Things are coming together

We've had a lot of logistical planning and things on the go lately. But it's all starting to come together. 

Yesterday, I confirmed my appointment for the laser repair to my eye at a clinic in Belfast. And, they can do it this coming Friday!

I did some shopping around and checked with various clinics along our route in Belfast, Dublin, Cardiff, and London.

It's amazing how varied the pricing is. For one eye, prices ranged from £395 to £650. And long wait times at the major public hospitals, where you can also pay out of pocket. The cheapest was in London, but we are going to be busy enough with Cameron and visiting that it didn't make sense to waste a day, or even half a day, taking care of this eye situation.

I decided on a clinic in Belfast at £450 ($756 CAD, $571 USD). And as I said, they will do it this coming Friday. My appointment is at 9:15am. They do the consultation and the procedure same day. Other clinics wanted to do the consultation one day, and the procedure at another appointment.

For perspective, our ophthalmologist in Turkiye would have done it all same day for $200 USD cash. But then of course we would have had to get there, pay for accommodation, etc. It just didn't make sense. I did have a conversation with him about it though. He says it's a common, simple, 99.9% risk free procedure that takes minutes. It is so expensive because the equipment to do the job is expensive.

So, that's looked after, Cameron's flight tickets are bought, our ferry to Wales is booked. Things are coming together. Next on the agenda is to work on selling Max.

Yesterday, we drove to Maghera Beach where there is a big waterfall and some sea caves. The weather didn't look great, but once we arrived it cleared up a little. In fact it turned out to be quite a lot nicer than what they were calling for.

The drive there was very scenic.

Glengesh Valley viewpoint.

Glengesh Valley.

Just a beautiful drive.

Scenery along the way.

The tide is out. 

This is when you want to be visiting sea caves.

Maghera Beach.

Maghera Waterfall is really nice.

Me!

Lots of free parking at the waterfall. Next stop was the beach and sea caves. There was no free parking to be had there though. An entrepreneurial farmer had moved his fence back 10 feet and made some parking space, and he had a guy charging €5 per vehicle. I asked if the charge was only for parking, and he said yes. So it's free if you are just walking? Yes. So we hopped in Max, and drove the one km back to the waterfall and walked to the beach and caves. I hate paying for parking.

As always, watch the tide times.

Maghera Beach.

The first cave looked interesting, but the water to get in was fairly deep.

Ruth, doing some exploring.

Ruth.

It looks like I must be standing in the water to have taken the photo above, but it was just a pool left over from the tide.

There are some interesting caves!

Heading into another one.

Notice the small waterfall on the left.

Me!

Inside, looking out.

Ruth, seeing what there is to see.

Lots of fun exploring.

Then we drove up to the town of Dungloe where there is a Lidl grocery store. Did some shopping, then parked overnight in a free lot in town. 

Because of my appointment in Belfast this Friday, we have to accelerate our schedule a little. We were going to run out of time anyhow, but now we have a deadline. So we're headed into Londonderry (Derry), Northern Ireland today. 

Last night, we watched the movie Bloody Sunday which documents the events leading up to the massacre by the British military that took place in Londonderry back in 1972. This gives us some good background knowledge for our visit.

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