We left Hitchin in bright sunshine about 1630 on the 23rd of April and travelled down to South Wales to Pembrey Country Park where we stayed for the night. The trip took about 5hours and there were many lovely displays of daffodils along the way.. Apparently the season is about a month late with many trees which should already be covered with green leaves, just now starting to show their buds. By the time we got there it was very foggy and we awoke to light rain and fog the next morning. The caravan manager plugged us however we had a faulty plug and we had no power, air conditioning etc which was a bit of a disappointment for our first camping night! We awoke to thick fog from there to the harbour in Pembroke where we boarded the Isle of Inishmore. We had booked the ferry online it was a very easy and efficient service. They recognized the vehicle and just handed us our ticket which cost 188pounds one way including us and the van. We saw nothing on route except for the fog but it was a very comfortable crossing and there were very few people on board.
On arrival it had cleared up a bit and we drove the 30minutes to Wexford to see our old friend Fritz and Vincent again in the Franciscan Friary. Fritz was in good form and we stayed for three days with Vincent his carer and met up with Barry Ennis, his wife Louise and their two lovely girls. We had met Barry 6 months ago and had kept in touch since then.
They took us to a lovely choral performance with a group called “Vocare” who last performed in Carnegie Hall and St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. Their daughter Sarah Kate
also performed with a children’s choir which was lovely.
The next morning we left for Clonmel and it was nice to catch up with Paul and Nell McCarthy and their daughter Aiofe. We had a relaxing few days with them and then headed off on the 30th April for “Foxbrook” and Mary Eivers.
She took us to Trim castle where we had a good tour guide and a nice sunny day. The following day we went to the Hill of Tara which was a place of medieval burial and we had a beautiful view over Trim and the surrounding countryside.
Mary’s 3year old niece Beatrice asked my name and then asked what the name of the boy was? She was referring to Maurice. She then asked what kind of English we spoke. Mary has three dogs that live in the stables and they are great fun. They eagerly (like most dogs) go for a walk and tear around the fields chasing rabbits and birds. We also visited Mary Gibsons brother Larry and his family that evening which was really nice.
The weather was still kind to us with no rain and mostly sunshine.