Thanks! What should have taken 2.5 hours according to Google Maps took 4...wind, rain, road closures, accidents and construction. I must say, you UK drivers are made of stern stuff. But I made it just fine. The Tardis is small but mighty.
I've never been called small or mighty, but I have been called 'short and stubborn'. Is that more or less the same thing? I had a fun visit with Cara's breeder - once again it was me sitting on the floor being sat on by two Labs while chatting away for four hours. It's dangerous to get two chatty people together! Cara's three pups (all girls) went to their new homes two weeks ago. I think he would have happily kept all three. I call him a 'breeder' but he's not a registered kennel and this is the first litter he's had in over ten years, so in reality he's a big softy who loves his girls to bits...so saying goodbye to the babies was hard. I can sympathise - that's why I always say that if I was to breed my dog and she had 10 puppies, then I would have 11 dogs. I ended up in a super nice little cottage in a Scottish village tonight - even with a fake fire happily "blazing". I'm kicking myself for driving all the way up here and then just staying for one day. I've really gotten out of practice in how to plan a proper holiday instead of just rushing here and there! So for better or worse, the Labratour trundles on to the Emerald Isle tomorrow. Can I still call it the Labratour if tomorrow night's stop includes a Dalmation instead? Beautiful Miss Cara with the perpetually wagging tail...
I'm taking the absolutely shortest route, Cairnryan in Scotland to Belfast: 2 hours 15 minutes. It's my 'ferry sampler' and depending on how it goes I'll do the return from Ireland direct to France (19 hours) or into Wales (3.5 hours). I know...I'm a little obsessed by the times. It's because I get REALLY bad motion sickness, so I'm more than I a little anxious about tomorrow!
Just had a squizz on Google maps, it even shows you the sea lanes! 2h15 is a very quick jaunt, takes you 3h30 to cross between the North and South Island here. I hate boats with a passion, and car ferries just aren't big enough to take the edge off a big swell. I would love to go on a cruise one day, though, as long as it's on one of those gargantuan ships where you can't actually tell you're on water
Yikes! Hopefully the fact that weather is beautiful today will help. Sitting now waiting to bord, so fingers crossed. I thought of tablets but they make me so sleepy that I couldn't safely drive afterward. The last time I took them for a bus trip, I passed out cold for three hours and when I woke up, Brogan had slid forward and was sitting at the feet of the person in the row ahead of me. At first I was utterly baffled at how he could have disappeared from me on a bus, but the saucer-like eyes of the poor girl in the seat in front of me solved that mystery. Poor thing! The girl, not Brogan...HE thought it was a big adventure. Sorry, total digression... but that's what came to mind with the tablets! OK, time to bord (board?), so here we gooooo!
Very glad to be tucked into my cute place this evening on my overnight stop before heading to Kinsale tomorrow. The Irish Sea was very kind to me but I still got an ookie tummy on the way over and was glad to get out of the ship and back on the road. Having said that, the first hour was actually pretty fun. The security staff doing the car searches at the ferry terminal were rather amazingly jovial and the the ferry much more posh than I recall from my lone and long ago experience on the Calais/Dover ferry. I spent most of the first hour up on deck. It was windy and cold and as I result it was pretty much just me and lone lone Chinese tourist. Once she figured out that I wouldn't say no, she had me take about a dozen different poses of her. She would line up the shot, point at me, I'd take the photo, she'd take the phone back and see if she liked it and if not, she'd line it up slightly differently and have us to it all over again. At first I thought it was a bit weird to want pictures of yourself standing in front of every bit of the sundeck, but then I thought if Brogan would have been with me, I'd have been taking about 300 photos of HIM in front of every bit of sundeck, so who was I to question her obsession. Speaking of which, Brogan would have absolutely loved that ferry. He was an aficionado of boat travel and would have insisted that we spend all two hours on the outside deck with the wind in his fur and the sea spray in his nose. Darn but I miss that dog. The rest of the trip was me trying not to turn too green and keeping my nose glued into my Kindle. This does not bode well for the trip back over to France, but as Scarlett O'Hara said, "I'll think about that tomorrow". My overnight holiday rental is the mother-in-law's quarters (or "annexe" in the UK) of a nice modern farmhouse in County Meath. I picked it mainly because the hosts have a Dalmatian, and Misty did not disappoint. The incredibly friendly hostess let me say hi to her and snap a couple photos to post here. As an extra bonus, I keep discovering Dalmatian-themed decor in my rooms. It's like a treasure hunt! Tomorrow it's a four hour drive down to Kinsale where my lodging includes Curly the cockapoo. In other words, the Labratour lives on, even if there are really no more Labradors involved. Goodbye to Scotland... Hello Misty the Dalmatian... The Dalmatian decor treasure hunt...
Bonus round: Brogan in boats. I didn't discover Brogan's passion for boats until we lived in Venice and took the vaporetto (water bus) everywhere. On the weekends I'd take him out to Burano (another island) just because it was nearly an hour on the boat and the type of boat they used for that route had open railings so he could hang his head over the side and suck in the salt air. We'd ride for an hour, then walk around Burano for an hour or so until I felt less green, then get back on and do the return trip. Burano was also primo Rottie-friendly territory as one of the fisherman had a Rottie for years who everyone loved. I saw the Rottie on a fishing boat back in 2002 and then when I started going back with Brogan in 2011, the Venetian Rotties' human, a very burly and tough looking fisherman, stopped me to give Brogan a huge hug and talk about his dog with me, including having a heartfelt cry over missing his boy. He got me going too and then here were these two strangers bawling over a dog who had been passed away for years. It was a weird but oddly touching encounter. When we went back afterwards, we always got nice hellos from "the Rottie family" who lived and worked on the island. The only thing I wish I would have done with Brogan but didn't was take him on a gondola ride. One of my neighbours was a gondolier and he said that the dogs of Venice learn really young how to ride in boats (you see them all the time standing on the prows) but that Brogan would likely go right over the side. He was probably right, so we didn't chance it. That is some cold and nasty water! I've got hundreds of pics of Brogan on boats, but here are a few of my favourites. On a paddle boat in Amsterdam with a friend (check out the people looking at Brogan from the shore)... Again on the paddle boat... On a seal-watching cruise in Kenmare, Ireland... On a speed boat on Lake Garda, Italy (with my Irish buddy)...
I love your photos and your stories. Can't wait to see more of Ireland. What are the chances of a doctor being able to prescribe you some anti nausea meds for the return journey?
That's a good thought but actually just regular non-prescription anti-nausea (like Dramamine in the US) works just fine. It's just that it knocks me out cold for several hours and then groggy for about 8 hours total, so I can't drive if I take it. However, it's looking like I'll need to take the overnight ferry from Ireland to France instead of going Ireland to Wales and then Folkestone to Calais like I was wanting to (an issue with the ports). In that case of an overnight crossing directly to France, I could load myself up with anti-nausea for the night and sleep it off. I so did not plan any of this trip very well - absolutely kicking myself for not spending longer in Scotland and the North - but live and learn. I'm already planning how I can do a proper car tour of Scotland in October. Two versions of that fantasy plan - one alone and one with puppy in tow. The puppy plan is messier but more fun.
