I've been re-reading "The Road Wet, the Wind Close: Celtic Ireland" by James Roy. It caught my eye many years ago and led directly to me visiting one of the world's more obscure and isolated locals - Skellig Michael, off the coast of County Kerry, Ireland. In re-reading, I came across this:
We have come to Skellig Michael because of what we've read. [How true!!] We find ourselves drawn to obscurities, or perhaps it's just the urge to go places where no one else sees value. For whatever reason, on this island, I think, is the very essence of Celtic Ireland." Takes me right back there, to the cold and windswept day in a distant October, where just two of us had the monastic site to ourselves. Obscurity, of value, and Celtic essence.
Books, and not just travel guides, can be a great influence on future journeys. Whether Skellig Michael, or the Floating Tori Gate at Miyajima Island, Japan, or ... I've felt called several times to visit the non-Eiffel Towers of this world. And will continue to follow the call.
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