Bernadette's Bike Adventures (Part Three)

Polranny guest Bernadette Paternotte is continuing her cycle tour of Achill: "Cycling alongside the Atlantic Ocean was becoming increasingly difficult. Struggling against stormy, torrential rain, I tried in vain to cycle up a mountain. Finally I just pushed the bike to the top.

When I arrived back in Polranny soaked to the skin, Ray the builder came indoors, bleeding profusely from a gash in his wrist that was covered with a hankie. I ran upstairs to the bathroom and grabbed the first aid kit that I always stared at when sitting on the loo.

With a little help from my own medical gear, Ray's wrist ended up looking quite professional. However, I did make a point of telling him to go to the doctor to get it sewn up, which he immediately dismissed and went straight back to work.

Then it occured to me that Ray and I were now quits: me with my bike tyres patched by him, and him with his wrist bandaged by me.

Photo: Annie

Beyond the Secret Garden

Polranny guest Bernadette has borrowed a bike from Pirate friends Willem and Doutsje, the owners of the nearby Secret Garden. She writes in her journal of 24 August 2009: "So I set out on my adventures on a old-fashioned, rusty Gazelle bike. Willem told me to take the left-hand turn at Achill Secret Garden so that I could cycle around the most southerly tip of the Island. For most of this trip I was surrounded by water, and for half the time I had a panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean. I wanted to get as close as I could to the point where the rocks and the sea fight it out with such violence. I wanted to capture the most spectacular moment of this battle with my lens. But each time the combatants were too quick for me; each click was too late. It was as if it were set-up. Yet I didn't mind that what I saw could not leak out, that I could keep it all for myself as the splashes of water on my lens and my glasses obstructed the view and I was forced to abandon the scene of the battle".

Photo: Annie

Finding Transport

On 24 August, Polranny guest Bernadette wrote in her journal: "Today there was a visit that I simply couldn't ignore. There was an absolute racket behind the door separating the extension from the kitchen, while simultaneously an enormous cloud of dust rose from under it and invaded my territory.

So this was how I got to meet the builders: Ray, who I talked to the most, and the others, who I could barely understand. I also noticed that the roof was now almost covering the extension.

A little later when I'd been standing by the road for a while trying to hitchhike, Ray came up and asked me for the key to the house so he could go inside. By now I didn't reckon my chances of getting a lift so I asked him whether I could borrow a bike from him. The answer was no.

But he had a think about it, babbled, and gave me to understand that there was a bike somewhere and that he was kindly offering to drive me over to it. Later we took the turning to Achill Secret Garden, where my bike was waiting for me with... two flat tyres. While Ray glued the tyres, I drank coffee with Doutje and Willem, the Dutch owners of the Garden."

To be continued...

Photo: Bernadette Paternotte

Love Hurts...

... a heart-shaped jellyfish found by artist Bernadette Paternotte during her visit last August to Polranny.

Photo: Bernadette