Nothing Day - Friday

Today was a bit of a nothing day. We hadn't planned it that way, but it's the way it turned out. 

We planned to drive to Plumbridge in Northern Ireland to have a look around the area where Leanne's grandmother, Rose, was born.

We weren’t in any rush to get away as we only had about an 90 minute drive this morning. It had poured a lot of the night and everything was pretty damp when we got up in the morning, but the sun was breaking through, so we were hopeful for a reasonable day's weather.

We took off across Ireland and eventually realised the speed limit signs suddenly didn't make any sense and we struggled to workout why. Instead of seeing 50s and 80s and 100s, we were suddenly seeing 30s, 40s and no limit signs. It was getting us rather confused. Then we saw distance signs in miles. Eventually we realised we were actually in Northern Ireland (UK). There had been absolutely no sign of the border. Even in Australia when we go from one state to another you get the goodbye from and welcome to signs, but here there was nothing at all. 

The other thing that made us realise we were now in the UK instead of in Ireland was that our mobile data suddenly died. So we spent some time trying to get roaming to work, because without it Google Maps was a bit primitive. Eventually we gave up and continued on after a light lunch and reached Plumbridge early in the afternoon. 

After driving around the area exploring the place we thought we’d have a wander through the cemetery to see if we could spot any of Leanne’s forebears. While there were lots of graves, some of them were illegible and most of the rest were too modern to have been any relation. And then of course the heavens opened and it absolutely bucketed down,  so we rushed back to the car to try and stay a bit dry.

About this time we decided to abandon driving around the Plumbridge area and headed to where we were going to be staying for the evening. This was still fairly early at about 3:00pm by then, so we thought we’d lash out and go and do an exciting load of washing. That was a challenge. We spent about an hour driving around Strabane trying to find a laundrette that was operating. No luck - they were broken down, not open long enough or invisible. Eventually we gave up as it was just too ridiculously difficult. 

As part of this process we crossed the border four times and again the only sign of the border is the river. 

Being back in Ireland briefly did allow is to sort out our roaming data, so it wasn't completely wasted - and we saw a fair bit of Stabane! 

We wandered Strabane centre for an hour or so and then headed to a restaurant for an early dinner and have now settled back in our B&B. The view from the window is nicely rural.

We’re off to Belfast tomorrow to drop the car off and spend a day or two in Belfast before we say goodbye to Ireland and head to over to Scotland and England.

Feel free to add feedback/comments.

Cheers.