In the forest at Gougane Barra

S was not up to going anywhere this morning. He did another Covid test — negative again. And I stocked up on paracetamol and left him to vegetate gently while I went to the forest park at Gougane Barra. The shot that everyone takes of St Finbarr’s chapel is in extras, just for the record.

Himself had advised parking outside the park, as it costs 5 euros to park inside. I parked outside the hotel, not realising I could have parked about a kilometre further up the road, where the barrier is. I assumed the car park that the trails start from was just beyond the barrier, but no, it was another kilometre. So my 2 km walk turned into a 6 km one, 2 hours including stops.

There’s been a fair amount of tree-felling recently, so the forest wasn’t looking its best, with stacks of logs and piles of dead branches. Hence my focus on detail. There is another in extras … I admit to playing around with Lightroom effects on both of these.

Back at the car, hot and steamy, I checked in on S via WhatsApp and then had lunch in the cafe. Then an ambling drive back to the hotel, pausing to admire a ruined tower. Yet another extra — I’ll delete a lot of these when I get home, and make a Flickr album instead.

S still not up to much … hopefully the rest is doing him good. I’ll be glad to get him back home!