A Short Excursion in Which I Did Not Melt (But it Was Close!)

 The other day, we hopped on the bus at 7:30 (ish) in the morning and rode out into an even more rural area than the one in which we live. We got off at Bunbeg.

You see the buildings in the distance--that's most of the village right there.

We had an appointment at 9:30, but we got there at about 8, so we walked down the lane to the beach. It was already way too hot and the sun was beating down. I had prepared myself for an uncomfortable and difficult day because of the heat and sun, so I was trying to maintain a calm attitude. It was to get to around 30C later in the day and all day long people were commenting on how hot it was. Later in the day, people were also expressing some concern for our welfare, because it was clear that we were dragging. One thing that struck us on our short visit was how kind everyone was in various ways. Irish people are pretty friendly in our experience, but this was a whole other level.

We had our appointment, which went well. Then we had several hours until we could head to the B&B for the night. We decided to walk to the grocery store in the next village. Did I mention that it was hot? We'd brought our water bottles, but they were empty. The few takeaways along the road were not open yet, so we couldn't buy anything to drink. When we got to the grocery store, we found the coffee/tea kiosk, but no chilled beverages. We bought a pot of yogurt and a couple bananas and sat outside at a picnic table to eat. We started walking back. It was slow going. I felt woozy for a while and the expected headache and upset stomach began--sun, heat and I do not play well together. I did enjoy the fields of fireweed and these flowers, which were everywhere (I don't know what they are). 

A guy in a van pulled up and offered us a ride, saying we looked tired. We thanked him and said we were OK. We were indeed tired--we'd hardly slept the night before, partly because the appointment was unexpected and only determined the evening before. We are very used to walking everywhere and the walk was not far, but the heat and unrelenting sun really did us both in. We can't handle it anymore. 

Happily, we discovered that a takeaway was open, so I dashed in and, despite my policy of not buying beverages in plastic bottles, I purchased two bottles of diet Coke, which was the best option available. Oh how wonderful that hit of cold carbonation felt as it ran down my throat. I stopped feeling woozy. 

There is a sidewalk all the way along the road to the next village, with benches at regular intervals, so we would walk along and then sit for a while, appreciating the small breezes that would sometimes come from the ocean and waft over us. Then we'd walk on. At one stop, I ate a piece of warm cheese--quite gooey, but it settled my stomach instantly. It always does. 

We got back into town and still had a bit of time to kill. We knew the B&B was at the harbour, which was not where the beach is. The directions were good, but I realized later I'd been thrown off a bit by where the bus stopped. It was supposed to stop at Bunbeg Crossorads and the directions to the B&B were to walk down the road towards the harbour from there. But when we got off the bus, it was in the village. I looked in vain for any crossroad and when we set off, it was in the opposite direction. It's a tiny place, so we figured we just had to walk back through the village to get to the crossroads and then walk a way down the road and there we'd be. But we had not counted on how we felt in the heat. Every few steps felt like a mile. We got to the crossroads and happily turned onto the road, expecting to see water any minute now. We walked and walked and there was plenty of greenery and flowers, but no sign of water. Bill asked someone if we were on the right road. She said we were and our destination was about 10 minutes away. Bill said, 'I can't go on.' I said that was how I felt, but we couldn't just stand there on a road in the middle of nowhere baking in that nasty sun! We dragged ourselves on. And on. And on. There was a woman tending to her front garden. I asked her if we were far from the harbour. She looked at me with concern and said, 'It's just around that curve. Just go around there and you'll see it. You're almost there.' Spirits buoyed, I took another step.

To be continued tomorrow...

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