Big Sky Country

Back to the 80's

A full plane but an easy direct trip to Seattle, Washington State USA, arriving around 6 pm local time after a 9 hour flight. No queues at all to get out of the airport or to get the Toyota Corolla rental car so very smoothly away on Interstate Highway I-405 for a 30 minute drive to get to our motel in Kirkland on the northeast side of Seattle city.

Checked in and then a 10 minute drive to meet up with one of Caro’s 1980 Oregon exchange ‘sisters’ Jennifer. Jennifer was 6 at that time. We had stayed with the family in 1986 just after we were married and she was 12 so she did remember us … and our VW van of the time! Over the last couple of years we had re-connected through the wonders of Facebook. 

Jennifer was pleased to be able to introduce us to her husband and 2 girls, a very enjoyable if quick catch-up over a meal.

Back to the motel at 9:30 pm local time, equivalent to 5:30 am Irish time so being a tad tired we had a good sleep.

Enough space to spread your wings and soar

Both awake by 5:30 am with the time change adjustment not yet kicked in so we were up and organised, eating breakfast alongside the commercial travellers/drivers staying at the motel. We were on the road by 7:15 am. A quick stop at Ellensburg, a sleepy (at 9:30 am) historic town just off the interstate, before driving through to Couer d’Alene in Idaho State for lunch.

Meeting the locals...

Couer d’Alene is a lovely, touristy (local), town set around a lake of the same name which is a natural dam controlled lake. Lots of cafes, cute shops and also boat only access to many houses around the lake edge. Quite smart water taxi's transferring people across the lake to cottage accommodation or lodges. Also float planes landing or taking off.

Onwards with a rest-stop for the “Best Huckleberry Smoothie Ever” at St Regis, a huge gift store which included a large in house display aquarium of trout. Huckleberries grow wild on sub alpine slopes, forests, bogs and lake basins in north western USA and western Canada. They have never been cultivated successfully so seemingly people are competing with the bears to pick them… anyway they are a big thing in Montana and very tasty.

Local advice if you are going hiking is to take pepper spray and wear small bells to scare any bears, and advice on how to identify bear droppings... black bear poop contains huckleberries whilst grizzly bear poop smells of pepper and contains small bells!

Arrived at Missoula around 7 pm local time after losing an hour in the time zone change on the border between Idaho and Montana states, a nice full day drive through really big sky country.

Great to see Aileen and Bob again, they have only moved to Missoula from Connecticut 4 weeks ago and into their lovely new condo/apartment 2 weeks ago. Still sparsely furnished as they wait on newly ordered furniture to arrive. An attractive spot overlooking a golf course and the hills beyond. We have our own studio, for guests, within the complex and just down the hall from Aileen and Bob’s apartment so a real bonus. It is quite hot in Montana… which is a double bonus after losing the heat over the last few weeks!

The big M

Early wake time for us as we are still on Dublin time, after breakfast we went downtown to drop Bob at the library. Aileen took us walking up to the giant M on the hill, a local landmark located above the University of Montana area and popular with walkers being a steep multi-switchback trail with great views.

Aileen and Noel soak up the Missoula view.... stadium on lower right is home to the Montana University Grizzlies American Football team

An afternoon drive to Snowbowl which is a local ski-field around 20 minutes away. A small not highly developed ski field which looks reasonably steep and challenging. It was closed but over the summer they have a lift going for MTB use and a café operating.

Lolo then High High

We both slept better, the time lapse issue sorting itself out. Another beautiful day in store with highs in the low 30’s. We all drove south to the town of Lolo and then through forested slopes and winding road to the Lolo National Forest and Lolo Pass on the Montana/Idaho border. Twenty minutes into Idaho saw us at a campground area of Lochsa Lodge for a lovely meal… since we were suddenly back an hour in timezone we were still in time for a brunch of Huckleberry Lumber Pancakes, yum!

 Huge pancake brunch, while being watched by various lodge residents.....

Heading back to Missoula we stopped at a campsite to do a ¾ mile forest trail walk to reach nice views of distant rocky hills.

Back to Missoula for coffee with our nephew Zander. Went out early evening calling at Zander and Brittany’s house to meet Wilma, the newest addition to the Thompson family at 5 months old (our Grand-Niece... now that makes us feel old!!).

Moved on to Western Cidery for a drink, this is Brittany’s sister and brother in laws business. A very cool place serving their own and other locally brewed ciders set in an attractive garden bar among apple trees and including live music. A burger meal finished off a very enjoyable day.

Missoula is a city of 74,000 in western Montana. A university city now, it was first settled by Europeans in 1860 as a trading post but has centuries of history as an Indian settlement area. In 1877 a fort was established to protect the settlers. With the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1883 the area grew with the lumber industry being the main stay until the 1980’s. With names like Rattlesnake Creek, Bitteroot and Blackfoot Rivers, along with moose, bear and originally buffalo roaming it has a touch of a good old western town about it.

Just chilling

With rain threatening we opted for a quieter day, went for a grocery shop where the shelves were stocked with Halloween product already! A downtown exploration shopping and browsing for the afternoon. Zander, Brittany and Wilma came for dinner this evening.

Clever sculpture made of old machinery and car parts

Homeward bound...

Not much panic to leave this morning, departing around 11 am after bidding farewell to Aileen and Bob, and their lovely city and home.

Drove through to St Regis where we had a quick stop to stretch our legs and grabbed a muffin to tide us over for a while. Drove through to Ritzville (which sounds Ritz'ier than it is) for a highway café lunch before continuing on to reach Seattle around 6:30 pm (gaining an hour on time zone change along the way).

What did we see on the way?? Pretty much the same as the day going over, lots of pine trees, 3 mountain passes over winding interstate highway, very dry dusty cropping areas through the Eastern Washington State plains. So dry that there was multiple mini tornado's rising from the paddocks. Most everything has been harvested apart from some maize.

 Spotted high on a hill, thought we better try and get closer

Found them to be quite tame really....

Also in Washington huge stacks of covered, Lucerne and Timothy, hay grown under irrigation for distribution to points further afield going by the stacks and number of trucks hauling hay. Also some apple orchards.

No wildlife sighted, though on the way to Missoula we had wondered if we had spotted a couple of moose and a bear.

Once at our Seattle airport hotel and settled in a huge thunderstorm struck so it poured rain. Not very enticing to leave so ended up in hotel lobby (no in house restaurant available here, although plenty of restaurants nearby but the short walk or drive was not appealing in the downpour) buying 2 minute noodles and a pre made sandwich to microwave, they filled a gap.

Up at 6 am to grab breakfast before leaving for the airport, a smooth rental car drop off and shuttled to check-in with heaps of time.

In the good old USA....

A short, 25 minute, flight from Seattle to Vancouver arriving around 11:30 am. When booking we deliberately allowed plenty of time in case of delays, however with everything on time we become quite familiar with the departure area of Vancouver airport as we awaited our 8 pm Auckland flight departure.

Flight seemed to experience minor turbulence all the way back, but not disturbingly so. Both managed a bit of sleep. Back to Queenstown by 9 am and met by our house sitter Fran… it's good to be back.

The verdict of our 3.5 months tripping.... absolutely brilliant! No major hiccups, great weather for the majority, as in really hot!, and such fun exploring a whole range of sights and locations sometimes with others great company (giving us a change from our own great company!!)

When Irish Skies are Crying...

From Republic via Northern Ireland to reach Republic again... for a fee 

This morning we grabbed a Shuttle for the short distance back to the airport and our car rental depot, and joined a huge queue of people which was growing by the minute. Waited for the car and then on our way in a black Opel Astra (which had obviously just been dropped off, refueled, washed and out again as it was still dripping!). Somewhat surprised at incurring an extra 30 Euro fee as we were going to be driving through Northern Ireland for 40 km/30 minutes (really??, a rout if ever we saw one particularly given both North and South are still in the EU.... at the moment!).

We drove across Ireland on motorways, there were cereal crops many still to be harvested, cattle and sheep, and it's green. Drove through the odd rain shower but mainly dry for most of the 3 hour trip over. Although part of our trip was through some of Northern Ireland, it was very different than 31 years ago when we toured Ireland with friends for a week.

That time we were a bit apprehensive when driving as you could be stopped at an unexpected, heavily armed, army check point at any time (not necessarily on the border but on any road). Also bombings seemed to follow us a few days later around the spots we stayed at!! In fact this time we weren't completely sure where the exact border was, the giveaway being the speed signs being in miles instead of kilometers as well as prices showing Pound Sterling instead of Euro. Fortunately no bombs this time either!

Stopped for groceries at Letterkenny then carried on through peat country and Glenveagh National Park to our Donegal Home Exchange near Dungloe. It is located right next to the Donegal County Airport although this will not too disturbing with only 2 or 3 flights per day. Our house is a lovely holiday home overlooking an estuary, and as the tide goes out we have views of aquaculture farms in the bay. A stunning area of bays and rocky outcrops sprinkled with sandy beaches. Lots of houses, retirement and holiday homes we think as there is not a lot of town/services to provide for a large permanent population.

 Our home exchange property, near the end of narrow lanes

The view from the house

Took a drive to some close beaches, beautiful golden sand but signs saying dangerous to swim. Then a fly-by of the town’s pubs. First was cash only and we didn’t have enough, second was very busy, third was no food being served so back to our emergency rations of pasta… doing it tough, no Guinness or Cider!!

Going wild

Today is looking like it will be the sunniest day of our stay here, so we headed north to see the coastline of Rathmullen, Finad Head, Sheephaven Bay and Doe Castle. Did a loop first inland via Glenveagh National Park again and then followed the coast all the way back to our base of Carrickfinn following the tourist board’s “Wild Atlantic Way”

It was just stunning, following stone and sand beaches, peninsula’s and offshore islands, a huge number of new’ish housing everywhere. Guessing farmland was split off in the boom of the early 1980’s and sold for development. Day started off lovely and sunny, but then deteriorated somewhat to showers as we moved West and South.

A pub meal at “Leo’s tavern”, the owner being the parents of the Irish singer Enya and also Moya who is the lead singer for Irish group Clannard.

Typical Irish vista's... in the rain

Windy today as we headed south along the Wild Atlantic Way, in and out following coastlines through small towns, up and over a zig zagging road pass. The Malaidh Ghleann Gheis Pass, which translated means "As old as the hills". Stopping to look down the green valley’s with the purple heath and black faced woolly sheep. By now the weather had deteriorated into heavy drizzling rain so it was quick photo stops at Glencolmcille recreated village and along the way. The village is an example of a typical thatched roof rural Irish village from centuries past.

Got to Sliabh Liag (Slieve League) reputably some of the highest and finest marine cliff’s in Europe. Not to be missed (mist?) it was raining hard and quite cold when we got out to walk. Very wetting, Noel turned back but Caro carried on up to a couple of viewpoints. It was dotted with sheep clinging to the cliffs above the sea, quite stunning but yes, very wet.

Lunched and dried out before heading to Donegal town through Killybegs which is a huge fishing port, lots of very tidy looking large fishing vessels tied up.

Donegal was a nice town and in clean up mode after hosting a food festival for the weekend. It has Abbey ruins and a castle and lots of pubs. After a wander around the town we headed back to home base through the, pleasingly wider, more inland roads; sheep farming, peat bogs and lots of lakes… very picturesque. There is lots of peat in this region, being harvested and used as fire fuel with peat stacks evident in most locations.

A weather induced quiet day...

Very quiet day, it is raining steady drizzle so instead of touring we spent the day in the house. Caught up on draft blog, but due to absolutely no internet coverage in the house we couldn’t update it properly or sort photo’s etc… a little frustrating.

Drove (too wet to walk the short distance) to the airport for a long, slow, coffee and to use the WIFI there to catch up on some emails etc. Back to Leo’s pub for dinner.... although not such a lovely day who are we to argue with the advertising....

Touring the west (wet?)

This morning we packed, tidied up and left. Weather still awful but it may be brightening a bit. Actually a day early leaving our home exchange but we are finding it somewhat limiting due to weather and with no internet coverage making planning ahead a little awkward. Along with narrow roads making driving cumbersome in this area we decided to move on. A lovely spot though….

Drove to Glenveagh National Park and walked the 4 km into Glenveagh Castle on the shore of Lough Veagh. Described as a ‘castellated mansion’ it was built between 1867 and 1873 for John George Adair who started accumulating land for the estate in 1857. His claim to fame is that he evicted 244 tenants from his land in 1861… pretty much just to improve the aesthetics of his estate! A large number of these tenants emigrated to Australia, many others ended up in work houses. A stroll around the gardens and a cuppa tea was very pleasant before walking back to the car.

Drove south and skirted around Donegal to reach Bundoran, a seaside town and big holiday destination with sandy beaches, great surfing and an amusement park. Had lunch there and then found the Fairy Bridges and Wishing Chair both of which have been tourist attractions since the 1800’s. The Fairy Bridges are blowholes, in ancient times people believed fairies lived there and the crash of the waves was thought to be the sound of the fairies guns.

Nearby in 1944 a Halifax aircraft, with a Canadian crew, crashed on Roguey Cliff whilst doing a meteorological survey after taking off from Scotland… all 8 crew members died. The flights from Scotland went out in any weather in order to keep forecasts updated to the Atlantic military shipping operations. Although the cause has never been accurately determined it is believed the plane may have been low on fuel after 10 hours in the air due to atrocious conditions and it may have been an attempt to land.

Did a drive by Mullaghmore Head where a "lived in" looking castle could be seen in the distance. Turns out it was Classiebawn Castle, once the holiday home of Lord Louis Mountbatten who was killed on 27 August 1979 by an IRA placed bomb whilst on his boat fishing off Mullaghmore harbour. Four died in that incident. On the same day a further 18 British soldiers, mostly of the parachute regiment, were killed by 2 IRA bombs at Warren Point in Northern Ireland. This was the deadliest day for the British Army during the Irish troubles.

The castle is a 6000 acre estate, which is why the fences and roads are all stone walled. Anyway we knew nothing of the history as we drove around, and just took photos as it all looked rather impressive, and found out the background later in the day via Uncle Google. All a rather interesting history with the estate once being much larger and encompassing the village and harbour of Mullaghmore also. During the Irish Potato famine the then owner of the estate evicted many of the tenants and shipped them off to Canada.

Onto Sligo for the night where we searched booking.com and found a very nice BnB which turned out to have very friendly and helpful owners. We were advised of a lovely pub for dinner and another for music, both bits of advice we heeded. Dinner fantastic, Noel had Irish Stew and Guinness as you do!, the music was not the Irish jig we expected, more blues type but good nonetheless although with a start time of 10 pm it was past our bed time by the time it started... such daring late nights!

Following the coast, spot of surfing.... probably not

Feeling more like winter than summer, with rain and wind, we left Sligo and followed the Wild Atlantic Way once more. We are on the Surf Coast part of the route now as we made stops at Easky Pier, Roslee Castle a ruined small castle from the 1207, then to Downpatrick Head. 

The separate sea stack here appeared during the 1300’s when the connecting part of the mainland dropped into the sea. A lovely wild spot of coastline with layered rock, cliffs and blowholes. It was windy, so windy that stream water dropping into the sea was immediately being blown back over our heads as spray…. Really, really windy as well as ongoing showers of rain!

This area was also an observation spot for the Irish Coast Guard during WWII, the Irish Republic was neutral … but as quoted in the information boards “neutral on the Allied side”!? so they placed a large ‘Eire 64’ into the green moss ground so the Allied aircraft could identify the neutral status but also use the point as a navigation reference. The Allies used the Ballyshannon Corridor shortcut and flew along the County Sligo and Mayo coastlines after flying from Scotland to protect the naval convoys approaching Europe. This was especially important during the period of the Battle of the Atlantic.

After a quick stop for lunch at the town nearby, Ballycastle, we drove to Westport on a direct route given the weather. Unable to find a park that did not require a local parking permit (didn't seem particularly tourist friendly but it looked at attractive town, the only pay parking was overflowing with a queue waiting) we carried on to Leenaun located on Killary harbour at the head of Ireland’s only Fiord. 

Travelled on the edge of Connemara National Park and passed Kylemore Castle Abbey, a magnificent 1868 Castle beside Lough Kylemore. The Abbey alongside the castle is a Benedictine Monastery founded in 1920 and used by nun’s who had fled from Belgium in WWI after their home abbey had been destroyed. The building is still run by nun’s and after closing as a girls school in 2010 it has become a religious retreat. The castle gardens are open to the public but we did not stop… far too wet for such activities!

Arrived in Clifden and found a BnB, then around the corner (literally which was convenient on a wet night) a pub serving food and great live Irish music. Some punters from the floor joining in with solo singing or dancing… great entertainment. Bhi craic mhor (The craic was grand!)

Galway bound via Grandfathers land

This morning, pouring with rain, so left our BnB to backtrack a little. Driving the Sky Road which is an impressive high road overlooking the coast line and islands. A very popular recommended bike ride, but not today as the weather is truly awful! The water is pouring down the hills!

Back via Leenaun where we then headed inland around Lough Corrib, the second largest lake in Ireland, which has one island for every day of the year… so lots! Quite pretty through the rain and mist. We are travelling this inland route to Galway to see the area that Noel’s Grandfather came from. With very vague information we found the area east of Lake Corrib and south of Tuam. Good looking farmland but we guess with a family of 15 children some had to find new fields, hence why Grandfather Cavanagh ended up at Pukemaori in Southland.

Nowhere near the ancestral lands, but Noel will claim it... even if it is shut!

Arrived in Galway, still pouring rain, and found a car park and then café for lunch. Booked a BnB for the night that has good WIFI… a bit of blog catch-up as we wait for rain to stop. With rain easing, a little, we made a dash for downtown and found a pub en-route which had great meals. Irish Stew and Mash even better on such a wintry night.

This morning the sun is shining, sort of, so a walk around Galway including crossing over the River Corrib which was running very full! A market setting up, both fruit and veg as well as crafts, and a wander through a few streets and back via Galway Cathedral. The Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas (long name or what!!) was constructed between 1958 and 1965. Built on the site of the old city prison, it is a very large building but has a nice feel to it.

We left Galway on the M6 to Dublin, driving through a couple of incredibly heavy rain showers which slowed highway traffic to very slow speed. Arrived at our airport rental car drop-off at 1:30 pm. Caught an airport bus to our Dublin accommodation a 400 room hotel in the suburb of Ballsbridge. A bit of blog tidy up and then a walk to check out the nearby surroundings and some dinner (pub, pint of ale and cider!). Took a couple of false starts as it seems Saturday nights are for drinking, with many pubs stopping food service around 4 pm and some offering to order in take-a-way food. Back for a reasonably early night, in Dublin … we must be getting old!

A fun city tour

Up and wandered into the heart of Dublin for our pre-booked bike tour. Others on the tour were an Italian couple, a US couple and an Irish couple from Dublin who had done city bike tours elsewhere so wanted to see their own city from that perspective. The US lady attracted double looks as she arrived in her high heel boots and fluffy coat… not exactly bike attire but they explained their luggage had been airline lost… 4 days previously! Our Irish guide was Laura, a Dublin resident of 5 years but originally from the Netherlands although you would never pick that, advising she picked her accent up from 'my Irish fella'

First stop was the Molly Malone statue, a maybe mythical historic figure of the 1200’s and epitomised in folk song (made famous by the Dubliner's but covered by many including U2 and The Pogues). Legend has it that if you rub her breasts you will get good luck.... it was too early in the tour for anyone to be brave enough in front of their partners!

Crying "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh".... and obviously a few people have felt down on their luck....

Then to Dublin castle for a condensed Irish history lesson. Founded from 1204 on the site of a Viking settlement the castle served as the headquarters of the English government administration. In 1922 after the Easter rising of 1916 it was handed over to the newly independent Irish government. It is a mix and match complex of many ages, stages and architectural styles with the tower being the oldest part (completed during the 1220's) and most of it constructed 17/1800’s.

Past St Patrick's Cathedral, not actually a cathedral as it doesn’t meet the criteria so technically a church, founded in 1191 as a collegiate church and since 1870 the Church of Ireland has designated St Patrick's as the national cathedral of all of Ireland. Note that it’s Anglican. The park grounds of the church were popular today being a Sunday. Next door there are blocks of social housing donated to the city in the 1890’s by the Guinness family as a charitable trust. For the time they were cleverly designed with every flat having an opening window so the occupants washing could be dried.

Beside St Patrick's was a primary school, which expelled a young student called Paul Hewson for throwing dog pooh at a teacher.... the school possibly later regretted losing their claim to fame when the student changed his name to Bono of U2 fame.... (useless facts you learn on a bike tour!)

Rode past Christchurch Cathedral, originally a Viking church was founded around 1028 and it is Dublin’s oldest church. Also officially not a cathedral and also Anglican (aka Church of Ireland) it has many extensions and reconstructions resulting in a mish-mash of architectural features. The tour then crossed over the Liffey River to visit O’Connell Street which is a very busy and touristy area. 

On past the Famine Sculptures donated by Canada commemorating the 1845 to 1851 Potato famine and subsequent death (1 million) and emigration (1 million) of the Irish population. The other part of the sculpture is located on the Port of Toronto waterfront signifying the migrants being welcomed onto Canadian soil. The British ruling authorities withdrew welfare support mid 1847, and refused immigrants onto British soils, which contributed to the huge death and migration tolls. This has often been referenced as supported genocide of the Irish population.

Biked past the National History Museum, National Library, some of Dublin’s grander buildings and Merrion Square and back to base for the conclusion of a great tour. 

Our tour guide, and the locals on the tour, told us that touristy or not we should visit the Guinness Storehouse which is the top attraction in the city. We walked there, and touristy it was!... a queue of buses, a queue of taxi’s, a queue of horse and carts, a queue of people waiting to get in, and a queue of wannabe Instagram stars waiting for a photo opportunity beside the gate. It is a self guided tour with access to cafes, gift shop and rooftop bar. We figured given how busy it was, and the cost, we could Google the important bits so gave it a miss and our aim is to find a more genuine Dublin pub for a drink later.

Continued walking over some of the bike tour route, as well as through alleys and streets.

Checked out if we could get last minute tickets to "Riverdance". The original show in the Gaiety Theatre is winding down in Dublin after touring for 2.5 years. A very good show, very supple performers… they must be young! Not normally our show type of choice but it was fun and why not when in Dublin?

Wandered back to our hotel via a pub meal and Noel’s last Irish Guinness. The Guinness does taste much nicer in Ireland, all to do with the pouring. Noel had visions of this since our last trip all those years ago and was actually disappointed with the first pint of the trip... but it did arrive at our table very quickly served by a young waiter. Pleased to confirm they improved after that one. If you order and have to wait 5 minutes seems to be the key, but this will likely be the last Guinness until if/when we return to Ireland.... and it looks like they are ready....

All packed up and off to Dublin airport late morning, very long queues for USA immigration pre-flight clearance but should make our arrival very quick at the other end.

Ireland was lovely although it definitely lived up to the saying of “we were in Ireland for 10 days and it only rained twice, once of 6 days and once for 4 days!”. The people are great and everything went smoothly. Dublin was a nice city, whilst not exactly stunning as it has a mix of old and new side by side, it does have a lot of vibrancy. On the flip side there is also quite a visible homeless problem with tents in many public green spaces and begging on the streets.

The finish of our 3 month European leg of our trip although it certainly doesn't seem that long...

Ireland also presented Noel with a special number plate to reflect all his driving over the last 3 months throughout Europe: