Aoife shuffled in the bed and slowly opened one of her eyes. It was brighter than she expected. She moved her arm from under the bed covers and reached for her mobile to check what time it was.

Damn it! It read 9.30am.

She needed to get up and get ready fast. She had to be at Stephen’s house in under an hour. Her alarms had failed to go off. Oh, would she ever learn?

Forcing herself to sit up, she took a moment to sit at the side of the bed. How she wished Stephen had been by her side the night before.

Realizing that the minutes were ticking by, she rushed in to the bathroom to shower. It was friggin freezing. But needs must.

This was normally her favorite part of the day but she was just so stressed. This day needed to be just perfect and it was off to a bad start.

.A quick blow dry of her hair and a touch of make-up and she was on her way.

Stephen and his Mum were already in the wheelchair modified van getting ready to go.

“Oh, so sorry I’m late.”

“Don’t worry love, we came out a bit early to get him all set up with all the straps and everything. You’d swear we were going to the moon or something..”

“Hey, Aoife I thought you were going to stand me up!”

“Nooo, I would never that!”

“She was just being fashionably late Stephen.”

Aoife sat in beside Stephen to the rear of the van. The seat was was small and cramped but she couldn’t have been happier.

It was only a short drive to where they were going. She had heard about the Gap of Dunloe during her school days. All she remember was that it had something to do with the last ice age and that it was a major tourist attraction.

The roads were perfect at first but gradually became rockier and narrower. Mountains appeared in the distance. After another few minutes, they came to a small white cottage and a sign sitting right in front of them stating that the road was closed.

His Mum roared back –

“Hope the two of yous are okay. We’re at the start of it now. Most people walk it but it would tough on the wheelchair.”

With that she squeezed by the sign and they were on their way.