Not an early start today, and the weather was the kind of weather that enables Ireland to be called the Emerald Isle - it chucked it down.

The Passage East ferry wasn't running today, as it was time for it's annual inspection. Service resumes at 11:00am tomorrow. This meant that for 99.99% of the population there was absolutely no need to come to Ballyhack, and, if possible, it was even quieter today than yesterday.

Late afternoon the weather eased off, in fact became quite warm and pleasant, so the Beasts and I went for a walk. We ended up taking quite a long walk; along the coast to Arthurstown, left on to the New Ross road heading north to Campile, then back to Ballyhack - about 9 miles in total.

There is a wonderful irony walking a dog around here; it's virtually all fields, mostly empty fields at that. And yet there is nowhere to let a dog off for a good run. Hence we were confined to the roads.

As we went on our way I started to notice a pattern regarding behaviour of drivers; old boys would slow right down, move right over, and give a small wave or nod when passing us; younger male drivers would slow down to some degree and pull over, and also acknowledge us with a wave and/or a nod. The fairer sex, often hailed as the more considerate road users in the UK, did none of these things. Sorry girls, but your south-eastern Irish sisters are most inconsiderate to pedestrians and Beasts.

While heading north we passed a lady who commented on the fact I had two greyhounds, and that she "had not seen greyhounds around these parts for quite some while". This, coupled with the attitude of the older male drivers, made me wonder if everyone thought I was out exercising my champion runners.

At Campile we came to a cross-roads, straight on to New Ross, right to Campile village, left to ....? If you have ever been to Ireland and tried reading a map you know that unless the road you want is the equivalent of a significant B road or better, it probably doesn't appear on the map. The road left came in the latter category. However, it did point in the right direction, and I knew that the hill out of Ballyhack did join up with the New Ross road; so left it was.


Kerrygold Butter Machines

Turned out to be a good call. The road continued heading in exactly the right direction, and soon the distance to Ballyhack was dropping quite quickly (thank heavens for portable GPS gizzmos). After about three miles I recognised where we were; about to pass the farm guarded by the Troll Dog!! So, two options, one mile to home but pass the Troll Dog, or turn around to avoid the Troll Dog but walk another 8 miles back the way we came. No prizes for guessing which I chose (come on - there was beer in the fridge and I was thirsty).

I thought we'd made it without alerting the Troll; in fact we'd got some way past the farm gate when the bloody thing came running down the road after us. The Beasts were on short leads, and we were walking away, but this thing just kept coming; barking, teeth bared, the whole works. We just kept going, and I guess we must have passed some magic boundary as it eventually stopped chasing us and contented itself with barking at us.


The Barrow & Passage East from the Top of Ballyhack Hill

Once this incident was over, the remaining mile passed quickly. Coming down the hill we got some wonderful views across the Barrow estuary as the evening was now perfect. And did the beer taste good? Ohhhh yes!