Achill Island

It's a long drive there. Officially five hours, though it took us more with a stop and a couple wrong turns trucks and tractors and traffic in the towns (no bypasses yet, not a lot of dual carriageway either). It only took Axel three, leaving at six am. Woo.

But then you drive onto the island, over this bridge

And you smell the salt and the turf smoke and you see this view:

I'm tired, they won't go where I want them to, so this must do.

Then as you drive off into the island, you turn towards Dooega, over a road across the turf, in between the mountains. Hard to get photos while driving, and from the car. I would have liked to get one of the Community Services Alert Area sign, surrounded by sheep, and nothing else but heather and scenery.

Basically, there's a little road over a hilly bog surrounded by mountains, all green and purple and no people anywhere for a while. It's quite epic, my snatched snaps don't do it justice. Though yesterday evening, we were heading home from the beach, and Bodhi was looking for sheep. 'There's two,' said Axel. 'Wait, no, that's a bridge. No, it IS sheep! There are little bridges every so often, as so many streams run down from the mountain. But it this case, there were two sheep standing on opposite sides of the road, wooly bums facing towards us, looking just like the end of a bridge. Cute.

Anyway. You come over a bridge, or towards it, depending on your road of entry, and there's the house:

I couldn'tget hte satellite to wrk, so I'm kind of sorry it's there. Not picturesque. The kids were too scared to climb up and sit on the roof, sadly. The house itself is basic, and a little damp through uninhabitedness and ... damp - but then there's the view...

that looks like this, or this:

Often in the space of a few minutes.

Take note of my uncle's fine and touching handmade gate. Bless him :)

More later! It was a long drive back and I'm weary. Olivia is bored already and wants the computer. I was going to wax poetic about how it felt to arrive there, and the smells and feelings of nostalgia and elation the place awakes in me, but, ah well. Maybe better without!