For a change I didn't have to write anything, Janine has done it for me. So here it is.
Hi All,
A belated big 'Thank You' to Jenny for organizing this really lovely weekend.
Understand now why you were so persistent in wanting to do this!
We couldn't have wished for better, more luxurious accommodation in this beautiful old house, still with a lot of the original furniture, books, photos, etc. Not only did they provide all the linen, crockery, cutlery and mod cons provided, but Margaret was also at our disposal. She set a perfect table for us every night, washed all the dishes and obviously didn't think that we were capable of making beds as even after some of us had made ours (H-L and Lydia), we would return to find that all the beds had been re done.
It was quite a mission to drag Horst out of the house once he discovered all the other books and things and in our usual fashion of getting lost at the beginning of a hike, we went even one further...Could't decide if we were supposed to go out the back or front door to start the one hike we did!!
We spent most of Saturday at the Battlefields Festival and watched the re-enactment of some of the battles, visited the Talana Museum and even got to see the Blarney Brothers at the local moth hall on the Saturday night.
The hike itself was not terribly exciting or very well marked, so we missed out on some of the things of interest we were supposed to see on route. But we were kept entertained at the lunch /stop/spot with Tiens trying to catch crabs.
Sunday morning we went to see the Mission just outside Wasbank, did a quick whip through Wasbank itself stopping at the derelict train station and not setting a very good example to the locals, but simply walking over the railway lines to get photos, in stead of using the pedestrian bridge as per the sign in full view for everyone to see.
The only unpleasant part of the trip was the heavy traffic on the roads down and the almost half hour delay due to road works on the way back. (For those of us that took that old road home). Otherwise a most enjoyable weekend.
Thank you all again.
Janine