Going Home

International flying can get the best of us as we pass through several check points, taking out our liquids, taking off our belts and shoes, showing our passports and boarding passes, and answering the  security questions, but I guess it should make us feel safe. Since we travel with only a backpack and can't shop along the way, we hit the duty free shopping for some trinkets to take home. Then we hit the jackpot! We got into our three seat row and no one took the third seat so we have three seats for our eight hour flight home! Of course it was cloudy, but it did clear as we got to the west coast and we couldn't believe it, but we were able to see Croagh Patrick, the mountain we had climbed, from the air. The was special as well.

Some thoughts:

--We never went to a pub, but there is a whole culture of pub crawling. It is only one aspect of a very diverse people.

--We met a wealth of people who were so willing to give two wandering Americans help, instructions, directions, hospitality, etc.

--Those on the tour buses may make it to the popular tourist destinations, but they miss so much. We would overhear people talking about sights and commenting that they were underwhelmed. Had they eschewed the buses and walked the land, they could experience so much more like we did. As our host in Derry, Thomas, said, "You saw the real Ireland".

--If you wonder how the tobacco industry stays in business, visit Ireland. Smoking is alive and well.

--Craic (pronounced "crack") is the word the Irish use for storytelling and merriment (especially in the pubs). So to hear someone say, "we had some good craic last night" kind of made us laugh. We even passed one establishment called "The Craic House".

--The food was very good in Ireland. We sampled many things, for example, black and white pudding, pastries, soups, stews, fish and chips, brown soda bread and much more. 

--There are a lot of sheep in Ireland. Their primary use must be wool as we never saw it in a menu.

--it really does rain, even if the forecast called for sun, there would be at least a few rain drops.

--Boggy land is wet and mushy and not much fun hiking. Then again we didn't hike through the bog, it was more like jumping from one clump of grass or rock to another.

--People in Ireland are not early risers. Even businesses who specialized in selling coffee and breakfast food didn't open shop till after 9 a.m.

This adventure in Ireland was very special. It may not have been as "Epic" as our journey on the Camino De Santiago in Spain but it certainly was fun, challenging and awe inspiring. It's a beautiful land, rich in culture and history and full of interesting people. We saw geographical phenomena that pictures don't adequately do justice. We saw the ruins and remnants of a country that has experienced war and other hardships. We also tackled physical obstacles that we will never forget. We never thought that we would be able to hike over six hours in the rain on poorly marked trails, and then have no dinner or water for the night, but we did it and I think it will help us to better understand the hardships others go through in life. It certainly made us appreciate the six kilometer ride we got to town in the morning and the one place that was open for breakfast. We truly received a wealth of blessings in many forms along our travels.

We will close this blog with an Irish Blessing that we read many times along the way:
May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Click here for pictures

Derry (Londonderry)

On the train, our first train ride, and it took us along the coast. It was comfortable and the scenery enjoyable. We arrived at dusk and decided a taxi would be prudent as we didn't know the area and we were quickly at our B&B. Time to clean up and plan for tomorrow. Derry is a 400 year old walled city and the entire wall is still intact. We had breakfast and met Thomas, the owner, and had some great conversation. Wish we could have visited with him longer as he is a hiker and we had much to share with one another. We walked the entire wall and then found a cafe for a bite to eat before taking the train to Belfast and the bus to Dublin.

At our Holiday Inn Express ( yes, our last night in an airport corporate hotel ) we bathed and readied our bags for the flight home.

Time for Northern Ireland

First, Northern Ireland is a different country than Ireland and it's part of the UK. We would need a different currency as well. Two bus rides got us to Belfast and one more got us to Coleraine. Now we needed money and one more short bus ride to get us to our destination of Bushmills. Our cards to get cash were not working:-(  We got some pounds using  our backup source and then got a bus ticket to Bushmills. Seven hours layer we were sitting in a cafe and enjoying a meal and trying to figure out how to solve our cash dilemma. After eating we were off to find a place to lay our heads and hopefully get Internet access to contact the bank. We accomplished both. The sleeping quarters were a bit cold, but we needed sleep for our hike across the northern coast the next day.

Morning came early as it sounded like a heard of rats scampering across the ceiling (never figured out what was making all the noise), back and forth for an hour and it was too cold and early to get out of our sleeping bags. We decided we would need to make plans to move on after our hike and we did.  The day was to be clear, but it was raining and windy. Our hope was it would clear a bit and it did, so we saw little rain throughout the day. So with transportation plans and bed arrangements made for the evening, we packed and headed out to find breakfast. The cafe we found had a great cup of coffee and some breakfast food plus some goodies we packed for later and some great info for our day of hiking. Off we went. The first two miles got us to the coast where we caught a bus that took up further east so that we could walk back.  The driver laughed as he let us off at the beach. The seas were rough and timing was important as we would come to a rocky area that would be impassable during high tide. It was quite a scramble over the rocks, but we made it only to find out we would have to detour to the road for two miles as the cliff side ahead had had an avalanche and was closed. Back on the trail, we were now on the cliffs of the north coast of Ireland and the next five miles would bring us to the park area of the Giant's Causeway. The wind howled to the point it was hard to put one foot in front of the other and often we would have one hand on the wire fence that ran along the cliffs. Each twist and turn took us higher until we were 100 meter high above the ocean. It was one of the more dramatic hikes and the scenery stunning. We did arrive at the park area where there were many people ambling around, but we felt so fortunate to be able to view and experience the whole geographical area. We walked back to town and had an early dinner and then boarded a bus so that we could catch a train that continued along the coast to Londerderry.

Our time around Athlone

As I said earlier, we got a lift from Westport to Athlone. It was a dreary morning with lots of rain and wind, but the ride was fun with two Irish ladies just a bit younger than us. They dropped us in town and for the next couple of hours it rained a bit on and off. We popped into a couple of small cafes when the rain fell. We had a warm bowl of potato and leek soup in one and coffee in another as we walked around the town. We arrived at the large fortified castle on the River Shannon and had a look around and it also had a tourist office. We had a long chat with the lady there as no one else was around and it is always good to talk to "real Irish" folks. 

We located our accommodations which were nice. We washed our clothes and hung to dry and were out again to look more areound town. We had an early dinner in a cafe near the river. Ed had fish&chips and I had the Irish stew, both were very good. We walked around bait more then retired to see what we could do the next day. We had hoped for better weather to cycle to Clonmacnoise, a monastic settlement dating to around A.D. 600, but it wasn't looking like a good options. So we went to sleep until the drunks started coming in around 1:30am and woke us. There is a big pub culture here with much drinking, adding to that the recessed economy and it becomes a bad mix. It is sad to see and the tourist really add to it as well. 

We awoke to what looked to be a nice day, but they were calling for winds around 20mph so we needed an alternate plan. We decided to rent a car. This was an adventure we had wanted to avoid as driving on the opposite side of the road, on narrow roads, and with a manual transmission seemed like a recipe for disaster. We knew there was a reason we purchased trip insurance and we could rely on it if need be. 

One small car rental location in Athlone with 2 or 3 cars to rent. We got the black sporty Opel GT and away we went. Okay, it was a little jerky at first, but Ed caught on brilliantly. We made a loop around the midlands. Our first stop was Clonmacnoise and is well worth a visit and then onto Shannonbridge. There we saw a heavily fortified fort. The River Shannon was often attacked by Vikings and others so there were seceral of these forts along the river. We went into a bar/visitors center called Lukers and we were delighted to talk to two Irish that were well aquatinted with area and were a wealth on information. Lukers wasn't an open bar but being renovated and was quite old with two build in wood stoves, one though to be the only Queen Victoria fireplace left. 

Our next stop was Birr and we were able to get a little lunch. Yummy! Then it was onto the Slieve Bloom mountains, which were more like foothills. We saw a sign for the Giant's Grave and we followed them onto some very narrow road, know as tracks. Lucky we didn't meet any other cars. It came to a dead end, but no tomb so we started walking for a mile or so and finally found it. A heap of rocks with a sign telling us it is a megalithic tomb of the ancient warrior Bladhma. Then we were off again of to another trail for a short hike through a wooded area. 

It was now late in the afternoon and we needed to get the car back. Ed really wanted to get over 100kpm and get the car in sixth gear and finally had his chance on a larger open road. We were zooming now and had a great day in the midlands.

Three Days on the Western Way

The Western Way is a long linear path in the western part of Ireland and would take a couple of weeks to complete. We chose a small section the ended with the climb up Croagh Patrick. The night before we began we spent the night at a Farmhouse B&B which was very nice and quiet and we were fed well. We arose to rain, but knew we had to set off as we had around 25km to travel. It rained and and the wind was stout at times, but we made it. Not all the small streams had bridges and they were too wide to jump across so our feet became wet early on. We nearly got lost on the mountain when the fogs/low clouds came in and the path was rocky, but somehow found our way. Around one in the afternoon we rang out our socks, but we were soon on a very wet boggy path soaking up more water. So around three we rang our socks out again. Just after five we arrived at our hostel, if you can call it that. The room smelled horrible and the water was non-drinkable. We had little food and could not shower so the best we could do was go to bed and get going in the morning.

Most people think Friday's that fall on the 13th are bad, but it was a great day for us. We woke around seven and packed our bags. Some of our things were still wet from the day before especially our shoes so we wore our sandals. We set off and the sun was peaking  through the clouds. Before we reached the main road a French lady came by in her little camper and asked if we wanted a ride. We did want a ride to next village 6km away so that we could get some breakfast and coffee, and some water and food for the day. It was a very small village, but had a hotel that was serving breakfast and it would cost ten euro each. It was our only choice so we ate a full breakfast and coffee, sneaked two slices of bread and two pieces bacon (what they call bacon, we would call country ham) into our pack and paid. But when she brought our change she said it would only be seven and a half euro each. I suppose we looked a bit rough as we hadn't bathed for a couple of days and had only a can of soup for dinner the night before and she had pity on us. At the small store we picked up a pack of cookies. We were off, but undecided on which path as we had on our sandals and feared getting into the bogs agains so in the end chose the road. We walked along a beautiful fjord and then turned towards some mountains hoping for a ride to our turn and got one about 3km before our turn. Although short, we were thankful as when they let us out and we turned north the sign said 20km to our destination. We started up small country road and then stopped to eat our bread and bacon and some cookies and we off again. We hadn't gone far and got a ride. A German girl that had been working in Dublin for many years and she took us to within a half a kilometer of our B&B. 

Our hostess wasn't home when we arrived so we sat out front and took in the sun. She did arrive home an hour later, but had forgotten to put us in her book, but she had room. When she found out we lived near Charlotte, she was excited as her son is currently living there. She fixed us tea and scones to enjoy after we bathed and did our laundry. She fixed a delicious dinner as well and we were off to bed. We ate a big breakfast and then Marian drove us to our starting point for the day. We look forward to seeing Marian again when comes to visit her son.

Today was our climb up Croagh Patrick and the weather was perfect. Most start in the car park and do an out and back, but started on the south side of the mountain. It becomes very rocky and steep. They don't have switchbacks so it is straight up the mountain. At times I was almost crawling and the full pack was a added burden. Once at the top you can see for many miles in all directions. There were many climbing today, but hard to tell how many made it. The walk down is just as hard and we missed our turn and ended at the car park with everyone else. On we walked, but did get about a 5km ride into Westport where we have a private room at a hostel. 

In the common area someone overheard us talking about taking a bus to Athlone tomorrow and has offered us a ride. That will save us a few euro!

Connemara - Day 2

Jumped out of bed and packed our gear as fast as we could and started heading down the road. A kind lady from France asked us if we needed a ride and drove us to the next town where we had an unexpected breakfast buffet. The kind waitress gave us a 25% discount. Two gifts before 9 a.m. We had mapped out a road walk as we were leery of another boggy walk and were weary from the previous day's journey. Our calculations were a bit off and it looked as if we were going to end up walking well over 30 km. But another kind hearted person stopped and gave us a lift which saved us many miles, helping us save our legs for tomorrow's adventure. Found our accommodations which are being run by a family that has a son trying to make a living on the eGolf tour in North Carolina. Resting here and preparing for the remainder of our time. 

The Western Way - Connemara 1st day - Hardest Hike Ever

Started our day with a great breakfast at Tiernakill B&B. A lovely oasis in a beautiful valley surrounded by the lush green mountains of the Connemara. But we couldn't stay. It was time to move on. Unfortunately, the weather finally caught up with us and the rain laid the smack down on us hard. As we ascended into the hills the rain and wind were relentless. Our raincoats and Goretex shoes could not withstand this amount of water. We had to cross many rivers (fast rushing downhill creeks). Joan had a slip going over one and submerged her whole foot. But it didn't matter after a while. We were so wet it felt like we had a gallon of water in each shoe. And at times, the trails were nasty, muddy bogs that were hard to get around (or through). We became mentally exhausted from trying to figure out how to traverse each section of trail. Words can't properly describe what we experienced today. Arrived at our hostel late this afternoon. Basically, another dump. The Albergues in Spain were so much better than these places and were far cheaper. It's amazing to us to see people drive into hostels and check in with large suitcases. I thought hostels were for hikers and cyclists. This hostel has no potable water. Seriously?  Tomorrow's a new day and we will make it a good one. Hopefully the weather will improve.

(Side note: in the midst of walking through the storm we met another hiker. His name was Andy and he was from Belgium. He told us that we were the first hikers he had seen in 70 miles!)