SOUTHERN IRELAND - EIRE

LEO'S TAVERN - an experience which will stay in our hearts forever. If ever in Southern Ireland this is a must stop!!!!
As I finished on my last blog we toddled down to Leo's at about 2pm. Well, actually we went down to the fair to have a look but most of the stalls had ceased so somehow we managed to find ourselves inside the tavern with a table to sit at as well and a glass of beer and wine in front of us. The whole tavern is full of  memorabilia from the days of Enya and Clanard with Gold and Platinum disks on many of the walls. The whole placed buzzed and we sat in our seats meeting the most amazing people all night long. Drinks were bought for us and email addresses swapped. Local, incredibly gifted musicians took the stage amongst the clutter of violins, flutes and mandolins and the music was so great it reached the soul. The biggest voice of all though was Moya - Leo's daughter and Clanard singer. She reeled in everyone and the place was full of joy and happiness. Alas no Irish dancing which we have yet to see but we finally took the 5 minute walk home in the pitch dark at 2 am. New friends, new experiences and new memories to hold.
From Crolly (Croithli) we picked up The Wild Atlantic Way again through Loch 'n Luir, Owenea (this pretty little town has won the Best Town Award for years but alas did not welcome Campervans) slowly wending our way to Frosses and then on to Donegal township where, once again, there were no allowable places for us to park. An officious attendant informed us and 2 other campervans that we were in a car park not a campervan park but he did graciously allow us 10 mins to visit the Tourist Information site. After that all 3 campervans drove out of town which was a big shame as a stop in Donegal itself was planned and the place looked lovely. Never mind but there definitely will not be a next time.
Midges are the curse here and currently, even though I used this magical Avon Skin stuff, I am covered in midge bites, especially on my face, under my eyes and chin, behind my ears and down my neck. They are awful and one does have to become midge savvy being here......however, I have to say I was not!!!!! More about that later.
Our next two days had some sunshine extracts to boast about which was good because clean underwear had become a vital necessity. Gary found a lovely campsite by a lake with easy walking into Ballyshannon and a front loading washing machine - clap hands in glee!!!!! Blog up to date, washing washed and dried and Ballyshannon visited. This old town had so much history. This old town was altered completely in the late 1940s with the building of a dam on the River Erne on it's outskirts. This old town went from a prosperous thriving salmon and log exporting town to a slowly dying decaying place as the river dried up to a narrow canal. This old town lost it's heart and is still suffering. This old town was incredibly sad. This old town had a rather tired old pub, very quiet and not visited by many. Behind the bar sat a leprechaun - no not really but very lifelike anyways. (Touch of Irish here you notice?) Funny thing was this little old leprechaun had a very lovely looking daughter which sort of emphasized the fact that she could be a real leprechaun. Getting to talking, as we do, the subject of "peat stacking" ensued. Well an hour later we left this lovely leprechaun and her pub with a supermarket bag containing..........what? Yep.....2 clods of dried peat. Never to be forgotten that one. Not sure when or where or how they will be useful but they are in the boot and are travelling with us.
Now we are heading where? Well we are driving towards Enniskillen and it is RAINING again. We zip back into Northern Ireland to visit the Marble Arch Caves. Enniskillen is just another township surrounded by lakes - think we might be all laked out - so we give that a swerve and head for the caves. For those who have seen the pics on Facebook you will have seen they were so well worth a visit. The caves have not been exploited or commercialised, they are very aux naturelle. A short boat ride in the depths of the cave make the journey through very real. This was absolutely awesome. The caves are underneath a Peat Bog within a Global Geo Park and, once again, so much history. Google them and you can find out a lot more.
Our next night we free camped which is so easy to do in this van, just on the Northern/Southern border outside of Belcoo and next morning headed for Ballina via Sligo - in the RAIN again! Sligo turned out to be an industrial type city so we circumnavigated that and did a wee detour back into the countryside, through farmland with cottages dotted here and there; through Cloonascoffagh and Knockback and into County Mayo.
What we are noticing here in Eire is that modern houses are big and spacious and are on large sections but, what is different is the clinical nature of the houses and sections - just vast amounts of grass and tarmac or vast amounts of grass and gravel - not a flower, bush or tree  in sight. Very beautifully kept with emerald green, manicured grass but......looking more like an office than a home. For what it is worth the sterility is striking for us.
Managed to find a park in Ballina so had a stroll around. Saw a "phone hospital" and a "shoe hospital" and Gary bought a pair of nice fitting jeans and I posted a letter to the Insurance Company claiming a whopping $390 for a 10 minute consult and an xray of my ankle.
And we headed on noticing, sadly, so many smaller villages dying with boarded up shops and closed taverns, followed a funeral procession in Ballycastle (that name again) stopping at the Neolithic Centre at the top of a huge cliff - the cliff was awesome but the centre not so much. Good for a loo stop though!!!
Talking of the funeral people, many in this case, walk behind the hearse as it leaves the church for the cemetery but not only that all deaths throughout Ireland are announced on the radio many times a day after the news. Strange but also nice.
Travelling on and deciding to take a detour shown as a designated view point to Doranspoint Harbour we were thrown onto grassy single lane tracks which were once again quite scary with a larger van. However we managed it and arrived at our destination. A muddy jetty with a wreck of a boat sucking into the silty bottom; a couple of abandoned cars and an uninhabited house. Pretty but......we soon hightailed it out of there. The return journey itself an experience not to be missed!!!!! The Irish have a knack of making something out of nothing!!!!
We free camped that night just outside of Claggan - looked the ideal spot - by a lake, quiet and flat. We were happy. People came and went and a camper momentarily parked behind us and then swiftly took off......why? All was to be revealed when I opened the camper door to take a picture of the most glorious sunset and became smothered, along with my phone, in midges. The camper within seconds was full of them. The next 2hours was spent trying to eradicate them from the van which was partially successful. Next morning however I was covered in bites, as mentioned earlier, everywhere a mountain of bites. Cathie 30 odd --- Gary 0. Not one bite for Gary.......just shows how acidy his blood must be!!!!! Getting up next morning the camper was surrounded by clouds of midges, even coming in through the vents. Yep that camper that left certainly knew more than we did but boy.... that was a very fast learning curve on our part.
Next day we went in search of the Sky Loop - a detour from the Wild Atlantic Way and apparently quite a beautiful journey. So, on to Mulranny which sported a cautionary road sign stating there were "wankers on the road" (true, cross my heart), through Newport and on to Westport. Westport in its self is a very pretty little town and we would have loved to have stopped but unfortunately there was no parking provision for camper vans which was a shame again......so we toodled on.
The drive between Westport and Connemara, County Galway was beautiful and especially pretty. We passed the Lost Valley but were not game to wander too off piste after our last experience. Passing through Leenane and Kilarry Harbour - where there were huge amounts of mussel lines - noticing Kylemore Abbey tucked way into the bush we turned onto the Sky Loop at Letterfrack. Mmmm - Shades of Scotland here!!!! It was three quarters of an hour of mind blowing road. Garys retort: "these roads are like one big fun park. Better than the helter skelter at Dreamworld!!!!!" How our left hand mirror is still in place I will never know.
We exited the "fun park" at Clifden and drove directly to Doolin. Neither of us being fond of oysters we drove on through Clarinbridge, their home in Ireland, to a very full, busy campsite in Doolin. Close to the Cliffs of Mohar, local Irish pubs and a rather lovely harbour we settled down to enjoy the Irish way for 3 full nights.
And we did enjoy but check the next blog for the update of Doolin. If it sounds great namewise, it usually is.
Enjoy