizzle had escalated to sheets of rain. Since that point the weather has fluctuated between mere sheets of rain and extremely substantial walls of rain.
It's one of the reasons we've barely moved today. A further reason is that we hope to be able to do a parkrun very close by in Glengarriff Forest tomorrow morning.
And so, all we've done travel-wise is bumble a handful of miles and, in doing so, tried to do a bit of nature watching from the truck in places where motorcaravans are still allowed to park. The nature watching hasn't been terribly productive. Even the hardiest of species have been hunkered down waiting the sheets / walls of rain to fizzle out. I dread to think of the hardships more fragile species will have endured today.
Of course, the rain did not stop Emma from running. She set out late morning and returned in giddy-endorphin-dump mood one hour later, soaked to (if not deeper than) the skin. I thought about matching her laudable effort but quickly concluded what she'd done was actually truly insane. I ate two bags of crisps instead (Salt and Vinegar and Plain) whilst watching a perfectly stationary and utterly miserable-looking heron sheltering as best it could against a bush. That was as good as birding today got.
Tonight's intended overnighting spot is once again not the kind of place we'd normally settle for (it's a formal car park in a nature reserve) but the weather and parkrun aspirations make it functional and, with some reservations, acceptable. It's actually a really pretty spot deep in Glengarriff Forest with a crashing river close by and would more than likely make for a good base for a decent walk; if only the rain would bate.
In spite of our reservations, up until about eight o'clock we were duty-bound to stay, anyway. A bloke turned up around five o'clock to walk three spaniels and returned with only two. The missing one apparently has form for disappearing from time to time having got absorbed in the moment chasing deer etc, but usually turns up again pretty quickly. On this occasion this was not so and she was nowhere to be seen. The bloke was back and forth for a couple of hours increasingly frantically looking for her. We took his number and pledged to call in the event we caught sight.
The last time he passed through in his van I gave him a helpless negative gesticulation but he pulled up anyway and - with palpable joy - thanked us for our support and told us he'd found her.
Almost a PS. Just as I was finishing this entry a German A-class motorhome arrived and hunkered up up for the night. It's a good way off and the occupants are (so far) totally self-contained and quiet; but effectively, we've been 'joined'. Aaargh! Fair play to the driver for getting it here, though; we were in full vegetation-bashing mode for the last mile's drive in and it's almost impossible they got to where they are now without some or other scuffing.
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