Sheepshead & Bantry - Friday 19th August, 2016

This is the day we left Sheepshead Peninsular and spent time in Bantry before driving to Blackwater Castle for the weekend wedding.

Now, about our day.......big, long, hectic, wet, dry, lost, reunions, happy, tearful, exciting and another year older.

We were on the road early and to Bantry for the necessary laundrette experience with stops along the way to view the poignant memoral to all the lives lost in the 1985 Air India tragedy.

Friday morning is market morning in Bantry, we wandered about the market in the Irish mizzle. It was exciting to meet someone we knew; Lisa (blipper Teachersjoy and her lovely daughter Rachel). The tide was out and the light flat but moody, the anticipated reflection shot of the colourful buildings were a failure, but I have the memory etched in my mind from our visit the previous evening. 

We left Bantry at 11.15am and followed the route that Amanda & Peter (blippers freespiral and himself) had given us.....piece of cake, until road works had closed part of the road. However we mastered the extensive detour with ease. A stop for lunch at Mallow, where we decided Dora could be given a second chance as we had not a clue where Blackwater Castle was, as it turns out nor did she. Long story!!

We of course did find it, after numerous stops talking to folk, and getting caught up in a funeral possession in the village of Castleroche. 
Amazing to see my lovely vivacious "Irish daughter" Brid again and her kiwi bloke Hayden again, big cuddles and chatter, again struggling to understand her broad Irish accent . (She has always called me her Kiwi Mum).

Meet, greet, drinkies followed by a meal, then the local 6 piece band arrived to play and sing to the guests. We knew a good number of people, with some surprise guests that we knew as well. So funny!
We were about to sneak off to bed around 11 pm when Brid grabbed the microphone and made a big thing of my birthday and why I am so special to her...OMG, a tearful time. Group hugs, a cased bottle on Moet given and Singing "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow" followed. I felt slightly embarrassed.

The entrance of our B & B

This and the following photo's are the inside of a derelict house, not seen from the outside as completely covered by growth.  There was an upstairs, but I would have been foolish take a step or two.
  Further out the back the house has succumbed to the weather, age and vegetation. 

Now unused, on the dereliction journey, pretty hydrangea 

We stopped to view the memorial to the tragic Air India crash back in 1985 - I recall this 

Doug reading about why it is here in Ireland and the way it is pointing

The Irish mizzle - definitely a black & white morning - Kitchen Cove

A derelict and overgrown grain store - the last photo from Sheepshead Peninsular.

Friday morning is market morning in Bantry

This old codger looked so forlorn, sitting in a shelter.

Despite the mizzle & low tide, the buildings added colour to the town