HH Challenge, Day 7

Yikes, awfully late with this, the fine weather has been luring me away from the computer.

Destination: Bundoran

It had been decided to meet in the Twisted Pepper in Bundoran at 13:00 on Friday in order to swap stories and experiences from the road, as well as presenting our collection of oddities that we had received in exchange for our oranges.

My hosts in Carndonagh

I got up, put on my last pair of wet underpants for drying and, after saying goodbye to my hosts I started out towards Muff again, and onward in a southerly direction.
I would have opted to go via Buncrana, as it seemed to be the most direct route, but the guys assured me that anyone heading in the Letterkenny direction from Carn would almost certainly go via Muff, as the traffic just stops in Buncrana and it takes forever to get through. I also thought I was going to have to drop by the Radisson Blu hotel in Letterkenny to pick up the Couchsurfing poster we had used as a banner in Tramore. A friend in Doolin had very nicely offered to take it off my hands and carry it up north when she was up there for work, allowing me to travel a little bit more lightly. Of course, I hadn't reckoned on Letterkenny being ridiculously difficult to get in and out of, but fortunately my host got on the phone to a friend of his in Letterkenny, who then picked up the poster from the hotel and deposited it at a petrol station at the Dry Arch Roundabout just outside town. After nearly a week of being without it, I put it down as I was paying for my breakfast (two bananas and a Snickers) and walked off without it. I was nearly in my hitching position when I remembered and ran back for it to be met at the door by the guy from behind the counter, telling me I'd forgotten my bomb.

HD and Dave

My next lift brought me all the way to the other side of Donegal town, just twenty-odd easy kilometres from Bundoran. A red car indicated and pulled in towards me, flashing its lights, and who was it, only HD and Dave, who had set out with us on Saturday, but after a very miserable second day of standing in the rain for hours, without any lifts, on the Ring of Kerry, had decided to go home, get their car, and drive around for the week. They had stayed with a host in Letterkenny, who was also driving to Bundoran in his own car, with another Couchsurfer he'd hosted. 

We arrived in the Twisted Pepper at 14:00, so an hour later than planned, to find the rest of the teams, already there. Two teams were unable to make it to Bundoran (phone contact established that they had not been hacked into little bits en route, but that other, non-hitching related, complications had interfered with their plans). 

Of the four teams (once again - I'm a team) that arrived in Bundoran, one, as we have already mentioned went back for their car, so of the three that hitched all week, two made it to all their target destinations (you might remember that I met Ségolene and Kirsten as they went off course for Sliabh League).

Team Camille and Philipp were thus the only full team to make it to all of their target destinations and arrive in Bundoran. Congratulations you guys.

As for the oranges, the results were as follows:

Ciara and Aurimas - a set of fish hooks

HD and Dave - two golf balls and two forks

Damo - a greyhound barking muzzle

Kirsten and Segolene - two bags of Haribo and a scented candle

Camille and Philipp - a ram's horn

Camille and Philipp offered me their prize as a gift, but I would only accept if it was a trade, and so I gave Philipp my muzzle, while Camille got my orange t-shirt (and strong advice to wash it thoroughly before wearing it).

There was a general dispersal after the event, Ségolene left at about five as she had to make her way back to Rosslare for her ferry home to France the following afternoon, and Camille went with her.  Kirsten had left even earlier to try and get back home to South Kerry that evening (and she succeeded - six hours from Bundoran to Tralee).  HD and Dave had plans to head on tour around Northern Ireland for a bit before taking the car on the ferry over to Scotland.  Myself and Philipp hung around for the festival while everyone else went their separate ways, although Aina, who had stayed with the same host as HD and Dave the night before became an additional member of the HH Challenge team for the weekend.

The teams disperse

I originally planned on pitching a tent somewhere discrete and getting a ticket to at least a part of the festival, but then caved and ended up getting the campsite ticket along with my Friday night ticket.  To be honest the only band I knew that were playing for the whole weekend were Bastille anyway, so I was happy enough to be able to catch them - and they played Rhythm is a Dancer!  Unbelievably entertaining.

When they started turfing everybody out of the music tents we joined some Polish bongo drummers by the beach for a session and some bongo training (I'm not quite King of the Bongo yet, but I'm on my way), before the weather declined and forced us back to our tents.

Stay tuned for days 8 and 9 - coming up very soon (I hope).