Postcards From The Road

I think I spent the first few days of our new life in a state of total shock, so everything up until we arrived at Mannix Point, past in rather a blur.

Then as we have started to adapt to life on the road, there is a strange sense of floating that comes over you as you start to lose all sense of time.  Days and weeks that were punctuated by regular tasks to be completed unwind into a more fluid way of being which is both disconcerting but exciting at the same time, as we look forward to a different adventure each day.

To my surprise, Matt and I seem to feel very at home in Heidi and I have not felt at all claustrophobic which is a big relief.  I have also (in my opinion) adapted quite well to the campsites that we have stayed at although Matt might slightly disagree as I have yet to fully overcome my squeamishness at the campsite showers (which he assures me have been some of the cleanest he has seen).

I have also noticed that many campsites play music in the toilets which is on the one hand quite amusing and on the other hand a little eerie especially when it is opera music at 2am in the morning.

In fact there have been a few ‘Novel’ moments where I felt I was stepping onto the pages of a book (and I am sure there will be many more to come)…

The first… the overnight ferry… which brought to mind a Stephen King novel as the few passengers par-taking in the 5 hour journey over the Irish Channel rattled around the silent hallways of what would have once been quite an impressive boat, but now felt more like a slightly decaying ghost ship resurrected from the Bermuda triangle.  Needless to say I did not sleep a lot on the ferry but rather sat as a sentinel guarding a sleeping Matt curled around the misplaced leatherette armrests of the seats that formed a red wave opposite the empty illuminated duty free.  In these echo-ey corridors a small child riding a Tricycle in the polished wooden floors muttering ‘Red Rum’ over and over would not have seemed out of place.

The next… was a novel of a completely different tone, a sort of Peter Cary style read. The setting; Mannix Point, an unexpected find, just outside of Cahersiveen on the Ring of Kerry.  Located on its own tiny peninsula on the edge of Kenmare bay, Mannix Point, gave the air of a tropical retreat with promises of a tranquil existence by the sea.  Independently owned by the enigmatic Mortimer Moriarty, it had a ‘Hotel California-esque’ feel as though time had stood still in such a way that it could not be described as either contemporary or old-fashioned, but rather verged on Bohemian.

It was definitely a welcome and colourful contrast from the straight lines and more regimented feel of our previous campsite, and we enjoyed 4 days unwinding from our crazy year amid banks of wild Montbrieta, surrounded by both mountains and sea.

It was during this stay that I realised (after 10 years together) that whilst we both love wild walks, beautiful views, atmospheric pubs full of lively banter, delicious food and good beer/wine, Matt and I have a distinctly different way of ‘relaxing-relaxing’ which I hadn’t fully appreciated before…

What I wrongly interpreted at first as being stress with tasks to be done, was actually the opposite…  Matt’s way of relaxing is actually by being busy… i.e. working out how things work, taking things apart and fixing things.  At first I tried to ‘help’, feeling guilty that he was doing all the work.  This tended to have a rather negative effect as I inadvertently dropped, stood on, switched off or misplaced integral items.  I have now realised that a happy Matt, is a Matt who has successfully figured out, completed/ solved his chosen task of the day in his own, controlled way. And whilst this does mean Heidi being decorated with a plethora of tools, and the odd swear word mid task, it is well worth it to see him happily celebrating his success with a cold beer at the end of the day.

Me relaxing…

Matt relaxing…