Sunday 25th April 2004
Photos I took: 161 digital + 17 medium format
Weather Forecast |
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Forecast: |
Bright or sunny spells |
Actual: |
Sunny spells, very warm |
Intruder?
I sat up in bed, wide awake. I looked at the wall closely – it looked different for some reason. Then I realised it was a mirror and, as the lights were off, I could see through to the other side. I could just make out some people in a bedroom. Suddenly, the mirrored door opened and a young kid came in and started picking things up and putting them back down again, making a lot of noise. I called out at him to get out. "Schnell, schnell!" I said, in German. ("Schnell" means quickly). Then his father appeared. He took the boy back out and asked me to tell him if he did it again.
It looked like it was going to be a holiday with weird dreams.
A Lazy Morning
Not realising we had to put the hot water heater on for a shower, we got up late and relaxed around the house. The plan was to have a quiet day after all the travelling we'd done yesterday.
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The view from Kathleen's House patio
But, as the weather was so nice, we decided to go for one of the walks the owners had suggested – Kimego Forest. Paula made some sandwiches and drink whilst I prepared my camera gear.
After failing to find the correct path, we descended a rather steep section of hill down to the road. We walked the short distance to the harbour and once again failed to find a path which led to the fort on the hill (the map showed a fort so we though we'd visit it). We later discovered that there wasn't a path to it, as it was on some farmer’s land. We walked to the end of the pier in the warm sun.
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Waves breaking in the harbour
Kimego Forest
Once I had exhausted all photographic possibilities without boring Paula, we walked up the road towards Kimego Forest, stopping occasionally to look at the view, take coats off, put coats back on and take photos.
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Looking back to the harbour
Further along, the road forked, so we had to guess at which one to take. Looking back was a nice view, so I persuaded Paula to model as a walker for me.
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Paula modelling
Once her ordeal was over, we carried on to the forest, saying hello to a couple of people along the way. At the entrance to the forest, we chose a path and walked along it. We were getting hungry, so decided to stop for lunch near an unsafe structure. Throughout lunch, I was looking at the building, knowing there was a photo there somewhere, but not necessarily finding it. This is the best I came up with:
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The building where we had lunch
We walked around the forest, not really seeing much to photograph. Plus, only being on the second day, my photographic eye hadn’t really kicked in.
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The view from the edge of the forest
Cahergall Fort
We walked back towards the harbour. As it was only mid afternoon, we decided to carry on to Cahergall Fort. We passed Kathleen’s House and continued walking.
Fairly soon, we saw a fort. Once again, though, it was on land belonging to a farmer and there didn’t appear to be any access. We were fairly sure it wasn’t the fort we were looking for, so walked past it.
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The fort on the way to Cahergall Fort
We reached the path to the fort, passing some cows in a field. We were beginning to realise that we should have brought more water with us. When we got to the fort, we climbed to the top and sat down.
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Paula admiring the view at Cahergall Fort
Outwitting the Cows
Looking back towards the path we had walked, we realised the cows now blocked the path and were working their way towards the fort. We decided to stay put and see what they were going to do. Walking past cows isn’t fun, especially when you can’t determine whether they’re male or female.
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Steps to the top of Cahergall Fort
I amused myself by wandering around the fort taking photos. After I had walked all the way around, I sat down with Paula and noticed some daisies with a fly on them, which I duly photographed.
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Some daisies on top of the fort
By this time, the cows had made their way down the path, past the entrance to the fort and into another field. We had outwitted them! We climbed back down and walked the long path back to Kathleen’s House. There were hills just when we didn’t want them…
We got back at about 4:30, had a well needed drink, put some baking potatoes in the oven and settled down for a game of Scrabble. The game didn’t go too well – here is the final board with the deductions I had to make from my score. At this stage, we didn't have the Official Scrabble Words book.
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The ill-fated Scrabble game
Sunset Shoot
After tea, Paula suggested going out for a sunset, to which I eagerly replied “Yes!” We jumped in the car and drove to a place overlooking the Dingle Peninsula that we’d seen earlier on our walk. I got out, reached down and picked up a 20 Euro note off the ground. "Bonus!" I said, in the style of Wayne's World.
Whilst taking photos, the local farmer drove past and slowed down. It must have looked quite strange, as we were backed into a field gateway with the boot open. I made a show of putting the camera to my eye and looking through it, which seem to make him happy and he drove off.
I struggled to find a decent viewpoint as there wasn’t really any foreground interest, so I settled for a low position looking through a fence. The photo-adrenalin kicked in and I took 50 photos before the evening was finished. This is the star photo of the evening:
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Sunset over the Dingle Peninsula
After the best of the sunset had gone (it hadn’t been much anyway) I packed up the gear and we drove back home.
Once back home, we played cards until I was falling asleep – I lost because I couldn’t make any decent decisions on which cards to play.