Wednesday July 23, 2014

Up early as planned.  By 5:30 am we were washed, the tent was packed, the bikes loaded and we were ready to eat our breakfast in the camp kitchen and dining room.  Oh dear god no – the door was locked, our breakfast and more importantly our four water bottles were locked away.  The warden would not be on duty until 9:00!!  There was nothing we could do about it other than leaving the bottles or unpacking the tent and going back to sleep.  6:15 the tent was up and 6:30 we were asleep. Best laid plans do not always work out.

We woke up again at 9:00, with the sun on the tent and started our day again.  After a leisurely breakfast, we decided to head out to Rosslare Harbour pick up the tickets for the ferry tomorrow and cycle to the campsite closer to Rosslare Harbour.  We packed away the tent again, reloaded the bikes and headed out to Rosslare Harbour at 10:30 am.  We followed the N52 all the way to the Harbour which was fairly busy but we had a shoulder all the way, nice cycling.  We bought the tickets for the ferry and then prepared to cycle out of Town.  Ralf suggested we stay in one of the hotels near the ferry terminal.  I went into the two but the prices were over 80 EUs, we decided against it.  However, as we passed a smaller hotel we noticed they were offering rooms for 59 EUs.  We could afford that, they had rooms and a place to store our bikes overnight.  We settled in quickly, showered and walked over to the small shopping centre to buy lunch and source our evening meal.  We ate lunch overlooking the coast and then went for a walk through Rosslare Harbour Village.  A Town that has seen better days.  Two large hotels were closed one that had 400 rooms and other businesses have left.  The only employment in the Town is at the port or in the small shops and hotels that are still open, most people work in Wexford – 23kms away.

As we made our way back to the hotel we noticed a memorial park and the YHA.  The YHA has been closed for a number of years, at least since the 1980s.

We then discovered the jewel in the area, a secret garden.

We met Kirwan, an 82 year old man who planted this garden 10 yards at a time.  The land belonged to the railway and they had left it as a dump site.

He mentioned that there were rats coming into the area and that is why he created the garden.

He started by \’taking\’ 10 yards and just carried on the garden is now about 6 acres and the railway send in helpers to help him maintain what he has created.