Blogging at 22:00 on Friday 11th August from intended overnighting spot N 52.13159°, W 07.10060° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:52.13159%2C-07.10060
It's mainly been a day of normal tourist activity. We visited Tintern Abbey this morning and Hook Head Lighthouse early this afternoon.
The Lighthouse in particular was impressive. It's reportedly the oldest in the whole of GB and Ireland and, though it's been updated over the centuries, some of the original structures remain. The headland it's situated on is also worth a visit in its own right and as well as sporting some excellent geological features - including a few always-pleasing blow holes - also afforded sightings of seals and most of the native gull species. I also saw hooded and carrion crow at the very same time here. It's pretty unusual to see both as their ranges don't tend to overlap very much at all.
On a slight downside the lighthouse is heavily tourist-orientated with all manner of trappings unashamedly designed to not benefit visitors financially.
And so, after we'd enjoyed the lighthouse itself, and its immediate tip-of-the-headland environs, we back-tracked a mile or so to a roadside pull-over I'd spotted on the drive down in order to drink tea whilst lazily overlooking a picture-postcard bay. For the first sixty seconds this plan worked a treat. For about an hour following it was like being at a show with the truck as a display vehicle. Literally without a break, we were visited by people from several nationalities - drawn by the lighthouse - who had seen the truck and simply wanted to know more. One Belgian couple and one German chap especially were already into the overlanding-truck scene and either on with, or planning builds. The German guy already had a T244, and also a copy of my book. I'm not sure if he or I were more befuddled by the twists of fate involved in this chance meeting.
Post impromptu-show we headed off to a local ferry service intending to make our way across the Suir estuary towards Tramore, where tomorrow we hope to do a parkrun. Unfortunately, the ferry service only took vehicles up to 3 tonnes so we were forced into a frustrating and lengthy detour, which also entailed a traverse of the city of Waterford at rush hour. The day had suddenly, as is often the case traveling as we do, turned from chilled to less than so.
Frustratingly, even after we'd traversed Waterford The Gods of Travel had one more trick up their sleeve that saw us - whilst rooting-out an overnighting spot - down an improbably narrow lane with some very thick and heavy-duty encroaching vegetation. Suffice to say that one of my sacrificial box-protecting uprights has now been sacrificed. It's sort of pleasing that it seemed to do its job, but sort of depressing that I now have to faff with a temporary fix and then wrestle with a proper repair - and all that entails - when we get back.
Anyway, the intended overnighting spot we've ended up at seems like it's going to be a quiet and unmolested affair.
Regarding overnighting in this part of Ireland generally, just about every beach-area car park we've seen to this point specifically prohibits overnight parking. Even a few years ago this just wasn't such a common prohibition in Ireland...
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