Another absolute gorgeous day in Ireland.  We woke this morning to yet another beautiful sunshiny day.  The trees over here are starting to turn colors while the sheep on the hills and fields remained white with a few brown and black ones thrown in.  At McGrory’s in Culdaff, we had a full Irish breakfast this morning.  Sausage, ham, black pudding, eggs, toast with a variety of bread, cereal, fruits, juices and cake….pronounced kek. 🙂  I have to confess since black pudding is made from pork blood and oatmeal, I initially passed on the opportunity to include that on my plate.  The hearty Norwegian in the group however, was not about to pass up the chance to eat this stuff.  So Doug asked for it to be included while the rest of us declined.  What arrived on Doug’s plate was not the gelatinous mass jiggling on the plate that I had imagined.  Nope, fried firm and according to Doug quite tasty.  He passed me a bit and after sniffing it carefully, I also took the plunge and sampled this Irish fare.  Tasted mostly like salty oatmeal.  Not bad, but not much taste either.  With that new experience down, we pressed on to the more traditional (our tradition) fare of bacon and sausage.  It was a mighty tasty breakfast!

We set off for a stretch of white sand known as the Culdaff beach, so Barb could get her early morning beach fix.  As we entered the beach area, Doug pointed out a sign that emphatically stated, “No fouling!” at the risk of 150 Euro fine.  However on closer inspection, it just meant to pick up after your dog.

Climbing back in the car we set off for Ballyhillin beach again.  The road was still narrow and we were again thrilled to watch vehicles share the narrow road with us.

We backtracked our steps that our new friend from yesterday showed us and we soon arrived back at our now favorite beach.  There were steps over the fence to get to the other side.  Over an hour of combing the beach resulted in all of our pockets full of new found rock treasures….agates, jasper and possibly an opal or two.  Combined weight of our new treasure probably totals 20 pounds.

With our pockets brimming full we climbed back in the car and drove up to Malin Head, the northern most point of Ireland, the tall point visible in the back ground of the beach picture above.

We turned and headed in the only direction available to us….south.  Along the way the roads became even narrower and the silent screams from the passengers in our the vehicle increased ten fold as we occasionally bounced up on the curbs on our left.  At one point as the stone hedge wall was  only 3 inches from my passenger door, I might have abruptly expressed a hope about eternal life and/or damnation.  Never-the-less, we made it in one piece with a few scuffed sidewalls on the left side, to our first B&B.  Nice place, but its still staying in someone’s house.  Not really my cup of tea.