IAOI 09 – Cahermore

Before I begin this post I need to point out one thing; This is written from my perspective only; Terry, the driver.

We had continued along the N71 quite faithfully for a good while and were getting closer and closer to the wild Atlantic. We could see it brimming and lashing at the rocks that lined the left hand side of the road and we were, I admit, keen to get close enough to feel the spray on our faces.

It was at this point, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, that Adrian did his whiplash “Ooh there’s a road down to the ocean!”

I backed up the car (here’s your first clue; there were no turning points) to what I can only describe as a rodent thoroughfare leading from the main road. It started off steep and then dissapeared somewhere to the left-side of Hades.

“I can’t get the car down there, Ade,” I said.

“There’s bags of room” He replied, “and there’s bound to be a turn-around at the bottom. C’mon – they aren’t going to make a road down that you can’t get out of.” I’m beginning to learn this ‘do-now-worry-later’ about Ade.

Remember here that, in this part of Ireland they moslty drive tractors!

So, deferring to the man with a broken arm, I gently bumped the hire-car down the track, getting steeper and steeper until we arrived at a flat spot barred from proceeding further by a large, locked, metal gate. We were flanked on one side by a three foot verge and on the other by a twleve foot drop into The Atlantic.

I’m not sure if you are familair with the Hyundai ix35 but it is about thirteen feet long and five feet wide. The track was about five feet wide also. Even before I got out of the car I could tell this was going to be a mathematical problem.

Putting that aside, we got out, had the Atlantic spray in our faces, laughed a lot, shouted things like “This is the f**king Atlantic Ocean Brother!” and generally got cold and wet in the pursuit of adventure.

I’m not going to recount how hard it was turning that thirteen foot car around on a five-foot mud path, but what I will say is that with Adrian standing at the back, banging on the car just before it fell in to the violent ocean, my butt clenched so tightly that I can now crouch down and pick up a five pence piece off a laminate floor without using my hands!!

Terry out.