The Land of the Leprachauns! (part two)!

OK so here is part two of my Irish Adventure, and what an adventure it turned out to be!

As I said in part one, we had a really great time seeing lots of interesting places and the weather wasn't too bad either so we even managed to spend several afternoons on the beautiful beaches in Donegal.


Here you see (in the distance) my parents and the boys, walking on Narin beach. The lovely white sand just seemed to go on for miles and miles. It was wonderfully peaceful walking there. It was like you were on a desert island!!



Here are the boys on one of the many beautiful beaches on Cruit Island (pronounced Critch Island), which was only a few minutes in the car from where we were staying. The Island is accessed by a bridge and the roads are very narrow, with passing places every few yards, just in case you meet anything going in the other direction!!


This is a view of Owey Island, taken from the beach just down from the 9 hole golf course on Cruit Island.






OK I hope you are prepared for this, coz it is a first for gourdongirl! In nearly two years of blogging this is the very first picture of yours truly! Its not a very good pic of me, but the background is pretty good! Please excuse the windswept look, but it was pretty windy!!!



This is taken from outside the Viking House Hotel in Kincasslagh, looking towards Rosses Bay.
I hate getting my picture taken, so this is very rare. I'm usually the one taking the pix, but my mum persuaded me to get one taken with the boys, so one has to do what ones mum asks! (Yes I know, mum, that will be a first!)

Now for the adventure part!

All was going well and we were enjoying our last day in Ireland before we made the epic return journey on the 20th August. We had made plans to meet up with some friends who live in Donegal, so were traveling to meet them when the car lost power and literally died! On closer examination (when I lifted the hood) I discovered that I had a burst radiator and there was water and oil everywhere! The fact that there was oil all over the engine made me think it was something more serious than just a burst radiator. We contacted our friends who in turn set out to rescue us! In the mean time a very kind passerby saw our predicament and took me to a garage. Now if this wasn't bad enough it was a Sunday and everything was closed! The VERY kind mechanic came to see what he could do and the long and the short of it was not a lot at that point! I, then was towed to the garage where the car remained for the next 5 days! After much phoning on the mechanics part he finally managed to get the parts needed to repair the car enough to allow me to get home. The car wasn't quite right, but right enough that with a bit of luck and a wing and a lot of prayers we would get home.

Everyone we came into contact with....Kitty and Brian (the owners of the B&B where we were staying), J Gallagher (the garage owner), The Flannagan Family, Bert, Helen,Rab and Jean who were all just brilliant and supportive through out the week and especially my parents, whom I will never be able to thank enough for all the support and help (and much, much more)they gave me during THAT week and since.

Now the daunting drive home was even worse, as I had to nurse a sick car all the way across Ireland, then all the way across Scotland. It was a horrible, stressful journey, coz if the car stalled when hot, for some reason it wouldn't start, so basically I didn't have to stop! One of the worst parts was when Bert (who followed us and supported us all the way to Glasgow) flashed his lights to indicate there was a problem. When I stopped (but left the engine running)he informed me I had hit a dead fox and had dislodged my back bumper (fender) which now needed to be tied up! An other nervous part of the journey was when I needed to fill up with petrol (gas) and just knew I had to do this without switching off the engine or we would be stuck in the west coast of Scotland. At this point I just wanted to get home. However 13 hours after we left Kincasslagh, I finally fell out of the car in Musselburgh. Boy was I glad to get home. I think that must have been the most stressful, fraught journey I have ever made, and believe me I would NEVER wish to repeat it.

The kids thought it was great, coz they got an extra week off school!!!

No more adventures for me for a while, don't think my nerves could stand it!