Wanderung 34

Loop West from Derry

The Irish Republic was voting today on whether to repeal the clause in their constitution that effectively prohibits abortion. That clause was passed in 1983, so about 35 years have gone by and I will be interested to see whether the new generation either supports or refutes that religiously-based constitutional clause.

Fair weather led us to attempt a driving loop from Derry out westward to the coast. The drive down to Letterkenny was scenic, and even featured some interesting sculptures in the center of some large roundabouts. In Letterkenny, we found both an Aldi and a Lidl store there where we could buy some snacks and the makings for a picnic lunch as I was totally unsure whether we would find any decent-sized towns with pubs out in the boondocks (which fear turned out to be justified!).

I became even less sure when Monika pointed out that the GPS and the Ordnance Survey map were disagreeing about what towns were along our route, and exactly what quality of roads we would be driving on! I double-checked, and that was eerie as I've never seen a GPS disagree with a map so profoundly--except for Letterkenny, not a single town or city name was the same! We finally had to use the shape of the lakes in that region of Ireland to coordinate the two sources of navigation information, something I never thought I'd have to resort to. Honestly, it is something I hope I never have to do again although I'm used to that type of orientation-by-landmarks from using aviation charts while I was flying as a Private Pilot.

So guessing a bit at exactly what roads to follow to get into the Glenveigh National Park, we set off for a drive into the mountains. The landscape changed from pastoral to a rather stark and severe landscape of bare mountain peaks above, then a layer of evergreen tree farms on the lower slopes, and finally what looked like peat bogs in the flatlands.

After coming over the low pass between the mountains, we stopped at a nice observation point overlooking some pretty lakes leading down the valley. Right below us was the ruin of a church that had completely intact walls and a steeple, but no roof or windows at all! We comfortably sat on a bench, eating our Aldi sandwiches, until a bus load of tourists arrived and surrounded us.

We were basically done eating, so we just packed up and continued down the valley toward the coastline. But then the oddest thing happened. The clouds that we had seen encroaching on the mountain peaks gradually surrounded us and the sky became completely overcast. It was quite a gloomy contrast to the sparkling sun shine that we had enjoyed on the other side of the mountains, and it induced us to skip the twisty little coastal road that we would have otherwise certainly enjoyed on a sunny day.

Curling back around, we were puzzled by a street that looked like a regional highway on the Ordnance map but was indicated by our Garmin GPS as a tertiary road. It led in a scenic direction, so we tried it out, only to find it was really a glorified single-lane farm track. I can't relax driving those as you always have to be worrying about how to get around any oncoming traffic, so we turned around and took the less-scenic but far more drivable road back to Letterkenny. It's at times like this that I wish we were either on our electric bicycles or on a small motorcycle, because driving either of those narrower vehicles on the farm tracks is far, far easier; you can choose the best side of the road to ride on, and quickly and easily slide over to the shoulder to let oncoming traffic pass easily.

Astonishingly, the cloudy sky receded as we went back over the mountains and we again had a sparkling clear, sunny sky. I finally concluded that we had literally run into some coastal fog created by a light onshore breeze pushing cold, wet air up the mountain slopes. In any case, we enjoyed the sun on our drive back to our B&B, and even went out for a walk after I rested a bit that afternoon.

We found walking to be about as challenging as driving on a country road, because the narrowness means the cars are zipping right past you, and you completely block traffic if two cars must pass each other where you are walking. We saw a nice field of sheep, including one black lamb, and 4 rambunctious cows that ran pell mell across the meadow towards us, scattering sheep in all directions. The cows seemed interested in us (perhaps expecting food?), so I took a portrait picture of the "Gang Of Four" before we returned to our room for the evening. I was happy to get a restful evening, however, because our planned drive the next day to the Giant's Causeway and then back south, looked like it would be long and strenuous.