After doing our thorough clean up from the stay at the seeker’s house and feeling much better for having done it, we hit the road. We had a good bit of driving to do, but I planned a stop at a place called Coole Park, which was part of a national wildlife reserve. It was on the way to our destination on the coast and seemed like a good place to go and wander. Joanna and I were getting quite good at that by now.
We arrived and got ourselves a map of the trails and I started out as the leader. Joanna kinda drifted along behind me, taking pictures. I was enjoying the trees with a whole new level of appreciation, after having just been blitzed by my God encounter in Belvedere Gardens. I was enjoying them so much that I completely missed my turnoff on the trail. I came to a cross-road with a paved path and our trail dead-ended into a fence. I stood there looking at the map for a while and eventually Joanna caught up to me and started taking pictures of the fence and the field behind it. I puzzled over the map for another minute or two and then asked Joanna where on earth we were. She told me that I missed the turn off for the trail way back behind us, but she thought I did it on purpose. Yes. That was it. And how did she know, when I was the one who was following the map?! That girl is scary.
Well, she wanted to hang out and take more pictures and I wanted to go find my misplaced trail, so we decided to part ways and meet up whenever we had finished with our wanderings. So, off I marched.
Now I was determined to stay focused and find out why I was there. My conversation with God went something like this:
“God, why am I here today?”
Silence.
“What is my objective?”
Silence.
“No, really, what am I supposed to do? Or give? Or receive? Or what?”
*cricket chirp*
Well, so much for that conversation. It gradually dawned on me that I hadn’t learned my lesson well enough from the Hill of Uisneach. God wanted me to be. The encounter from the day before was so important to Him that He would not suffer it being overshadowed by another objective so soon. It needed to settle in deeply. I was like a fidgety two-year old and He was telling me to HUSH.
So, I hushed. And savored. And pondered. And actually managed to stay on the trail.
Joanna and I met up again at the car after a couple of hours of wandering and hit the road again to finish the second leg of our drive to the coast. We began on the east coast of Dublin and were driving the entire width of Ireland to the west coast. We were on familiar territory for me now. We drove through a couple of the towns I had visited on my first trip and I started getting all teary-eyed and sentimental. But I managed to hide it behind my spy-like tough exterior and my voice only wavered if I tried to say anything.
The place we were staying at that night was as elegant and classy as the last one was weird and unbalanced. It was perched on a hill overlooking the ocean. The garden was beautiful. The entryway was richly decorated. There was a special sitting room with an old fashioned telescope and soft 40’s music playing in the background. On the table near the entryway was a menu where you could choose from several specialized breakfasts, such as fancy French toast, goat cheese and egg scramble, or kippers. Kippers. I would have a run in with those later on.
Our hostess greeted us warmly, and once we had lugged our suitcases to our rooms, she asked us what we had come to the coast to do. I told her that one of our primary objectives was to walk the Coastal Walk to the Cliffs of Moher. She nodded in appreciation over our good taste in Irish landscapes and proceeded to caution us in every way possible about the weather and the dangers of going on the walk without the local tour guide.
Well, she never actually said the word “danger”, but it was quite clear that she was cautious and really did not recommend that we go alone. It had been raining quite a bit – imagine that! – and so it was muddy and there would be places where the water might be running down from the fields, and the tour guide would know if it was safe or not. She would know in the morning whether or not he was going to take a tour that day.
We were brave adventurers, right? Joanna sure looked the part. She was cool and collected and shot me a smile and said, “It’ll be fine.” Well, I couldn’t bear the thought of having to synchronize to a tour guide and follow along with everyone else, but I also wasn’t in the mood for a cliffhanger scene on the crags of Ireland’s coast. But I consoled myself with one important fact.
At least my feet would stay dry!