The Ham Nomads

27 May 2014. <IE> Whitegate, & Blackpool, Co. Cork —

We haz gas!

Today is our trip out to Calor. We went in to Macca's at 9am to have a cuppa, but mainly to use their internet to find the Calor site on Google Maps. According to Google, it's out east along the N25, south on the R629, and about 500 metres past the intersection with the R631. Google lied! It turned out to be nowhere near that location — although it was along the R629, but a few more kilometres south, in Whitegate. We found the place, with a little help from a couple of locals. Without their help, we would never have found it! Got to the entrance security gate — it's not a retail outlet, but a commercial distribution centre — and the Security Man at the gate, Sam, couldn't have been more helpful. He told us that, even though they don't officially handle our type of cylinder, there is enough call from distressed travellers for them to keep a few on hand - so not only were we able to do a refill exchange on our cylinder, we were able to get a spare at very reasonable cost!

Barley crop

While we were waiting for the exchange to take place, Sam suggested we wander past the back of their site and to the top of a hill there. He said the view was amazing. He didn't lie! We went up there, into what was actually by a restricted military area, and could see across the inlet to Cobh< (Queenstown) — just a kilometre across the water, but a 40km road trip if you wanted to get there. Also at the top of the hill was this lush crop of barley. Everything is so green here in Ireland!

Cobh (Queenstown) across the water from the top of the hill

Anyway, we got our gas, took our leave of Sam, and returned to Cork. Back to the same haunts, as we needed a few more things.

Must point out that while we were undertaking this mission, we had left 18 pounds of laundry at a laundromat in Blackpool, and by the time we got back at about 12:30 it was all done. What a luxury! We then adjourned to the shopping complex, where Susie had a further bit of luxury and got her hair done! No real touring today (except for the drive), but we got a lot done!

We have decided that the places we want to see near Cork are not actually in Cork itself, but outside to the west and to the South. Places like the Blarney Castle, Charles Fort, the Michael Collins Centre, and many more, so have decided to spend another night behind Macca's and then set out exploring these next sites tomorrow. If the weather is as kind tomorrow as it was today, we should have a great day!

Distance driven — today, 54 miles ( 87 km ); to date, 1,598 miles ( 2,572 km )