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suave harv’s TMA Blog

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suaveharv in Ireland pt 1

My first time in Ireland, fresh(ish) off the ferry, and I'm whizzing down the lanes at a courteous 40mph. . sun out, Elvis shades on. . look at them mountains! Top banana! it's seven at night and I have several hours light before I find a b&b. I decide to drive as far as I can towards that mythical stone circle festival that is the Rosscarbery region.
So, I drove all the way to West Cork, ('hell, it's sunny, warm and I'll sleep in the van if I don't find a b&b' I thought). Unfortunately, by the time I got to Rosscarbery, it was pissing down, cold, and one-o-clock in the morning.
See, this is a fault of mine. If you pick up the discovery series OS map number 86, you see stone circle after stone circle. . about twelve in a three mile radius. In my small mind I gazed at that map and thought "I just want to be THERE!", giving little thought to food or sleep or any comfort whatsoever, (men you see, we can't multi-task).
I had no blankets, and couldn't sleep anyway because of the thundering rain on the van. I found an apple under my seat and munched it, wondering if I was parked somewhere illegal. I honestly couldn't see a thing, but I knew I was somewhere by Reenascreena stone circle.
So, when it got light, about 4.30ish I think, I decided to start stone circle hunting. I was half asleep actually, (I had driven for about eight hours already that day).
But, undeterred, I started looking. Didn't find Reenascreena, and my fantastic idea of taking a fishing brolly as cover in case it rained just proved comical. When the wind got under it, it damn near took me up into the clouds! I'll bet Irish farmers were killing themselves laughing as they eat their breakfast, they saw this curly city-boy in his moleskin jacket, walking the wrong way to a stone circle, wrestling with a 8ft wide fishing brolly and being lifted off his feet and deposited unceremoniously into the nearest hedge.
Did I mention I was hungry?
I looked for four stone circles and found none. I began to wonder if an Irish stone circle was a myth, but at least I now knew where 'Fourwinds' got his name!
To be continued>>