Week 02
- Monday 14-7-2003 -

13:15, At Puchtown racecourse. On the festival parking.

A new sticker on the back!

No update yesterday. That's because I was to busy enjoying myself :) But since yesterday became a late night, I will take an easy day today. Not much more then driving slightly towards where I would like to be tommorow. Maybe see some of the landscape and then to bed early!


No update yesterday. But this was the place to spend the night near the road.

So yesterday I was on the Witness festival itself. The festival had 5 stages in total. It was not on the racecourse but partly on the parking place, partly near some buildings. It was not as crowded as I am used to, compared to festivals in the Netherlands and Belgium (there were much more m2 per vistor). But for the rest there was hardly any difference. The same kind of atmosphere, same kind of people, same kind of music (a very good sound quality!) and maybe a better atmosphere when the gigs were over. One major difference was that this was the first festival I ever visited were there was Guinness on draft. Strangly enough the beer was not available before 14:00 and the stands were closed one hour before the last gig ended. Compare this to Belgium...

One thing which struck me again were the 'Friezen'. This are the people that live in the north of the Netherlands. Sometimes they think they are a seperate country. On the 'normal' festivals you can always recognise them by the flags they cary on long poles. The flag has blue diagonal lines and heart-shaped red symbols (it are pompe-leafs, not hearts!). This time there were not such flags, but a close inspection to some of the attractions showed that one of the highest, a 'reuzenrad' (need to translate this) was build & operated by Frisian-people! Another way the Friezen were surprising me: The 'publisher' is also a Fries. At 0:49 (thats 1:49 in Holland) I got an SMS: The site was put online. Thank you!

The transport home (or to the camping / car-park) was arranged perfectly. People were transported away using double-deck busses. It was to dark to take a picture with my digital camera, but I should have 2 nice ones made on film.



A double-deck-bus passing my camper taking home the camping people on monday morning. You can also see one of the tent-stages in the background.

As usually, the terrain was changed from a car-park into a waste dump. Since I am very lazy now, I am able to see the events taking place here: The last people that are waiting to be picked up (and lack water and food). I also saw for the first time a cleaning squad. About 50 persons with garbage bags walk over the terrain, picking up everything they see. When they have done this, they form a line to pick up everything they have missed. And when they are done, it looks like nothing ever took place here...


Thirsty and hungry people waiting to be picked up. I became a 'hero', just be giving them some water...



The cleaning squad.

What's next? I don't know. Maybe I'll go to the coast. Maybe I'll head inlands. Tommorow I would like to check out some of the region near the great channel at the Shannon river.

22:28, At the Grand Channel, near Athy

And so I started driving... A 'goal' was the steam museum noted on my map. I am now only a few km away from that. My other guide -the lonely planet- told me that this region has some special features: Bog, channels and narrow gauge railways. So that's another thing to investigate. I tried to make a route along the channels to see them. Mainly locks can be very nice as I experienced last year. When I got to the first part of the channels it was very clear that they are not in use for more then 40 years. The channels were well filled with vegetation and shallow and narrow. They looked more like a stream then a channel. Of course you could see the typical elements that make a channel different from a river. All this made the channels much more attractive then channels currently in use. All engineering was still original, from the end of the 19th century.



One of the old locks and a view of the channel

I also got used more and more to the roads. Sometimes I still take a wrong road, but it is improving. The first change I made is to no longer fully rely on the signposting. This is sometimes absent. Or they just note a single direction. If you are going to A and you enter a junction. Why mention A and B. Just mentioning B is enough. That is the road you should not take... Also the traffic signs that indicate crossings are not always as usefull. In some cases they are also absent. Also regional roads do not always have right of way to minor roads. So now I use a combination of things:
- On minor roads: stop at (or before) each crossing and check the map & compass to see which road to take. Usually there is almost no traffic so this is not a problem.
- If the map tells you that a road will join the road you are following, expect that you will join the other road. You can also expect a normal junction (this one is the most difficult).
- Before you enter a town, check your map very carefully so you know which street to turn (e.g. 2nd junction turn left).
- I have my map stuck to my dashboard and I use a pen to fill in the road I have taken. I use a post-it to easily find my location.
- Check the compass on a regular base to see if you are still going in the right direction.


Tracking of my position.


Can't live without it. Maybe I should add a section about using a compass.

While I was driving along (and missed a Y junction) I suddenly noticed a sign with a parachute on it... Of course I needed to investigate. And to my suprise I just passed one of two skydiving-clubs in Ireland. And this is also the only one where I can jump since I am still a 'skydive-student'. They are only open in the weekend (from friday 15:00). So if I am in the neigbourhood and the weather is fine and it is weekend, I will go there www.skydive.ie.

But now I go to sleep!