Exit Letterkenny area, off to Maghera and making our way back home.

A very pleasant Surprise

We were up early to pack the car, have breakfast and be ready for our guide who would lead us to Strabane.  We were on our way by 10:10AM and followed Martina to Strabane where we waved as we went our separate ways.  We turned on the road to Dunnamanagh and Claudy to get on the A6 to Maghera.  All was going well until we met a tractor trailer truck that hauled liquids on this very narrow twisty 2 way road.  We saw him coming at speed towards us on a section of the road where a stone wall was on one side and the oncoming very narrow lane on the other.  How we did not collide is beyond me but we just looked at one another and figured that some one was looking after us.  Following that unnerving event, the drive to Maghera was uneventful.
We again had to ask directions, so we picked on a local realty office and they were most helpful.  We followed the simple directions, parked the car and were met by a group of ladies who had gone to a great deal of effort to make a delicious lunch for us.  We were extremely surprised as I understood we were meeting only Briege (Irish for Bridget) McKinley (in the checked shirt), the secretary of the parish.  We had planned to drive to Swatragh (Parish of Killelagh) where the Rev Nathaniel Inch (3rd GGF) had served for many years from 1820 to 1843.  Briege had given us the notion that it may not be worthwhile as the church the Rev. Inch served in was in ruins as was the graveyard.  The "new"church was built in 1855 and in a new and more convenient location in Swatragh and 1855 is after the Rev.Inch died so a trip there would have been pointless.
The lunch was both delightful and informative and we really made to feel welcome.  We discussed what we knew about Rev. Inch and we received a most enlightening nugget of information from one of the ladies.  There was an old Irish custom of the mother-to-be who would return to her parents' home to produce the first grandchild.  We had always wondered why my ggf , Henry Carre had been born at Killelagh, Derry in 1833 when Rev. Henry T. was a curate at Rosnakill in northern Donegal.  The town history buff and the longest living continual resident of Swatragh were most interested to learn of what we knew about Rev. Inch's descendants.

1. Welcoming ladies and Briege McKinley (checked shirt in the rear) - Denise and Eric in the front.

2. The lady taking picture 1 is in the back row most left.

We said our goodbyes and we drove one lady home as she had neglected to bring her walker.  We headed out on the highway to find the Killunaught B&B.  All was going well until we turned off the main highway onto the Feeny road.  Suffice it to say we saw a great deal of interesting and scenic areas and roads of Ireland without finding the B&B.  We eventually stopped, and asked directions -  something we were getting used to.
After 3 tries, we finally arrived and our host Delores was very glad to see us.  She had turned on the heat to ensure we would be comfortable. That was a very nice gesture.  We were tired and feeling a little sad as, next morning, we would be starting our way back to the Donegal airport which meant our trip was almost over.  Delores served tea and the proverbial sweets and we just sat.  We had a great chat and we decided that we were not going out to dinner so Delores made each of us a roast beef sandwich for our dinner.  We offered to pay for the sandwich but she refused and told us to just enjoy, which we did.  We retired to our room about 10 ish and Denise decided to have a shower.  Alas, there was no hot water and we mean no hot water.  Dolores discovered that one of the other men staying there had left the  hot water tap on so Denise had a cold shower.  Not a high point for her.

 Starting our return travel that ends up at home

Up at 8:00 AM and had a slow easy breakfast, said goodbye to our host and started on our journey back to Carrickfinn.  Delores had strongly encouraged us to follow the sign through Derry/Londonderry and we did with great fear and trepidation.  With the directions in hand and very good signage we breezed through Derry/Londonderry and headed towards Letterkenny.  We made excellent time so we felt comfortable stopping at our Mountain View B&B to have tea with Susan.  She was very glad to see us and made us feel very welcome with the, again, tea and sweets.  She had even baked breads and sweets in hope that we could stop by.  We spent about an hour chatting and said our final goodbyes.
We headed through Churchill and through Glenveagh National Park.  The scenery was beautiful and the picturesque villages in the valleys were very similar to postcards we had seen.  We arrived at the Donegal Airport and checked with the people there as to what we needed to do the following day to ensure no glitches with our flight to Dublin tomorrow.

Monument outside the County Donegal Aiport

 Following that, we left for Limekiln B&B and said hello again to Jim and Rosemary.  This being our last evening in County Donegal, we decided to go out to dinner at Caisleain Oir Hotel.  We both ordered a pint of milk with our dinner and it came in a Guinness glass.  The look we got from the locals as the milk was delivered to us was like we had just completed a sacrilegious ceremony.  It was a very funny moment for us.
We were up early for breakfast as we were anxious about being on time for our flight to Dublin.  We should not have been concerned as everything went well.

Traffic tie up on the road to County Donegal Airport (aka a herd of cattle)

We landed and there was a very long queue because, for some reason, the authorities wanted to see everyone's passport.  We eventually got over that hurdle and proceeded to the area to get our luggage.  Got our luggage and headed to the pickup point for our Radisson Blu Hotel.  Beautiful hotel, great meal and we retired early as we had security to deal with etc with regard to our flight back to Canada.

Denise and I passed the security scrutiny with flying colours and, after a three hour wait, were "herded" on to the plane and literally squeezed into our seats.  It was a very long and boring flight back to Toronto.  We landed, went through customs and retrieved our luggage with no difficulty at all.  We felt a huge relief as we did not have any luggage issues in the 6 flights we took on our trip.  There was almost an hour to waste until our Simcoe County Air Bus would arrive to take us back to Collingwood.  
We arrived in Collingwood without any issues, where Laura was waiting to greet us with two Tim Horton's coffees.  What a wonderful welcome home!

Once Laura got us back home we did a partial unpack and were sent to bed by our daughter as we were exhausted.  I was surprised at how long it took to readjust.  So, our journey is ended.  We now have a lot of fond memories of those we met and wondrous memories of what we had seen.