The crew at a crossroads: left to Dursey
Island, right to Castletownbearhaven, and
over the pass to Allihies, on the Beara Peninsula.
This was an exciting and varied trip. We started with a week on the
Isle of Man, attending the Millennium Homecoming convention of the North
American and World Manx Associations. Geoffrey's great grandfather was
from Sulby, Isle of Man, so he can trace his roots there. Geoffrey's
parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew and most of his aunts, uncles and
cousins were there too -- 24 relatives in all. Add to that another 150 or
so IOM descendants and their families, and you can sense what a great event it
was. We traveled by bus, foot, steam and electric locomotive to many
places on the island, saw Prince Charles (who came to town for the Tynwald
ceremony -- the IOM government's annual meeting of Parliament), and generally
hung out with our family. It was grand!
After a week of that, Camille and Geoffrey headed to Ireland for
nearly three weeks of bicycle touring on our tandem. We ferried to Dublin,
spent three days there, then trained to Cork, and bicycled 16 days through
southwest Ireland. Here are a couple of trip reports that we sent back
home via email from the road:
Sent From Glengariff on July 14th:
Hi All!
Camille riding in pilot's seat on the Beara Penninsula, approaching Kenmare
New return date just secured: July 27th. Original date was 22nd. We are
trying for an even later date. Same flight numbers and times (CO 25). We
hit the west coast of Ireland in Glengariff, County Cork. Typical gray weather,
but we have been fortunate to have only limited rain. Today we head for the tip
of the Beara Penninsula. We are avoiding the fabled Ring of Kerry due to tourist
traffic concerns.
Isle of Man was wonderful visiting with our 24 immediate relatives from
home, plus 200 more distant relations also on the tour. We spent some time with
two 5th cousins in Douglas and Sulby. Besides the familial aspects, seeing the
ancient history all around is fabulous. Castles dating back to early Vikings and
people like Saint Patrick in the 5th century, and even older civilizations going
back further. It is all pretty confusing without having the timeline in front of
me! Suffice to say everything here is old! The Guinness, Murphy's and Beamish are
great. I'm moving in to the Irish whiskies now. Yum. Think I'll have one after
this.
Camille doing great as stoker, and I am surviving as driver of our tandem.
From today onward the traffic will be pretty bad, due to the ugly Americans and
other tourists frequenting these coastal roads. (Mom: we'll be extra careful.
Camille has the rear brake and is keeping our down-hill speed under control.)
Road shoulders are non-existent.
Stellcom seems like a distant memory .... Lots of high-tech IT jobs here
in Ireland. Sort of a long commute, however.
Dublin was really interesting. Big, bustling city. We spent two nights in
the city and one night in Dun Leary, a suburb. Did our pilgrimage to Bono's (U2
lead singer) house, and chatted with the guard. Couldn't actually see the house
for the large iron gate.
People are very nice here, and go out of their way to talk to us.
We lit a candle for Ina Belle, Camille's recently-deceased grandmother at
St. Finbarr's abbey in Gougan Barra park yesterday. St. Finbarr operated his monastery
there in the 5th century, and went on to found the city of Cork and
established the Roman Catholic church there.
Love to you all.
Geoffrey and Camille
Sent From Tralee on July 24th:
Hello!
We are writing to you from the first cyber-cafe we've been able to get to
since the 14th, right next to our B&B in downtown Tralee. We've had wonderful
adventures since our trip began in Cork on the 12th -- 350 glorious miles
ago. Our 4 days on Beara Penninsula were really magical. That area is
still pretty rural, not too impacted by the 'Ugly American (and other
nationalities) Tourists'. (We, by the way, are not ugly:)
We skipped the Ring of Kerry completely, based on traffic worries and
advice from aquaintences along the way. We did however get a taste in the
town of Killarney -- wow, what a tourist mecca! Such a culture shock
crossing the river from the vicinity of Tuosist on the Beara, and getting
into Kenmare with it's tour busses, shoppers and traffic jams.
High atop 1,200' Conair Pass
on the Dingle Peninsula
(photo: Heinz Pfeifer, Austria)
We've sought spiritual strength from the accomplishments of our hero Lance
Armstrong over these past weeks! What a champion! We've checked TV and newspaper
coverage every day to get our motivation. You can hear us chanting in
unison as we climb the hills: 'GO LANCE GO LANCE GO LANCE (repeat)'. On
top of his skill, he is such a good ambassador for cancer survivors.
Our average speed of about 10 mph for 350 miles pales in comparison to the
23 mph average over 3,000 miles that those brave cyclists rode. Wow. Our average
daily distance is about 30 miles, with lows in the teens and highs in the
40's (compare to 100+ per day for the big boys in France -- but hey, they
aren't carrying all the bags that we do!)
Another reason to celebrate USA: Tiger 'Steve Simpauco' Woods won the Grand
Slam at St. Andrews. He is totally awesome, blowing away the field by a 7
stroke lead. Go Tiger.
Weather report: We had our share of rain and trademark Irish gloom, but
for the last 6 days we've had the good fortune to enjoy wonderful sunny
days during the heat spell currently running here. It is perfect cycling
weather -- breezy, sunny, but not too hot. We are sort of looking forward
to a little more gloomy weather before we leave.
Most of our route is along the rocky and sandy beaches of southwest
Ireland. Venturing inland, we are seeing the narrow winding roads,
lined by miles and miles and miles of stone hedgerows, mostly overgrown
with vegetation (80% of all Irish wildlife now resides in hedgerows,
hence they are protected by law from destruction and trimming, especially
during the recent nesting season.) While the hedgerows are good for the
animals, they barely make up for the tremendous loss of the forests in
many of these areas -- completely (no trace left -- not even stumps)
destroyed in the 18th and 19th centuries by the likes of the Puxleys from
Cornwall, and others both local to Ireland and outsiders, who consumed
these forests for copper mining, construction, ship building and fuel.
FORESTS FOREVER!!!!! Let this be a tragic lesson that we can learn from
in our Country, which still has a chance to save our forest heritage (see
http://www.calwild.org). Go team.
We've managed at least a pint of stout per day for the duration of the
trip. Not sure yet if it has helped, in spite of the branding 'Guinness
for Strength' that we see on the advertisements. The pub culture is
really fascinating, ranging from small, dank holes in the wall to
intense, high-energy night-club venues. The camaraderie is great, the
smoke is character-building, and the experiences grand. The town of
Dingle, where we spent three nights, sports 56 pubs for
the resident
population of 1,500 people. This gives a whole new meaning to 'pub
crawl'. We tend to focus on the venues that offer traditional Gaelic
music, and we have not been disappointed.
Taking
some time off from drinking stout in the village of Dingle, to replace the freewheel and chain.
That's Paddy coming out the door -- he's run this little shop for
over 20 years.
We've carried with us a small micro-cassette recorder, which we have used
to capture many of the conversations, sounds and musical adventures that
we've experienced. We'll work these elements into our slide show, which
you are all invited to!
This has been a great way to learn the history of this area, from the pre-historic
people of the beehives, to the early Christian era of St. Patrick in the
5th century, and the various and sundry occupations and invasions over
the centuries by various secular and religious forces (Cromwell, the
Vikings, Strongbow and the Normans, the Danes/Norse, the British, a few
Nazis here and there, and so on.) The stone ring forts, ancient
churches, graveyards, Ogham stones, beehive dwellings and oratories built
of stone without mortar 1,500 to 2,000 years ago. (I wonder if our home
on Alkaid drive will be standing in the year 4,000.)
Current return date is still July 27th, pending further attempts to move
it back to the 31st or 1st, subject to wait list availability of seats.
We've camped 4 or 5 nights, and B&B the rest. Camping costs us about
10 pounds, versus 26 to 30 pounds for most B&B's. Either way, we've
met really wonderful people this way. The B&B hosts are having us
into their homes, with their families and children, and we feel like we
are really getting to know the locals this way.
Here are some links to local sights. Eat your heart out!
http://www.traleetown.com
http://www.irishpeace.com/Ireland1.html
We're off today for points north: Killrush, and hopefully as far as
Gallway, before we end up in Shannon/Limerick on the 27th (unless we get
a later flight.)
Big day tomorrow: our 2nd wedding anniversary! The couple that tandems together
stays together!
Love to all,
Camille and Geoffrey
From home!:
After looking at our itinerary and the map, we decided to toss the tandem
on a bus and make some fast miles northward. From Tralee we rode the bus
to Gort, catching just a few glimpses of Limerick (boyhood home of Frank McCourt,
author of 'Angela's Ashes'). We arrived just in time for a couple of pints
of stout in the local pub, and a noisy night in our B&B next to the busy
road. July 25th, our 2nd anniversary day, Camille was presented with
single rose which Geoffrey dutifully wore in his rear pocket for the remainder
of the day. We rode through the sometimes strange looking countryside of
the Burren, characterized by miles of rocky ground made of limestone. Our
day ended in Doolin, the coastal village known for it's authentic folk
music. We camped in the quiet campground adjacent to the harbor, with the
Aran Islands visible in the distance. More pints and good music in the
pub, and we called it another day.
On our last day we pedaled in the vicinity of Lisdoonvarna, looking for
more of the fabled Burren rock, but not seeing too much of it. A forest
plantation, rural farms, and a couple of ancient castles provided the
scenery. We enjoyed a good drenching in the last of only three rain days
on the trip, then finished up with a WONDERFUL 1/2 hour soak in very hot sulfur
baths at the mineral spa in town. What a wonderful climax to our 450 mile,
nearly three week bicycle tour of the Emerald Isle.
In summary: the people were wonderful, the color was green, the traffic
was scary, the forests were G-O-N-E, the history was old and fascinating.
We had a great time, and look forward to more visits to this beautiful country.
