The Kingdom - part 2

Well, I am back. And, after 4 hours drive in the lashing rain, exhausted.
Today was really miserable weather-wise. Rain, rain, rain, not one moment of respite, not one ray of sun. Everything looked dull and all views were masked by the foggy effect of blustery rain. So I decided to skip any scenic road, and focus on anything I could do indoors instead. And Kerry seems to be full of little art galleries and studios here and there, at the end of impossibly narrow and convolute roads, often with grass growing in the middle. I met really nice people in the two galleries I visited, a German lady called Anke, who owns the Sneem Art Studio and Gallery, and then Etienne Muller, from South Africa, with whom I had a long chat at the Brushwoods Studios in Parknasilla Woods, in Sneem. Already the location sounds romantic, doesn't it?
Well guess what! In his family, almost everyone paints (his sister, wife, mother, daughter, and himself) and writes (his mother, his son, himself, his dad I think) so they have the art gallery to exhibit everyone's work, and they also self-publish their books. We talked a bit about what self-publishing involves, and it seems to be much more interesting, and less painful than what I thought. Definitely something to look at when I have finished writing a book. It is funny how I rejected the idea the first time I heard about it, but then it keeps coming to me through the people I talk to! OK so I open up and allow this idea to be part of my possibilities too...
Overall, this trip was beautiful. A lot of great sceneries and landscapes, but that wasn't really the point. I think I got the point in a very fleeting experience yesterday. The weather was mixed, rain alternating with sun, but always very very windy. I was driving on the ring of Kerry, past Waterville on the road towards Derrynane. The road is quite narrow there, and hugs the mountain tightly, so on the left side of the car, there are these huge panels of what seems to be red slate, in the side of the mountain. And little streams rush down the slate, and waterfall onto the road right beside the car. I was driving, slowly, right beside these huge rocks, and looking at the water streaming down them when I felt something tighten in my stomach and throat, and had that sudden short realisation that I had reached somewhere very deep in my core. I have no idea what it was. I would have liked to cry, but the moment didn't last long enough for tears to flow. Somehow, even though I am not sure what to do with that experience, I know that that's exactly why I took this trip.