Ireland, Wales and the England – the end

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Wouldn’t you know it; our run with fine weather came to an end when it was time to take the ferry across to Ireland. Was this the true English summer we about to experience? Ten days into the trip and this was the first real rain that we had experienced; could the spell of the Sunshine Bus be wearing off? No, by the time we had chugged across the Irish Sea things had cleared up and away we went to explore another tourist place where there were 27 coaches and 975,000 tourists…
Geoff held some misgivings about travelling in Ireland, and with our first overnight stop being Londonderry he was in no hurry to get there. But there was nothing to worry about, and we had time to walk around the top of the (old) city walls before dinner. It was a fascinating experience with several ancient gates through the wall, all having a different reason for being. A whistle-stop is no basis for making a firm assertion about the place, but the residents of Derry/Londonderry seem to have found a general peace with one another. With July 12th being the traditional date for “the marches”, we were to find that the tension between the loyalist and the Jacobites, the Protestants and the Catholics, is still festering not far below the surface with bloody riots breaking out in Belfast. Fortunately Belfast was not on our itinerary. It is difficult to understand how they can keep their “outrage” after 400+ years, and frankly when you view the coverage, it is hard not to conclude that the participants are nothing more than young thugs who would rather a fight than a feed.
Perhaps a more accurate perspective on the Irish was gained when we were treated to a jaunting cart ride through the Killarney National Forest. For those not familiar with a jaunty as it is known, and its jarvey or driver, they are little horse-drawn trays that seat about 6 in the back and 2 more with the driver at the front. Our jarvey was a young chap with a particularly cheeky sense of humour and there was a real risk of the passengers in the back falling out as they laughed so much at his endless jokes. The forest is a huge parkland in the middle of the town and we trotted through it for about 40 minutes seeing deer, castles, lakes and many joggers and people with their dogs out to enjoy themselves in the beautiful scenery.
We had 2 days in Killarney, and a lovely little town it is to be sure. But they do have a quaint way of describing things. As you would know Killarney is in the county of Kerry, and everything is defined by county by the way, and day two was a tour of the Ring of Kerry. Well G thought that was a place of historical significance, especially when told that the coach drivers had agreed a convention to only do the tour in a counter-clockwise direction. No, silly things, the tour is a circumnavigation of the county of Kerry. Now I guess you all knew that except me… It took all day and there were times when we fully understood why all the coaches were travelling in the same direction. Talk about small and windy roads, we have nothing quite like it in Oz, and the skill of coach drivers are really something else.
The countryside has been spectacular, and despite being nearly the middle of summer, the fields have been spectacularly green. Genuine emerald green; but although it appears extraordinarily fertile, any open space (farmland) is divided into small allotments (>2 hectares in many cases) by dry-stone walls. These walls are a by-product of the stone and rock found everywhere, just under the surface, and in many cases it has been only the larger stones that they have bothered to clear, with many fist sized rocks still evident in the ploughed fields.
Currency has been a bit of a trick, with England being in the EU but sticking with their Sterling and because Scotland and Northern Ireland is part of the UK, they use Sterling as well. However Southern, or the Republic of, Ireland is a separate country and are also in the EU, they have chosen to use the Euro as their currency. But it is not a real problem as you can change your Sterling for Euro’s in any UK Post Office before passing over???? Talk about having your haggis and eating it too.
Needless to say, Marg has dealt with the currency easily, finding many many places to leave it in exchange for more clothes and shoes which are going to have to be put into yet another box to be posted home. Yes, the tour has definitely done a lot to revive the economies of England, Scotland and both Irelands! Hard to believe, I know, but we have somehow managed to end up in so many “tourist destinations” that all seem to have some “must have” item that is unique to that location. If I have any criticism of the tour, it would be that there has not been enough for the blokes – perhaps a trip to a distillery or a kit car factory… oh, I forgot I am doing that when we get back to London.
Day 19 saw us in perfect sunshine again as we took the fast ferry (2 hrs. instead of 4+ hrs.) from Dublin to Chester. Back to Sterling, but not much else changed. The countryside is still much the same - green, green, green and little streams and rivers running everywhere: oh, that we had so much water back home. As we made up a few unscheduled hours on the ferry, our tour director suggested that she could do a Beatles tour of Liverpool (which was not on the itinerary, so you must not tell anyone at Insight) much to the delight of the 2 young Americans (and 30 not so young Aussies). This was a fascinating trip as we also took in the village that was created by William Hesketh Lever, the founder of the Lever (& Kitchen) bath and laundry soap empire. Now I have to say that it takes a very keen eye to pick the difference in all the houses in the U.K. (not counting the really historic ones), but Lever’s Port Sunlight was an amazing site. He deliberately had houses built in the estate/village that were unique to each other. There were banks of ‘terrace’ houses, stand-alone homes, semi-detached homes and all placed at different angles to each other on streets that incorporated curves and squares. He provided a swimming pool (obviously way too far before his time as it is now a parking lot!), community hall and a pub. The pub was originally a temperance pub, but on the wish of the people in the estate, he had it licenced. Totally amazing. As far as Liverpool was concerned it was a very interesting insight into the lives of the individuals that were the Beatles, but I will not bore you with that now you will have to wait for the slide night when we get home.
Ok, here we are at Day 22 (of our 21 day tour) and we set off from Plymouth in the rain. We cannot complain too much as we can really only count 2 other days when it was really wet. But this morning we really saw the English summer in full flush, and we had a stop at Stonehenge to do before we could sign off. A lot on the bus were not too sure that they needed to do ‘the rocks’ but it was on the way so in we went despite the monsoonal rain and gusty wind that erupted around us. You have never seen anything like it, and the best analogy is probably the MCG car park on Grand Final day. It was only 11.00 am but there were people, cars and coaches everywhere, all trying to find a parking spot. It was mayhem. Nonetheless, when the coach driver did manage to find somewhere to put his 45 foot vehicle, the rain had eased and we headed off to look at the stones. In once one sense we were lucky; as we walked around the circle we could see the road from London off to the East and it was a total traffic jam as far as the eye could see.
Anyway, we are now back in London (and no, there aren’t any photos of London in this blog – that’s another subject for the slide night!) and the weather is improving once again. We plan this to be our last blog (until the next trip), so you will be spared this little piece of spam arriving in your mailbox for a wee while (oh bugger, now I have picked up the language). We hope some of you have enjoyed our ramblings as much as we have enjoyed rambling.
For those who are interested in such trivia the total trip distance was 4980 miles or 8300 kms in 22 days.
Geoff was a bit enthusiastic in saying the weather was improving. At the moment it is raining and very cold and windy (and if I say so, it must be).

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Photos

Port Sunlight
Not spectacular in its self, but absolutely remarkable when you consider that it wa sbuilt for workers at a factory and when it was built.

staion by the river
That is pronounced khlangollen or something like that!!!

Ludlow lunch break
Ok, I was not built by a master builder, but I am 300 yrs old!

Bath - Royal Row
The floral displays al over the British Isles have been amazing. I couldn't help putting this one in.

Killer Herring Gull at Looe
These things are about twice the size of an Aussie gull, and will fight you for dinner!