Day no 5. Malin Beg to Strandhill

Yet again, even though it was a wild night I slept like a log. The Malin Beg parking area is parked right at the top of a cliff that was taking the full brunt of the wind broadside. It was fine though, the boys never really stirred (apparently ;-) ). Joyce was up sharp and got out for her jog, along the road and also out to the old Watch tower, these were built circa.1770 during the Irish rebelion to watch out for invading French vessels, there are a lot if these old towers and they are visible from each other, if one tower spotted a vessel a fire torch beacon was lit at the top of the tower to notify the other towers that something had been spotted, all very interesting stuff and that was the limit of their communication technology back in those days, effective though. The weather was improved this morning and we had breakfast and got tidied. Callum had been asking a lot to go down onto the beach with his bucket and spade, so we all got our layers on and went down the many steps to the beach was a cracker. Its a horseshoe shaped beach and bay with a fairly narrow entrance into it, there are also some seriously jaggy rocks out at the mouth of the cove and they were only visible once the tide was out a bit any vessels in trouble out there looking for shelter in this bay might not have survived getting in. We had a good couple of hours down there playing on the beach, damming a little river through the sand and watching the build up of water finally burst through the dam, all good fun for the boys. Logan decided to paddle right through the water with his boots on to add to the amusement, will take them a while to try out- wellies next time!! This led Joyce and Logan to head back up the van a wee bit early as Callum still wanted to play, unfortunately about this point in time a big squall came in, myself and Callum had to shelter in a wee corner in the cliffs, Joyce and Logan got soaked climbing the 169 steps back up to the parking area, not a problem though, Bessie is a great space to arrive back to when you've got wet or cold, plenty space to get dried out, then the kettle can go on and a nice hot tea or coffee can be made to help warm up again......the bigger van has its benefits.

We got sorted and left Malin Beg, and hoped to make it to Sligo area today. Following a bit more of the Wild Atlantic Way we weaved our way along the north side of Slieve League a hill I climbed many years ago, it has very dramatic cliffs that plunge pretty much from the 600m summit right into the Atlantic ocean, the north side a bit more mellow in contrast. We bought some supplies in Killybegs, it would have been nice to park at the harbour bit there's signs about saying "no campervan parking" so we had to move on a bit.....clearly these signs and the abundance of height restriction barriers at carparks is indicative of vans parking up overnight in these places. We carried on and found a lovely beach at Inver where we had our late lunch, myself and the boys went for a long walk along this beach also, and had to make a mad dash for it on the way back as the next squall came in, we wern't quick enough however.....Soon we were back on the road, we skirted round Donegal town and also Ballyshannon as we had Sligo in our sights. Its a shame missing out these pretty town centres, theres plenty to look at in them but there's not enough time to do everything. I was also humming and hawing a bit again as I want to (re)visit Marble Arch caves, and they are a detour inland a bit, so logistically  we perhaps should have headed inland this evening but 2 people we had spoken to had recommended Strandhill near Sligo to us so we wanted to stay here for a night. We reached Strandhill at about 5.30, on the way into town we had scoped out a potential eating place called The Venue, its a steak and seafood resturaunt and pub, it gets good reviews and had quite a few food award plaques on its wall. We parked the van in the campsite, had our showers 1 euro for 5 minutes on top of the 28euros for the pitch, had a couple of beers and headed out for dinner. Joyce deserves a break from the cooking and I had promises she would not cook tonight. We wandered along the beach front looking at a couple of other eateries, most of which got good reviews, but we were already sold on the Venue so we walked away up the hill to it, as we rounded the corner the cooked steaks was blowing downwind right into us and it smelled superb, BUT, the carpark was very busy. We went inside and it was VERY busy...full in fact...not good. We spoke to the head waitress and she said we probably couldn't get a table till 8.30, the best part if an hour away, a couple of very large groups had arrived tonight unexpectedly for a Tuesday. That's a long time to amuse the boys, wandering the streets or even having a beer, bummer!!! We walked back outside and mulled over what to do? Joyce clearly dejected, I got the Captains pants on and went back in with Callum and spoke to the lady again, she confirmed that it would be 8.30. I asked if there was anywhere else we could sit, and she said well, if we really wanted we could sit in "the wee room", yes, that was fine by us, we were in!!

She showed us the wee room and it was like a wee snug with a table for 6 in it, she removed 2 of the chairs and we settled into a prefect wee room for ourselves and got our drinks ordered. We were treated like VIP's in here, I think partly for fear of  forgetting about us in our own wee room. The menu was all good looking but there was only one choice for us this evening, we both had fillet steaks and they were superb, its not a dish I often have as so often I am left very disappointed. This however was outstanding, 10oz, 2" thick delicious rare fillet steak, lovely spuds and a salad...washed down with a few pints of Ireland's finest Guinness, my first of this trip. It wasn't cheap, but it was well worth it, hopefully our next meal out will be just as good. It was late night back the van for the boys at after 10.30 but there were no problems for them getting to sleep which is always a bonus. Myself and Joyce enjoyed anither beer or 2 and our obligatory dram to end the day. Unfortunately Scrabble has not been going well for me, beaten again tonight its now 4-1 to Joyce.....must raise my game, lol.