Of Boats and Goats. Fiona's Travelling Adventure Week Two. Tuesday 15 May.

I arrived in Ireland 2 weeks ago on Tuesday 1 May.  I set off from home to the station the day before having managed to get all the stuff for my trip on a bike - with 2 35 litre drysacks sticking out of the ortlieb panniers, PLUS a laptop and a shoulder bag... 

the bike got delivered home later that day and I carried on with the panniers on a trolley (which is now rather bent out of shape as the panniers were too heavy!) 

I've already ditched quite a bit out of my packs - posted one lot home and Dawn took another bag home for me after our sailing course.  

So things have got easier on the Carrying stakes and I can now just about manage my packs and fit everything in the bags...

Last week was the SAILING COURSE in Kilmore Quay with Dermot from Sailing Ireland and, from left to right, Ralph, Oran, Daire, me and Dawn.... 

we had a BALL.  Food, weather, and craic wonderful.  Wind and weather perfect for sailing.  One gale force morning when we sat in the boat talking boat stories and theory...  we found a fabulous music session in Dunmore East...where I had a big smile on my face all evening (some Irish sessions are in A, this one was in G and D just as required...) 

Ralph and Daire got their day skipper quals...Dawn got a second Competent Crew certificate, Oran will get his eventually but left a couple of days early to go to a party! Turns out I really need to do a bit more on understanding WIND and SAILS before I would have the nerve to take novices out on a boat, which is why I said to Dermot that I didn't even want him to give me the day skipper qualification this week, but after another couple of months sailing this summer it should all be FINE. My knots and other stuff are perfectly good... round turn and two half hitches anyone?  

We had some wonderful MEALS during the week, particularly in the Saltee Chipper at Kilmore Quay and especially at Mary Barry's, where we went two nights on the trot - a little way out of the village with a courtesy bus... and about 50 items on the menu, all fabulous! 

a gorgeous last evening on the beach where I found a little restaurant with 2 inch high tables set out for the fairies (expect ANYTHING in Ireland! We'd seen a rainbow with a lighthouse at the bottom earlier in the week...and a circular rainbow round the sun!)

and then on to Wexford... then Waterford, Cork, Skibbereen by bus and eventually to Baltimore in West Cork for the Fiddle Fair where I met up with my friend Ed the goat farmer from Cape Clear Island, and we went to the Haas Sisters concert.... which was Absolutely Fabulous. 

and today Ed and I have done absolutely nothing; we had gorgeous breakfast at Rolf's Country House where we're staying

photo from rolfscountryhouse.com

and then sat around all day in Baltimore village square watching the water and the people go by and throwing sticks for Izzy the guide dog.... then I started playing tunes and met another lovely guy who came and played some music too.... then someone else dropped by - Ed had never met him, but he had trained Izzy as a young guide dog puppy under the Irish Guide Dog Volunteer Puppy scheme.... and he had pix of Ed and Izzy on his phone from when they were in an Irish Guide Dog Calendar - Izzy was Miss November a few years back... :-) 

photo from www.guidedogs.ie

All day, people he knew, and people he didn't, have been coming up to Ed to say they heard him this week on the radio - he was on Countrywide on Saturday morning talking about spending 39 years raising goats on Cape Clear Island... and here's a video the journalist made of her visit to Cape ... 

And today we got the morning ferry to Cape Clear, 

I went to watch the goat milking (I'm having my milking-lessons on Thursday), and i've spent the afternoon napping, throwing sticks for Izzy the dog and cooking supper. 

I've also met the next person I'm going to interview for my Interesting People I Meet On The Way podcast series - he's a dancer, making Political Contemporary Dance...

I'm also hoping to sit in a hostel in Dublin the night before the Abortion referendum next Thursday evening with a sign saying 'please come and talk on my podcast about the referendum'...

So this week I'm going to be mainly milking goats and editing audio.  Also going for walks in beautiful Cape Clear, throwing sticks for Izzy, and... interviewing Glasgow Uni interns by skype who will be volunteering at the Hannah Frank Art Exhibition which opens in Glasgow next October (!).

I am totally elated at being away.  It's still only 2 weeks and a day, so it's still like a normal holiday rather than like being away for months and months... but it feels different from a holiday somehow.  I pretty much feel happy all the time.  That's something my mum talks about, but I don't think I have felt like that as a matter of course up to now.  So I can highly recommend taking leave from your jobs and coming travelling!  I've been very happy to answer a few questions from my work colleagues - if that's all it takes to be away, then what's not to like :-)  

email me to comment, on fionaistravelling at gmail dot com