The next day we moved early in the hope of a trouble free passage through the city of Cork and on to Blarney - luck was with us this time, right up until we drove straight past the crossroads where we needed to turn right to reach the campsite. The site signpost was leaning at a very drunken angle, fairly well buried in undergrowth, almost totally invisible - until we had gone past it, whereupon it stood out like a sore thumb; a quick check of the map showed that we could drive a short detour back through the outskirts of Blarney and have a second attempt at the crossroads in question which we successfully proceeded to do. On arrival at the site office we mentioned to the owner that we had had a problem with the signpost to which he replied, “Well, you know, over the years you would be surprised just how many people have told us they have missed that signpost!
The Blarney site has it’s own golf course and restaurant and is absolutely ideally situated for touring the south and south-west, from Dungarvan in the east, down to Cork, Kinsale and Mizen Head in the west – none of which we had ever visited before but all familiar names to both Mo and myself from our sailing days. As is our custom, we popped into the local Tourist Office to gather advice on where to go and what to see in the local area – and here we came across a revelation – the audio-visual presentation supplied by the local Heritage Centre. Generally, a ten-minute film of the history of Ireland showing how the local area fitted in with that history and highlighting the many famous people and places in the locality. Nearly all the presentations were accompanied by standing displays, museums, tableaux and information brochures, most within the same building as refreshment areas and toilets and all at a cost of just a few ‘Euros’ each. Wonderful value for money and from then on, wherever we pitched up, the first place we visited was the local Heritage Centre – to the extent that since our return to England, Mo has steered me clear of any signpost which mentions the ‘Heritage’ word, claiming that she has seen enough museums to last her a life-time!
| Safely pitched at Blarney Caravan and Camping Park |
One of the more helpful Irish road signs! |
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As a properly registered Blue Badge holder, the next revelation which absolutely smacked us in the face throughout the entire Irish tour, was the honesty with which the Irish motorist treats the ‘Invalid Car-Parking Space’ – many, many times we drove right into a city centre where cars were parked just everywhere, except in the ‘Invalid’ space. In Cork, I approached a traffic-warden to enquire how long we were allowed to occupy the space and was amazed when told that, unless otherwise sign-posted, we could park there all day, as long as we displayed the usual Blue Badge – and what is more, no matter where we were in Southern Ireland, if the ‘Invalid’ space was occupied, we could park in any other parking space, as long as we displayed the Blue Badge. Many people told us that the fines for illegal use of the ‘Invalid’ space were horrendous but even so we considered that this courtesy applied to Blue Badge holders was wonderful and worthy of special mention.
Both Mo and I are fairly well travelled - having driven, either together or as individuals, in large parts of the western World from Canada in the north down to Greece in the south but (Blue Badge scheme excepted) nowhere have we ever come across a car parking policy such as we experienced in Ireland. Better described as a car ABANDONMENT policy, it seemed that the average Irish car driver simply stopped and parked wherever they fancied – double white lines or double yellow lines attracted them like moths to a flame. Double-parking at a kerbside was the norm, triple parking was not quite so common but it almost appeared that prizes were awarded if you could completely block the road - and parking on a pavement so as to block pedestrian access was just so commonplace as to be not worthy of a mention. After Cork, we didn’t see another traffic warden for the duration of our tour and although we did see a few speed traps, we drove nearly 4000 miles on all manner of Irish roads BUT no matter what the traffic problem - never once, and I stress, never once, did we come across any form of road rage. Wherever possible, slower vehicles pulled onto the slip lane to allow faster vehicles to overtake, car drivers actually stopped and beckoned you over crossroads even when they had the right-of-way and, invariably, a stream of traffic would stop instantly if they saw me try to cross the road with the wheelchair. Wonderful old-time courtesy, which once upon a time used to exist in this country and made driving such a pleasure, now sadly lacking and much missed by those of us who can remember it.
won’t spend time describing every day trip or location that Mo and I visited because our preferences were, in general, limited to wheelchair friendly environments. We obviously couldn’t do much that involved cross-country walking, hill climbing or even visiting stately houses because, in our experience, very few of them are equipped to deal with the wheelchair - having said that, we were hard pushed to visit every location that was available to us, simply because there were so many. A quick phone call, in advance, to the site to find out if it was suitable for a wheelchair visit, normally produced an honest answer of yes or an apology and explanation as to why it was not – and we soon began to realize that the majority of locations, even if they were not particularly wheelchair friendly, appreciated the phone call and would make a huge effort to ensure that we had an enjoyable visit. Only once did we feel uncomfortably crowded on a visit and that was, unfortunately, when we arrived at the Waterford Glass Works at the same time as two American cruise ships. The staff helped as best they could but most of the exhibits, as could be expected, were mounted on tables just too high for Mo to be able to see easily – and I think, when we departed a bit early, they breathed just as big a sigh of relief as we did. We’ll return another day - when we know it’s quieter.
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