Last night's stopover proved to be a good one, notwithstanding being awoken in the early hours by a barking fox. Emma proclaims with some confidence that given the time of year it was more than likely a worried vixen trying to maintain contact with / control over increasingly confident cubs.
A wander around at breakfast time threw up a couple of crossbills and an Irish hare.
The morning's drive was a steady enough affair and it was a pleasure to head down some quiet roads with verges ablaze with the vivid and contrasting colours of montbretia, fuchsia, oxe-eye daisy and ragwort. Less appealing was the prevalence of roadside litter chucked out of cars. We've noticed more than we're accustomed to on this trip across several counties and wonder if there's something of a rot setting in.
Approaching lunchtime we arrived at Doolin in order to check out the parking and access scenarios before we catch the Inis Meáin ferry from there tomorrow. It was horrible. The settlement of Doolin itself was pretty enough but the hordes of tourists and overcrowded roads / obstructions caused by idiotic parking was just bespoiling and stressful. Goodness knows why this ostensibly fairly typical town is quite so attractive but it was just rammed. And then rammed again. Not helping were more than a few utterly selfishly parked camping cars, including the one in the pic, which took up no fewer than four parking bays ... in which only cars were allowed to park. How thick or unashamedly ignorant do you have to be? I so hope the chump was clamped. #vanlifenob
Anyway, post horror-fest we both did something of a training session, Emma ran and I biked. The bike, as is very often the case, turned out to be our saviour in terms of finding a decent overnighting spot. Between us we rooted out just about the only place for miles around that would serve. Unsurprisingly, it's the spot shown in the coordinates. It's a quiet and secluded one that's off a forest track with huge views over surrounding plantation, clearings and agricultural land. We've seen nothing particularly unusual but it has been good for common hawker dragonflies and stonechats.
Post composed at 21:50 on Friday 24th July from our intended overnighting spot N 53.04576°, W 09.29073° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:53.04576%2C-09.29073
