The Road

There is only one road on Inishturk. This is it. There aren't too many footpaths either. It's a place for wandering and discovering. There is very little need for a map for the coast is always in sight. You can't go too far wrong - other than taking a step too far and plunging off the edge! We followed the contours around the island's extremities on what turned out to be a quite beautiful day. It was the kind of day that you really didn't want to end.

There were many highlights, but perhaps best of all was watching hundreds of fulmars on the wing in a natural amphitheatre of sheer cliffs on the west side of the island. It was hard not to imagine that they were simply having fun and enjoying their mastery of the art of flight. They all liked look Jonathans to me. I wonder how many of you will know what I mean? It was breathtaking to watch.

We didn't see a single soul from the moment we left the road until we rejoined it again many hours later. We weren't short of company in the evening though. We had dinner at the Community Centre with fellow guests from our B&B and the conversation was very lively. We heard lots of great stories. Thank you Sue and Jill. You were both thoroughly entertaining!

I took a little break to watch the last twenty minutes of the England match against Iceland. Our dismal performance was not a surprise. You see a country like Iceland play with passion and total commitment, as a team, and you can see immediately what's wrong with us. It can surely be no coincidence that they symbolised what's wrong with the country as a whole right now. We seem to have a lost a sense of who we are.