August 25, Day 73. Today was great, just such a lovely jaunt around the gems of the area here in the Stranford Lough area of Northern Ireland. Woke up to some mad winds and rain as it whipped up again thus keeping me off the water. As noted before, the Taran does a bit of fish tailing in high tail winds and it was a bit on shore and behind me today which means 25 mph wind, and 1.5 metre swell but in short period and I wouldn’t trade todays sight seeing for that.
It was like a lovely autumn day. Like the first day of autumn. Like Halloween should be around the corner. I just love autumn so I had no problem with the weather of the day (besides the wind maybe). You know what it reminded me of - every year when I get back to Ireland for the symposium, it’s October, I’m fresh off the plane, and there’s this gorgeous crisp briskness in the air. Oh do I love that feeling. Everything smells well watered and fresh, and I’m back to paddle and dance and enjoy life in autumn in Ireland. A gift.
Anyway Damien took me to lunch at this very hip and funky place that had a huge canvas roof almost like a teepee but several pointed tops instead of just one. It had twinkle lights, a fire on one side and just general “vibes”. Food was amazing and very local. Then we drove around Strandford lough and stopped and loads of places like the village itself, various beaches with dumping surf, to St. Patrick’s grave, a walk up to a lookout on the lough and to the tallest onshore lighthouse in Ireland. Such a nice day of seeing things from land, where I usually see things from the sea.
When we got back to the house, he lit a fire in the fireplace of the big old house he lives in that’s about 100 years old. It’s gorgeous and has a real old Ireland Victorian house feel. There’s even old bells on the fire places in each room that would have been for servants to come back in the day. The fire heated the room and it was the perfect cozy end to the day - as well as the Dominos pizza.
