Many of the fellowship attendees had departed and life was normalising for our hosts in Dublin. Our plan was to hire a car and take a trip around the rugged north west of Ireland ending up in no grander place than Sligo, home of the Barton Smith clan. We were delighted when our hosts, David and Nina Rice offered to come with us or more truthfully, we were able to go with them!
On Tuesday 3rd July we climbed into David's Volvo 4x4 and headed north in the rain. Our five hour journey brought us to a beautiful, comfortable house on the hillside at Carrick Art in Donegal County (the home of Donegal Tweed) loaned to us by a couple amongst the local believers in Dublin.
Big picture windows overlooked the valley and the craggy coastline of the Atlantic Ocean. Over the next three days we watched as the clouds, sun (a few minutes at least) and rain came and transformed the scene into scores of different pictures. The weather cleared enough for us to get out and see the locale with it's unique little white houses dotted over the hills. Carrick Art is a 'holiday' area and as schools were still in session the area had the feeling of a ghost town. The farmer down the way ambled here and there on his tractor and we had to imagine what the picture would be a few weeks on when the place would be buzzing with kids on their term break.
Time and again during those days we were assured by what we began to see was 'Irish optimism' that looked at the dark clouds and said, "I think it is clearing!" But clear or not, we had a great time to yarn with David and Nina, to read and sleep and explore this very beautiful part of God's magnificent creation in that most northern extreme of the island called Ireland.
We enjoyed wonderful food at eateries from the 'posh' pub to the little coffee shop called McNutts Cafe. Perhaps it was the similarity to our own cafe adventure when we operated McGowan's Cafe in Lancefield ,but it was the only cafe we frequented twice. Val said while they were similar, they were different in that the waitresses dropped the cutlery on one visit and cutlerty and a plate on the other! But the place that made us feel almost homesick was a little take-away chippy in a small village. The small shop area was busy before we entered with the half dozen locals waiting their food. The entrance of we four made the place very crowded. Somewhere in the background there was an aussie accent. Val looked around and found a lone TV playing 'Home and Away'.!
The sun brought light from around 4.30 am and it kept about its work all day only dropping out of sight late with daylight continuing through to 10.30 pm or so. The long days enabled us to have an extended time to enjoy more of the fellowship of the previous week.
On the Friday we commenced our return to Dublin with an overnight stopover in Sligo. We crisscrossed the mountains and enjoyed the rugged beauty of the countless lakes and inlets, the rocks and crags, the beautiful tiny villages, the fresh growth and the countless colour greens of the trees and undergrowth. Little wonder they call it the 'Emerald Isle'.
The few hours spent in Sligo with relatives and their town was absolute joy For Val and I this was a refreshing break on our extended journey.
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