We met up with Bob and Paulette at breakfast and then headed to the kitchen to learn a couple of traditional Cape Malay dishes that we enjoyed for lunch. We made a beef Bobatie and delicious Malva pudding.
After lunch, we headed to the waterfront in Cape Town and we’re scheduled to take the ferry to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent much of his 28 years in prison. Unfortunately, the ferry crossing was canceled at the last minute due to anticipated high seas. While it was not windy at the time, the afternoon became very windy and it was a good thing it was canceled. We rescheduled for the morning of our departure so we may have better luck then. The cancellation allowed us a bit of time along the waterfront tourist area and we saw some wonderful African crafts and watched some traditional song and dance.
Table Mountain from the Cape Town Waterfront
We also were able to take a car tour of the area and headed over to a beach with another great view of table mountain and we were able to watch some kite boarders taking advantage of the strong winds.
After the beach, we stopped at Bo-Kapp, a neighborhood made up of previous slave housing. The homes were originally rented to slave families but they were required to be painted white. Once freedom arrived, the slaves were allowed to buy the homes and painted the homes a. Varsity of bright colors to commemorate for freedom.
We finished the day with a drive up to Signal Hill for the sunset. The hill is about 1000 feet high and overlooks the city of Cape Town, the ocean and provides some great views of Table Mountain. Table mountain is very unique and you can see in some of the pictures the clouds that some rolling off the top of the mountain before they disappear. It looks like a table cloth being draped over the mountainside – very cool.
Before heading back to the wine estate, we stopped for casual waterfront dinner.
We arrived South Africa after a long flight from the States. For the first four nights we are staying at a wine estate outside Cape Town. We arrived in time for “sundowners” around the fire with a taste of Biltong (traditional South African jerky) and dried sausage appetizers before having a wonderful meal cooked over the open fire. Cooking Class starts tomorrow morning.
We are headed to South Africa and Namibia on a Wine, Cooking and Safari Adventure. Bob and Paulette are joining Cathy and me for a two week trip organized by our friends Sidney and Alison Bond at Le Calabash
Well, on Saturday morning, we headed east with Maggie toward her parents’ family farm in Carracastle.
Along the way, we stopped in Foxford for a tour of a Woollen mill. The mill is on the River Moy and, as it turns out, the river has some of the best salmon fishing in Europe. We ran into an Irish fisherman while walking in the town and struck up a conversation. He was wearing a Bass Pro Shop hat and vacations in the winter in Indian Shores near Tampa. Small world. Next trip I may have to arrange to try some fly fishing for salmon.
The tour of the mill was interesting but being Saturday, the machines were not running.
We moved on to Carracastle with Maggie telling us about the local countryside and her home. She pointed out several fairy circles (aka fairy forts, fairy rings or ring forts).
These stone walls were common throughout the western half of Ireland.
Legend has it that the rings are frequented by fairies or maybe as an entry to the underworld, and it is considered bad luck to go into or destroy them. Farmers often leave them untouched in their fields and do not farm the areas. They apparently date back thousands of years – back to the Iron Age or Bronze Age. During our time in Ireland, Maggie and Jo shared with us some wondeful stories of Leprechauns, banshees and other fairies. It was all very interesting.
When we arrived at the farm we met Maggie’s dad, Eddie.
What a wonderful guy. He built the guesthouse shown below by hand.
It was a great cottage to stay in, with a peat burning stove and was built in the historical style of similar buildings. The cottage started out with just a small historical foundation like the one below.
It was amazing to see what great craftsmanship went into the construction.
Once we got settled in, we headed down to road to visit with Richard, a local sheep farmer for a demonstration of his sheep dogs.
Richard was a lot of fun to talk with; he wasn’t short on opinions (including sharing his opinion of trump politics – generally positive, and the Catholic Church – not so positive). He told us some local history about when he was a boy and some of the local political issues during the time of the provisional IRA.
Oh yeah – the sheep dog demonstration was really cool – it was amazing to watch them work, moving the sheep around and singling out sheep for Richard on command. We learned not only about the dogs, but the sheep business in general.
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You may notice the paint on the sheep. Each farmer has a distinctive color and location of paint on his sheep to uniquely identify his sheep from other farmers’. With the number of sheep we saw out roaming on the roads in Ireland, I understand the need for the identification.
As it turns out, the sheep in Ireland are not generally raised for their wool – only for food. The sheep are bred for the high quality of the meat – Lambs for lamb meat – of course – and the sheep for mutton. Because of that, the wool is not of high quality. The sheep do get shorn to keep them cooler in the summer and to keep them from getting caught in vegetation and on wire fences. The wool is sold (at a very minimal price) and is generally exported for use in things other than clothing. It is interesting that with all the sheep in Ireland, that Irish wool is exported and they import merino and other types of wool to Ireland to make clothing.
Next we put on some Wellies and took a stroll to the peat bog with Eddie.
The bog is a short walk behind his farm and the ownership is shared by a number of other people in the area. Each person has their own area of the bog partitioned off, and they can harvest the peat to use as fuel in their homes.
Eddie had just finished building this peat hut in the bog. Over the next year or so, it will become covered in Heather and grass.
The traditional process of harvesting the peat is very interesting. A squared off trench is dug using an L-shaped shovel and the rectangular logs are then laid out to dry for several months.
Cathy was quite the peat farmer.
They have to be turned about halfway through the drying time and are then stacked in tepee shapes to help dry them out.
They come out of the ground very wet and heavy like a shovel full of mud – but are fairly light when fully dried they can then be stacked and used just like firewood in a fireplace or wood stove.
The peat bog can be anywhere from a few feet to dozens of feet deep. Over 10% of Ireland’s electricity is generated by burning peat. There are modern ways of farming the peat with machines that mix the various levels of peat in an area and produce the rectangular blocks but the laying out and drying is virtually the same.
We had a dinner of local cheese and some leftovers from previous days’ travel picnics and at about 8 pm had a memorable music evening at the farmhouse. Maggie arranged for some local musicians to come by and we had a traditional Irish music delight with the room lit by an oil lamp and the peat fire.
We (actually just I ) sipped some Irish whiskey as we listened to the songs and stories and even we learned a couple Irish dances. It was a magical evening that we will not forget.
At the end of the music, Eddie invited me to go down to the local pub with him for a pint(s).
It was a great pub.
The area has a population of about 750 and I was the only non-Irish person there and likely the only person not from the local area. Everyone was very friendly and I was introduced to a bunch of really nice people.
They had a band playing – of all things – American country music – which is quite popular in Ireland. After the band finished up there were several a capella songs from several of the folks there. Eddie invited a friend over to our table and he sang a beautiful traditional Irish folk song. A great way to end a really special day. Eddie’s wife was kind enough to come pick us up in the wee hours of the morning so we didn’t have to walk back to the farm.
Our time at the farm was a great way to spend our last evening before heading back toward Dublin.
On Friday morning, we were picked up from our two night stay at Ashford Castle by Maggie Dooney. Maggie and her partner Robbie run Little Gem Tours, the company we used for our time in Ireland.
Maggie was delightful and did a wonderful job escorting us in the last few days of our trip.
We left Ashford Castle and headed toward Westport in County Mayo. We spent the morning at Kylemore Abbey. We had the heaviest rain of our trip when we arrived, and while not a “desperate day”, we had some Florida-like rain for a bit.
the Abbey was constructed originally as Kylemore Castle in 1868. It took 100 men over a year to construct with 33 bedrooms, and 44,000 square feet. But only 4 bathrooms. Yikes! The castle was purchased by the Benedictine nuns in 1920 and was converted into an Abbey to house the nuns escaping bombing in Belgium during WWI. It is still active as an Abbey today. The Abbey had a school for girls for many years and the school finally closed just a couple of years ago.
The gothic church was a cool little sanctuary that the original owner built in honor of his wife after she died from dysentery while on a trip to the Nile. He built a “cathedral in miniature” for her final resting place
We enjoyed walking around the Abbey and the gothic church as well as the extensive walled gardens. The gardens went on for quite a ways and you could have spent hours there if you took time to look at everything. We didn’t. I’m not a big garden fan but these were pretty cool. Lots of different types of food plants and they originally had a number of glassed greenhouses where they grew tropical fruits. They had a monkey puzzle tree….we saw one in Norway last year; pretty cool. The flower in the hand is called fuschia.
From the Abbey, we headed on toward Westport and stopped at Croagh Patrick, locally referred to as “the Reek”. It is Ireland’s holy mountain and St Patrick is said to have spent 40 nights on it fasting and praying. It is the sight of an annual pilgrimage where people walk to the top (765 meters) on a very rough trail with jagged rocks. Barefoot.
I started the trek.
I didn’t get far.
Nearby we stopped at the National Famine Memorial. The memorial is a sculpture that commemorates the people who died in the great famine of 1845-1852. It is a sculpture of a “coffin ship” with skeleton bodies in the rigging. The ships were used to transport fleeing Irish people away from Ireland during the famine and many died on the overcrowded and unsanitary ships.
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It looked a bit like a ship from pirates of the Caribbean with all the skeletons hanging off of it.
Our last stop before Westport was to stop by a statue of Grace O’Malley. Grace was a pirate queen in the 16th century who ruled the nearby seas. Interesting Tampa tie – there is a crewe of Grace O’Malley in Tampa that participates in the annual Gasparilla Pirate festival.
We got to Westport in time to settle in and swing by a well-known pub called Matt Malloys. They had some very good traditional Irish Music, perfect with a proper pint of Guinness
On Wednesday and Thursday night, we stayed at Ashford Castle. The castle was established in 1228 and became a hotel in 1939 when it was purchased by the Guinness family. It has expanded a number of times through the years and doubled in size in the 1970s. Many noteable guests including queens and presidents as well as John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara who stared in The Quiet Man.
Here are a few pics from around the interior and around the grounds:
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The dark blue photo in the slideshow above is of the candle they set out and lit by the large tub during the turndown service. They ignored the socks drying on the tub faucet. I am a class act.
It is quite the place. Some of the noteable amenities include a billiard room with a 12 foot snooker table, a movie theatre, a falconry center, a skeet range, a restaurant in the old dungeon, and expansive grounds and gardens. You are greated by a doormen in top hats and a pair of Irish Wolfhound statues at the entrance. You also can meet the real pair of 160 pound Irish Wolfhounds who make a daily appearance in the lobby for photo ops.
We really enjoyed the billiards room and spent several hours in there both nights we stayed at the hotel. Mainly because it took us about that long to finish a game. If you haven’t played snooker, it is quite different from a regular pool table. Smaller pockets and rounded bumpers that are not forgiving. And 12 feet is a very large table. They had someone stationed in the room to help you with the setup and rules of play (and to tend the small bar) and we really enjoyed our time in there.
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What we enjoyed the most was the hawk walk at the falconry center. One morning, Cathy and I went out with one of the handlers to exercise two of the 15 or so hawks they have at the center. You walk through the woods and launch the hawks off your arm and they fly off to a tree – sometimes near you, sometimes not. You then signal them back and they come swooping in and land on your gloved arm. You then open your hand and reward them with a juicy piece of mouse or baby chick or beef in your hand. They keep each bird at a precise weight so that they are interested in flying for food but not too hungry. They get weighed and exercised every day and will sometimes hunt down small animals on their walks. We have some cool slow-mo video of them flying on and off our arms that won’t post on the blog.
We had had some very good food including a “tea” which actually was big enough for lunch.
Sorry – that last one is hawk food.
The breakfasts were very good. The buffet included a honey comb for fresh honey for your croissant and some single malt whiskey for your oatmeal.
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It was all a bit over the top, but fantastic service throughout the whole hotel. I had to borrow a sport coat to eat in the George V dining room. Two days later I returned it to the reception area. I had not spoken to the woman since we checked in and when she took the coat she remembered my name from two days before. And did a good job of pronouncing “Mr. Szelistowski “.
And we were probably the first people to ever stay at the castle wearing mismatched knockoff Crocs. Cathy had to buy some shoes on the trip when hers were hurting her feet. We picked up a pair in a discount shoe store in Edinburgh for 5 euros. About three days later she noticed that one shoe fit slightly differently and discovered that the crocs didn’t match. Not the hole pattern, not the design, not the sole pattern.
Overall, a really nice stay but certainly not a spurge we will repeat any time soon.
We started off Wednesday morning with a quick visit back to the cliffs of Moher before a liesuraly drive to to Ashford Castle and the Village of Cong.
It was a little clearer this morning so we spent a little time on the cliffs before heading on:
I got a little too close to the edge and had to climb back up:
We then headed off and on the way to Cong stopped at a couple neat stops. The first was a area called the Burren; an area of about 6 square miles of limestone at the surface with some very interesting formations. There is a National Park and an anchient megalithic portal tomb at Poulnabrone. The tomb is dated around the fourth century B.C. They placed the bones of people under the structure and 35 remains have been discovered there.
From there, we headed to the village of Cong where they filmed a John Wayne film in 1951 and much of the town centers on this. It is a story of an Irishman that left to seek his fortune in America and returns after becoming a successful prize fighter.
It was a pretty little town with a neat old abbey where we had a picnic by the Cong River.
We ended the day at Ashford Castle:
I will do a separate post on the castle; it was pretty neat.
We started out the day in Dingle, leaving after breakfast and heading up the coast to Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher. Here is the route we took to give an idea of its general location.
We cut across the Dingle Penninsula through Conor pass. I think we missed some really spectacular stuff because of the weather, but saw some beautiful scenery, in spite of it being a soft day.
From there, we headed north and crossed the Shannon River by Ferry.
We visited a spot called Loop Head with a lighthouse and a neat cliff walk.
The picture below with the big E in rocks is one of about 85 spots in Ireland where the Irish spelled out EIRE . It was intended to let German and other bombers know that they were over neutral Ireland during WW2. Many were numbered and once the locations were shared with the allies, they were actually used by allied airman on missions for navigation.
Here is the layout of many of the locations. It was not believed that there were many on the east coast, but a recent fire on the east coast of Ireland at Bray Head burned away a lot of the scrub and a new one was found.
Here is is a shot that better shows the head, Cliffs and the entire “EIRE”. Not my pic
After our time at Loop Head, we “headed” to The Cliffs of Kilkee for a picnic lunch:
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Our driver and guide Joe said people fish from the rocks and we saw some guys unloading some fishing gear and we headed out toward the water. When we reached the end of the path, I expected to see a trail down to the water where the people would fish from the rocks. Instead, we found guys casting from the tops of the cliffs which are 75 feet above the water. It was a LONG way down. It took a long time for them to retrieve each cast.
We saw them pulling up some mackerel on what looked like big sibiki rigs. Here are a couple on non-trip pics to give you a better idea:
They got pretty darn close to the edge as they made their casts and it was windy. I found an article on-line where an angler died a couple years ago fishing in this same spot when he fell trying to unsnag his line.
We we finished the day at the Cliffs of Moher. Wow! It was foggy so not the best shots but you still had a great view of an awesome area. I was nervous about walking to the edge of the 75 foot cliffs at Kilkee. The Cliffs at Moher are up to 702 feet and again no railing and the trails lead right up to the cliff edge.
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If you look carefully at the shot below at the first cliff from the right, you can see someone standing alone right on the edge of the point and it gives you some perspective on the size:
You might have to zoom in to see them.
I finally got up my nerve to stand on one foot and tangle my other foot over the edge:
We left the town of Kinsale on Sunday morning and headed to the Dingle Peninsula. Here are a couple parting shots of Kinsale that I took the morning we left.
We had a great parting breakfast at the Old Presbytery Inn:
And hit the road. (four kinds of meat if you include the white and black pudding)
Here is is a map to give you an idea of where we are and where we are heading. We are in the very southwest corner of Ireland. We are heading up the coast over the next few days and will end our trip cutting across back to Dublin over the weekend . The southwest coast of Ireland is very rugged (at least by Irish standards).
We had an easy day of traveling and spent some time in the Killarney National Park:
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And had a nice picnic on the grounds of a Muckross house which is located within the park and on the shore of Muckross lake. The estate has hundreds of acres of property and is a “calendar house” with 365 windows and 52 fireplaces.
From Killarney, we went on to the town of Dingle, another colorful town but this one located on the Dingle Peninsula. It was a beautiful drive and the town was great. About half the size of Kinsale, but with 900 people it still had 58 pubs. Many of the pubs double as other businesses during the day such as a bike repair shop, a hardware store and a leather shop. Many of the pubs had music and we listened to some good Irish music both nights we were there. We stayed in a modern 14 room inn overlooking the bay.
The town is located on Dingle Bay and on Monday morning we went out sea-kayaking. It was a 3 1/2 hour trip and we headed to the mouth of the bay (much rougher than we were used to – but fun and manageable). We went into a cliff side cave in the kayaks and got a glimpse of the resident, semi-tame dolphin that lives in the mouth of Dingle Bay.
We spent the afternoon driving around the Penninsula, getting caught in Dingle rush hour,
Saw some of the local sites, including this clochan, which dates sometime between 400 – 1200 ad.
We finished the day with some hikes along the cliffs:
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And got a little too close for my taste:
On the way back to town, we stopped by the Dingle Crystal workshop run by Sean Daly and his sons. He was a master cutter for Waterford for a number of years before opening his own shop. There were about 5 people in the gift store portion of the workshop and Sean invited us back to watch him cut some crystal. It was amazing. With just a few rough lines drawn on the glass, Sean would cut deep intricate patterns in the stemware. Beautiful stuff. We picked up a couple tumblers that really captured our interest.
Will pick up with Tuesday morning and our day of cliff walks next….
We arrived in Ireland about 10 am on Thursday, August 9th and were able to check into to Buswell Hotel. It is a little boutique hotel, pretty central to the city Centre and was across the street from some government buildings. We learned that the hotel had a lot of history because of the proximity to the government buildings and the dignitaries that stayed there. According to our guide, the hotel has been the site of many government negotiations and deals.
We spent the afternoon walking around and getting a feel for the city. We spent some time in the museum of the General Post Office, the site of the Easter uprising. I knew nothing of Irish history and learned that this was the real start of the Republic of Ireland breaking away from England.
We also strolled through St Stephen’s Green, a beautiful park with lots of meandering paths and ponds, very lush vegetation and lots of people out enjoying the weather.
That evening we had a good dinner at a pub and wandered back through the touristy entertainment district called Temple Bar. Temple Bar is the name of the district as well as a famous Irish pub. We enjoyed another pint of Guinness and listened to some very good Irish music.
On Friday morning, we were picked up by our guide Joe from Little Gem Tours. After a quick drive through the city (and past the Guinness Storehouse), we headed south toward the town of Kinsale.
On our way to Kinsale, we stopped by and climbed the round tower of Kildare:
and took a walk through ruins Dunamase Castle from the 12th century:
Kinsale
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It’s a charming little seaside village of about 5,000 people. Like most of Ireland, the population is growing but not near as populated as it was before the famine. In 1821 Kinsale had over 7000 people. In 1961 it was down to about 1800 but is back up around 5000. Lots of little B and Bs and good restaurants. It has an interesting history – the battle of Kinsale was fought here in 1601 which actually helped lead to the splitting of Ireland centuries later. In 1914, the Lusitania was torpedoed offshore and the survivors were brought to Kinsale where the inquest was held.
On Friday night, we ate at Fishy Fishy (a name Benjamin would love), and found some more local music after dinner.
Saturday morning started off with a great walking tour with Barry and we learned quite a bit about the town and it’s history.
Then off to Charles Fort on the Harbour at Kinsale, for a self guided tour of the fort in a light misting rain.
This is apparently common weather for Ireland although it is our first day of it. They call a day like this a “soft day” and and day with heavy wind and rain would be referred to as “desperate “.
Next we stopped off in Cork and did some picnic shopping at the English Market. It dates back 230 years and is a great place to get some local foods
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We have really enjoyed getting to understand some of the local phrases and customs. We spent some time with the innkeeper of our B and B watching the first half of the quarter finals of the All Ireland Gaelic football game and learning a few of the finer points of the game. You play for your home town and can progress up to representing your county in the national league. Players are not paid and never change teams, but play in front of crowds up to 80,000. They all have regular jobs and just play for the pride of their local communities.
The other Gaelic sport that is played is Hurling and was described to us as a cross between field hockey and murder:
would love to catch part of a game before we go home .
Found this cool looking plant growing wild along the side of the road. Packed a bunch to bring home:
Our last stop on Saturday was Blarney Castle. Beautiful grounds but we were not willing to wait almost an hour to kiss the Blarney Stone. We did enjoy the expansive grounds, trails and gardens
It was a little clearer this morning so we spent a little time on the cliffs before heading on:
From there, we headed to the village of Cong where they filmed a John Wayne film in 1951 and much of the town centers on this. It is a story of an Irishman that left to seek his fortune in America and returns after becoming a successful prize fighter.
It was a pretty little town with a neat old abbey where we had a picnic by the Cong River.
And hit the road. (four kinds of meat if you include the white and black pudding)
Tampaskis Travel 