There's not that much to report from today, really. Emma heard long-eared owls overnight but that was about it for natural history interest.
We drove to Dublin straight after breakfast and had the usual slow-going convoluted trip through the city before reaching the port around mid-morning. At the port I did a few cleaning-and-fettling type jobs whilst Emma-the-Restive went for a run along the (very splendid) greenway that surrounds the port area (pic). I was a bit disappointed that the tide was in as the bay to the north of the port is a really good spot for waders etc when the mudflats are exposed. Hey ho.
The ferry journey back to Holyhead was comfortable and smooth, which is a good thing given the horrible journey out and then the fact we almost featured on Saving Lives at Sea on the trip over to Inis Meáin. It was, furthermore, a good crossing for wildlife. Seabirds featured throughout, with guillemots, Manx shearwaters and gannets being omnipresent. Some of the gannets were also doing their party-piece plummeting dive thing: always a remarkable spectacle. Towards the Welsh coast Emma thinks she saw a solitary puffin and I saw about 10 dolphins (common dolphins, I think).
One other notable from the crossing was that the light and visibility were so good that we could see shipping and landmasses that are normally lost in this vicinity. At one point we could very clearly see both Ireland and Wales at the same time: a first for us.
All in, it's been another enjoyable and Interesting trip. We've crammed loads in, knocked off a difficult parkrun and done OK for wildlife. We've also seen some cracking landscapes and found and explored many natural and cultural attractions.
On the snakes side of the above ladders: a bit too much of the driving has required full-on unblinking concentration and we've been a bit disappointed by a palpable increase in Ireland's litter problem.
The whole Park4Night, Turn2Shite phenomenon is undoubtedly really taking hold and the prevalence of improbable clusters of 'vans in varying states of repair and hygiene-rating utterly usurping public spaces not designed or intended for such use is - quite simply - a blight on both natural history and civic interests. This phenomenon seemed disproportionately evident in coastal areas to the west, but also in other well-publicised 'must-see' honeypots.
Anyway, once again it's been a good trip and will perhaps be remembered as the one that led to a change in my own personal thinking and strategies for sussing out new informal overnighting spots going forward. It pains me to think we may be viewed in the same light as the current ignorant travelling fraternity happily forming semi-permanent bespoiling communes to satisfy their own utterly selfish whims, to the detriment of everyone and everything else. The palpable sense of entitlement and arrogance is infuriating. I'm not sure what the answer is, but for the British protagonists amongst them then you'd have to think withdrawing generous state benefits endlessly and unquestioningly paid out as a results of some fabricated artifice leading to a wholly spurious diagnosis of some-or-other neuro-divergence might be a start.
Post composed at 22:20 on Thursday 30th July from our intended overnighting spot N 53.29418°, W 04.63259° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:53.29418%2C-04.63259
