Day 11: Cute lamb and lovely family

Day 11 - Thursday, March 29th 2018: Rostrevor to Kilkeel 15 km / Total 232 km, 9°C, rainy

For my 1st time Couchsurfing, I had to make a phone call. In fact, the girl V'cenza, who I requested to host me, was in Cyprus, but her parents accepted to host me, I just had to call them to know where to go. And I was just hoping that they won't have a big Irish accent. Fortunately, it was fine, and I understood the information without a problem. It was a short walk, but along a big road, with no footpath all the time (75% without), and with rain. At a moment, I decided to walk along the beach, with less traffic. Unfortunately, the beach stopped, and I couldn't go further because of the sea level. So I decided to get back to the road and found a way. Well, it was weird, cause there were barriers everywhere, the grass was well cut, and suddenly there were stables with horses. Oops, I might be on private land and when I passed along the estate office, and men get out, looked at me, and asked if I was coming from the sea. Well not exactly from the sea, but from the seaside sure. So he explained to me there were 3 big guard dogs free in the estate and was really afraid that I could have been attacked. Well, I didn't see them. So I might be very lucky, or these dogs are making a very bad job here.

I finally reached my meeting point, and Heather, the mother, came to pick me up. The family is living on a farm, and they raised sheep (and cows, and gooses). They were absolutely fabulous with me. Heather served me some Irish stew for lunch and gave me some slippers so my shoes could dry close to the stove. She also helped me to dry my tent, putting it above the stove (so before it smelled the grass, now its smells garlic). And when their 2nd daughter, Pierha arrived, we went to feed the little lamb. It was so cute, born a week ago, so little, so sweet, I was so glad to give him milk. They are an artist family. Victor, the father, who only raise sheep for the meat (more benefits than the wool), has a studio on his farm. Heather also is an artist as she did art studies, and so their daughter Pierha is a graphic designer and really has talent! I talk a lot with Pierha, because she studied in Cornwall, and discovered there, that some English people don't even know that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, children don't learn about the troubles at school, and Northern Irish cash is not always accepted in England. It makes me feel that England doesn't really care about Northern Ireland. In fact, as Victor has Italian origins (2nd generation) he's catholic, while Heather is protestant, so their daughters went to integrated schools (mixed). Victor explained to me how Brexit will be complicated here, especially for the farmer who has lands on both sides, or whose land is crossed by the border. The dinner was great, Pierha cooked for us, we had monkfish, and Heather made a delicious apple pie. It was really great to share time with them, they are a great family, and Heather told me about great places to go on the West coast. And I was very lucky to spend the night in their house, because there was big rain and thunder, while I was in a quiet, peaceful, warm and dry place. In the morning I had a delicious big breakfast with porridge, which helped me for the walk. We took pictures, and Victor asked his friend Patrice in Dundrum if he could host me, and he agreed. How thankful I was to meet that family, and such good moments I share with them. I was very happy.