Sunny days in the south east
If you haven't had the pleasure of going to Fethard-on-sea (and you might not as its a small village on South East Coast of Ireland) then you wouldn't know that it has an uncanny knack of picking up some of the best weather Ireland has to offer. I know that doesn't sound like much of a recommendation going by Irish weather but if it's going to be sunny anywhere it will be sunny in Fethard. I was trying not to cross my fingers too hard but leading up to our weekend away the weather was looking pretty promising. I was hoping for long walks in the sun but I also brought several books in case I was wrong and then loaded up the laptop with things to watch. I then packed half the kitchen and a few changes of clothes because that's just how I travel.
By 11 am Saturday we were on the road, me and a slightly hungover Stephen. We had one quick pitstop in Ardkeen stores and then made our way to Passage East to get the ferry across to Wexford and the weather looked promising. It seems only fitting after months of cold and miserable weather we would finally experience some kind of spring. We arrived nice and early because for once I didn't get lost on the way down. We unpacked and headed straight down to Sandeel bay, a tiny beach that the housing complex is named after. Actually now I think its called Hookless Village but I prefer Sandeel Bay cottages. We made a brief stop at the play ground because there was no one around and it always seems a lot weirder to be playing on swings and slides when there are actual kids waiting for a turn. After that we continued down onto the beach and sat taking in the lovely views and sunshine plus Stephen made me do some silly poses so he could play around with the panoramic feature on his phone's camera. We headed back to the house for some lunch and then drove into the village with the promise of a nice walk and a 99 cone (which probably undid some of the benefits of the nice walk but it was oh so delicious in the sun). Driving along I couldn't help noting how much better everything looks with a bit of sun. The sea an azure blue, the sky virtually cloudless, just a few degrees warmer and we'd start wondering aloud why people pay a fortune for sun holidays when we have all this in our backyard. Mind you tomorrow we could be back to wind and rain and remembering the unpredictability of Irish weather is the reason most people don't holiday at home.
We parked in the village, availed ourselves of the finest 99' icecream cones the local shop had to offer and started to head in what I felt was the vague direction of the dock. The trouble for me with locating walks in Fethard is that it is only recent years I have sought them of my own volition and for so many years previous I'd have been back at the house reading while my parents walked so I am a little fuzzy on where these great places are located. The good thing though about the South East coast is that there are so many gorgeous beaches dotted along the coast line that you can find many of them by accident.
We headed out along the road that went to the docks and I had no idea how far the docks were that we gave up after a good half hour walking because we'd seen a sign a while back to Baginbun beach and Stephen wanted to check it out. At this point the end destination didn't matter too much. We were walking in the sun and just taking in the fresh air and countryside around us. I may have complained about being tired and my totally unsuitable boots hurting a little but I was ignored and we kept going. We never made it to Baginbun beach, I guess we'll leave that for next time but we did by accident find ourselves on the cliffs above Carnivan beach and made our way down there instead. We had a walk along the beach, admittedly not a particularly long one but the tide was on its way in and we had walked for ages just getting there and then sat down for a while to rest our feet before heading back to the village and my car. We got home and I lit the fire which wasn't nearly as difficult as my parents had led me to believe (as the new stove was a little temperamental) and threw the dinner on and sat down with my book. By the time dinner was ready, the room had heated up nicely. As I sat down to dinner of nutroast, roast potatoes and green beans I mused that my parents would probably consider their work done here if they saw me going on long walks and eating nutroast just like they tried to coax me to do for many years. Is this what it means to become an adult? After dinner we settled down on the couch to watch a documentary we had been looking forward to seeing but turned out to be so completely unstructured that we couldn't enjoy it so we switched it off after half an hour. Instead we put on a movie but by that stage the warmth of the fire was making me too drowsy to sit up and I eventually got so restless I moved to another couch where I couldn't see the laptop and fell asleep (just like my mum would have done, I guess I have come full circle) I suppose it would be exaggerating to say we watched the movie together but I enjoyed sleeping and Stephen enjoyed the film so I think we both won , I was somewhat confused when he woke me to go upstairs once it had finished but I got up there and collapsed into bed to fall into a deep sleep.
This morning I slept till half 10 which is officially the best lie in I have had in forever and when I went downstairs for breakfast I found the sun streaming in the windows so already a good morning all round. We had breakfast out on the deck giving me time to enjoy my book and coffee and a bit of morning sun before getting our stuff together and heading out to Hook Head to do the full lighthouse walk. It's one of my favourite walks in the area as I love being out by the sea and its much less boring than a beach walk as there's more to look at. Once we cleared the lighthouse we were able to walk a bit faster as Stephen had less to take photos of and we even got all the way to Slade Castle without being chased by the cows ( might sound strange but my mum and sister had a scary encounter with them a few years ago) . We then continued by road back to where I had left my car and headed back to the house to have lunch in the sun again. Apparently there was a big match on this afternoon so we ate quickly because Stephen was pretty keen to watch it in a pub in the village and I was fine with that because I would be somewhere else reading my book. However it turned out he had the time wrong and only caught the last few minutes so it was lucky I was still in the car, book in hand when he returned minutes later. We left the car where it was and walked to grange beach which is a lot more rock and seaweed than Carnivan and that's probably why Stephen declared it inferior but we walked almost the length of it anyway. I was mindful of the weekends ahead when night shifts mean I am likely to get far out of my apartment inbetween and I wanted to take advantage of our day in the sun. We turned back just in time and narrowly missed the tide as we headed back up the beach. And then with heavy legs (from all the walking) we headed back towards the village and the car.
Back at the house we packed up and cleaned up and waved goodbye to the house as we headed back to the ferry, Waterford and the rat race.
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