As a tropics girl, I grew up being able to go to the beach when & where we want to. I was born and raised from a tropical country - The Philippines. The Philippines is an archipelago made up of 7,107 islands, yes, we are surrounded by islands. Many people lives in a walking distance to the beach or literally the seashore is at their doorstep. The older I get (just like a fine wine lol), I became more appreciative of the things that I took for granted. The longer I live in a temperate and continental climate, the more I long for warm beach days all year round.
Learning that Ireland is an island country that is surrounded by approx 80 islands of significant size, and we living in the big chunk of it’s land mass area (Republic of Ireland), we would only see beaches if we will travel to the end of its land - in between we have lakes and mostly rivers. Being in a 4 season country, we would only go to the beach during late spring or summer that is if we are lucky to have a sun and a warm weather. On or off season, people would often travel to warm countries like Spain (Irish most favourite travel destination- at least to many Irish people I know😊), Portugal, Mallorca, Greece, etc to take a break and enjoy a warm weather. The weather here is very unpredictable, we can have snow / hail stone, rain and sun all in one day. Yup! If we are planning to do something or go somewhere, we would always rely on a weather bug app to tell us what likely is the weather in the next few days.
One lucky day, the weather bug told us the weather meant to be beautiful- warm and sunny in the next couple of days. We then decided to go to the beach, again, it was a long drive for us to get there (Not really long as most of the roads have a motorways with 120km/ph speed limit). We both love fun & adventure, we would go on a trip in a heartbeat- yup we are spontaneous like that. Unplanned trips by the way are the best. We packed and hit the road. I couldn’t help myself getting excited going to this beach for the first time, I felt like am a little girl in the candy store about to receive the biggest lollies. As living in an Emerald Isle (Ireland), it’s always a pleasure to go on road trips as my eyes are full of everything I see on the highways and villages that we passed by. Very therapeutic and eye filling. We drive through at the foot of the mountains and a nature filled view. Soon enough, cars ahead of us slows down, traffic starts to file up & left indicators blinking at the distance as everybody was turning to the main entrance to the beach. This beach is just beside the main road.
We arrived at our destination, we drove through a very congested entrance- traffic going in and going out. People of different ages were walking everywhere some on barefoot, summer hat on, half naked, in shorts or bikinis. Flags in the seashore were waving smoothly as it constantly hit by the wind. There are various Ice cream trucks and food trucks on site (Fun fact: Ice cream trucks are staple around Ireland). We slowly get in and right away I saw a vast white sand where cars, trucks, small campers were parked. There is a designated campers area, located on the hillside and consist of sites for tents and caravans. Campers have access to toilets, showers, dining and washing area (I will talk about my camping experience in my next blog).
I was flabbergasted when I saw where cars were parked- in the actual beach! How come they were able to park here? Little did I know, the shoreline is longggggg enough, yup, it’s approx 5.5km stretch of flat coast sand and dunes, and the water is also farrrrrr enough from the seashore. We continue driving on in the sand, I rolled down my window so I can have good look. People were busy putting up their beach tent, lighting up their grills, BBQ smoke in the horizon, and the good smell of food that made me hungry. Some people had already a sun kissed skin, many are having a fun beach games, balls flying everywhere and many were just relaxing & taking in all the sun as much as they could. We finally found our spot where we had a good distance from many cars and people.
I finally step foot to the most beautiful beach in Ireland. I’m so overwhelmed with how wonderful everything was- the sand was so fine, the weather was very ideal and the wind breeze was very refreshing. As usual, we set up our beach tent, started the grill and had the most delish meal - by the beach. Just behind us is a tiny hill, so I went up there where I had the best view of the ocean and the busy beach. We then put on our sunscreen and beach wears, and we went for swim. As expected, the water was cold, waves were a little stronger where some people were surfing.
After swimming, we went back to the shore and sat under the sun for a while. Just taking in all the sun we can. In total, we were there for like 3 hours or more, and then decided to go back home. On the way home, all I can think of was how amazing the place was and the great time we had. This would always be my favourite Irish beach, though, I’ve been to many beautiful beaches around the country too. We went back to this beach many times and would continue to do so 😊.
All, Please be safe out there, and if you’ve reached this far, might as well vote & follow along to see more of my blogs😋. Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me in here in Hive ❤️.
Love to Every-hive-one,
Sheryl xx