But now we are back and the cats were very pleased to see us.  Whilst Schrodi is frankly a bit of a tart and happily accepted V as a warm lap alternative to us (the photo shows him finding her clean clothes), Tora really only likes R and I.  Me in particular as he has spent much of his time since I got back trying (in vain) to have sex with my feet….

The pottery tour was interesting – particularly watching the traditional craftsmanship going into making the traditional baskets and flowers.  Some of the old photos were illuminating – in 1890s all the people in the workshop were men, but now at least 80% of the people doing the fine work were women.  I bought a nice vase for me and some dinner plates for N’s birthday – now all I have to do is find a place for the vase where the cats can’t get it.

We had just a bit of bother getting the boat turned round to leave the mooring.  It took several attempts and we may just have bumped it a few times – partially because it was a tight turn, partially because of the poor visibility, and partially due to over-enthusiasm by the Captain.

By the time we arrived at Devenish Island (Gaelic – Island of the Ox), the weather had improved a lot and we had a walk to see the remains of the monastery founded by St Molaise.  I was disappointed not to be able to climb the tower as it was locked – doubtless another stupid health and safety regulation.

Then we headed back to Enniskillen – we’d hoped to eat at Cafe Merlot but we got a bit carried away playing D&D and left it too late.  So we had dinner at the Linen Room which looked nice and had cheap drinks but rather indifferent food (tinned peas and about six chips with my steak).

Northern Ireland is not very hilly but we managed to find one hill with a great view of the Lough.  N and J did not tackle the climb very well (they do not take enough exercise) so by the time they got to the top we had been there for 15 minutes and had begun to think they had given up.

In the afternoon, we pootled over to Lusty Beg Island.  R was all for sitting on the boat in the sun with a drink, but N wanted to see some interesting Celtic stones which were on Boa Island.  All four of us set off with N informing us it was ‘just over a mile’.  After we had been walking for half an hour, R checked the map, to discover that this estimate was more than a little optimistic, and it was more like three miles each way.  At this point, R returned to his original plan and went back to the boat for a beer and a sleep – the rest of us went on and found the stones were well worth seeing, set in a tiny picturesque country graveyard.

We then had all the way back to walk, by which time my feet were very sore in the new deck shoes I would not have worn if I had known we were in for a long trek.

Finally, we set off for Belleek (home of the world famous pottery).  We had another great meal at the eclectic “Black Cat Cove” and fell into exhausted sleep back at our mooring.

While I am mentioning Norfolk – this was actually six years ago – and it interesting to reflect that the four of us then had the grand total of two electronic devices with a requirement for regular recharges i.e. two iPads (well we also had feature phones but they didn’t really need recharged often).  This time the tally was nineteen – J three (two WPs and an iPad), R four (iPhone, Android Phone, iPad, Linux Laptop), Me five (WP, Android, Surface, Fire, headphones), N six (two cameras, Android phone, Android tablet, Windows laptop, toothbrush), which made it a real challenge keeping everything running to the extent that we were fighting over the plug sockets.

We visited Tully castle, which was a ruin and looked very romantic in the sunshine.  The old gardens had been abandoned and had gone to seed, but the remnants of the box hedges and clumps of herbs could still be seen.

I’ve never seen such a place for wild flowers as Northern Ireland

Also the blossom has been pretty fantastic everywhere this year, but was particularly good here.

We had a nice lunch on our sundeck and then set off for our next destination – but disaster struck.  When we came in to the next jetty, the bow thrusters completely failed to operate.  The only engineer available from Manor Marine on a Sunday afternoon was already out on a call, so reluctantly we had to return all the way back up the Lough to where we started.  We then had to moor on a jetty with thousands of jet skis while we waited until we could be fixed the next morning.  Not a happy evening.

Then we went to see the Marble Arch caves which are part of a huge Unesco Geopark (I’d never heard of one of these before).  Apparently they were where the Beric Dondarion scenes in Game of Thrones were filmed – but I kind of doubt this now as it was never mentioned on the guided tour.  First we went on a brief boat trip and then we went round the caves.

We were told the story of how when they were preparing for the caves to be opened to the public in 1980s – some vandals broke in.  They threw stones at a huge stalactite and broke the end off it.  With some degree of luck, the broken bit fell on to the sandy beach and was intact, so after some research at the University of Belfast, they developed a special gel which they used to stick it back on.  As these things grow so slowly (1cm in 1000 years) it will be another 80 years before anyone knows whether it has ‘taken’ and started to grow again.

Then we went and picked up our cruiser.  I had ordered us a baseball cap each – N’s said “Captain” (because he drove the boat and parked it), R said “Security” (because that is what he is in to), mine said “Galley Slave” (because I made all the meals and cleaned up after everyone), J’s said “Drunken Sailor” (because, well….).  Needless to say J refused to be photographed in it.  The boat was great apart from two features a) the electrical power was off an invertor which would only charge our numerous electronic devices when the engines were on b) the toilets were a bit sort of basic.  You had to vigorously pump a handle to deposit “deposits” into a tank which was of strictly limited size, so we tried to set a policy of “if it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown – wait until you can go on shore”.  Some of us were better at following the policy than others.  The owners had put fresh flowers and a Bushmills miniature out for R.  R may be needing this as he finds boats stressful.

We set off with lovely weather and ended the day with another large, tasty and unhealthy meal in “The Mayfly Inn”.  I have a feeling I may need to be on a diet when we get back.