Week 02
- Thursay 17-7-2003 -

10:45, Carrick-on-Shannon

Yesterday was again to busy so I did not get to updating the stories. But I will now give you a brief overview of what I did yesterday.

I woke up at the Bog tour railway. The first tour would be at 10:00 but since I was the only passenger, they canceled it. Not such a big problem, the Clonmacnoise monastary was close to the same place. So I first went to visit that. Clonmanacnoise is one of -the- places to have seen in Ireland. It is an old monastary that dates back to the year 548. From most of the buildings only the walls are left, but most impressive is the enourmous amount of graves. Some are even only a few years old. The site also contains three high crosses (although it was hard for me to tell which were the high crosses and which were the graves). I also met two girls from Groningen, they were at the end of their fly-and-drive holiday. They were able to assure me that it was not me, the signposting is sometimes not that great.



An impression of the monastic site. I hope that my film pictures remained...

After I spend a few hours on the monastic site, I went back to the bog rail tour. One of the reasons I am intrested in the bog is that a few decades ago people in some parts of the Netherlands were also employed in getting peat (turf). In the early years they harvested it here in the same way as in the Netherlands (and as far as I understood, it is still done the same way by private landowners on a small scale). The bog I visited was only used to power a power station. The power station provided 4% of the total amount of electricity used in Ireland. About 12% of the total power was generated using peat. Harvesting the peat is not so difficult: after scraping of an layer of about 1cm and collecting it during the next days (so it could dry well) it is transported to the power station a few km away. That's all. The trip itself was just as exciting... (www.bnm.ie)

Since I had been in the central south region long enough by now, I started to make plans to go north. I was doubting to visit dublin, but after reading about the Guinness brewery I was sure to visit this city. A first stop was the central north, where I am now. The town I am in at this moment is has a marina and it look likes much of the city centre runs on tourisme. Yesterday I went to see a movie (Daddy day care, this was the only one running). It was a tiny cinema, it was a rebuild attic, with about 200 seats, dark wood and red curtains.


Even the ticket looks nice.

When it was finished, it was dark outside and the streets were worth a photograph. So I first went back to my camper (parked in the harbour) took my camera and made 2 spectaculair photo's. Then the camera started rewinding (at least it made such a sound, and the indicator pointed 37 while I never get more then the amount of pictures that are specified on the film). So I went back to my camper to put in a new film, but it wasn't rewinded. So those perfect pictures were exposed to light... I went back to take the same images again, but the beer-barrels outside and the people taking a long time to decide to go into the pubs were no longer there...



This is the place where the barrels stood. Sorry I left the camera in macro setting. Due to this the picture is not sharp. I have better on film.

So there was only one thing left to do: Get into the pub myself. And that is why I didn't make an update yesterday!



The harbour where I spend the night.

21:55, At one of the lakes in Cavan county (near Milltown)

I did not really have a clue what to do next. There were no sights to see in a wide range (except for some more ruins of places that were very important centuries ago). The wheather was poor, it was drizzling, raining or dry for a short moment. So after I went to the internet cafe and had breakfast I decided to follow the signpost I saw earlier indicating a restored windmill. After all I am from Holland! But as you can guess. After a few roads, there was still no sign of the windmill or other signposts. So I decided to quit chasing windmills. After all I was not in Spain (and my name is not Don Quichot).



Present for myself! I can't wait to go to work (and see if it fits in the coffee machine)

As I already told in the morning I do have some plans to visit Dublin. When I was ready to leave, it was to late to go to Dublin (I'd like to arrive in the morning, not in the evening). So I decided to take a scenic route, hopefully along the unfindable Shannon-Erne waterway. Altough the weather stayed poor, I did have some luck. By accident I followed this waterway (which is completely restored and now in use for tourism) from lock 13+ all the way to lock 1. I wanted a scenic route and that was what I did get! I think I shot about 30 photo's just driving around. Including some on the place I am at this moment (what was my dining room and will become my bedroom).




First some photo's from lock 13 (wait for film...)

After I spend some time at lock 13 to take photo's I continued my travels towards Dublin. Since I spend so much time discussing the signposting I thought I should at least show you some pictures of them :). So I also stopped near a typical -and photesk- signpost. Here I also shot some photo's. I already started at the lock, but here again I did some experiments using the flash. The light was very dull so I needed to add something. Again you must come back when the film photo's are ready. You should be able to see so nice moisty spiderwebs on it. But for now you'll have to to with the sharp stuff:



Rember that this is typical. These are the only signposts on a secondary road (that's a main road between the smaller villages). The state of decay is also normal.

Before I sound to negative, there's one thing I would like to mention. Of course the signposting drives you mad the first days when you are inside Ireland. Also the conditions of the roads is not I am used to compared to the Netherlands. But there is a big but. The roads and signposting are not that much worse compared to roads that are just as busy in the Netherlands. And you can notice everywhere that things are getting better.

After making the signpost pictures I went on. I felt I was not taking enough pictures of the town's main streets. They are as you would expect from Ireland: clean and colourfull. The main 'attraction' are usally the middle-age-ruins (restored or not). They are all gray, the only colour they have is created by the mosses growing on them. But the main-streets are certainly worth mentioning. So when I stopped in Carrigallen to get diesel (I now only tank on the places that I can also get water) I noticed that this was a very pretty town. After I filled both tanks (the diesel and the water), I took out my camera and started making some pictures. While I was busy, there was a pub in front of me. This pub had just been supplied with barrels of beer. Another moment to make a shot as on page 144 of the lonely planet! I was busy setting up the camera, there was a guy busy taking the barrels inside: even better! Then a red-haired boy that was watching me together with his sisters asked me if I could take a photo of his sister. She was all dressed up (I think for a wedding or so, but I forgot to ask why). Of course I wanted to do that. After having a chat with them and getting their email-adress to send the photo, the barrels had gone... But I will make a shot of a pub with barrels in front these weeks! Then I just went into town to take some more pictures.


A shot at the end of main street. You can see the church tower in the back.



Something that sound a little strange: Pub/undertaker

There is one thing I regret. I agreed with myself long time ago that I would never use the phrase 'Had I only ...'. Instead I will say things like this 'Next time I get the same opperturnity I will ask people to take pictures of them'. The boy that asked me to take a picture of her sister namely was the typically Irish. He was worth a picture at least as much as his sister. Later I also stopped to take some pictures at a lake. I met two fishers that had just been putting out bait. They were carrying peddles and their bait. I also passed an old Irish man standing in front of an typical Irish house. Next time ... next time ...

But for now. I have a nice place to sleep, the windows are stained, I turned on the heater to get rid of some moist. Rain is still ticking agains the windows. Time to round up and go to bed. Tommorow maybe to Dublin, maybe not.



View over the lake as I was eating. I still love to have a converted van instead of a 'real camper'. The sliding door opens so much that you can sit 'outside'.