Steve The Wandering Aussie

Travel blog by Steve Baird

2023/07/11 Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth.The reeking smell of spread manure used as fertilizer pervades so much of the Irish countryside it’s become normal. Huge blue and green farm tractors hauling massive trailers filled with the the stuff rumble along all roads except the motorways. And of course when trapped behind said behemoth, one can do nothing but back off. A lot. Gotta laugh.The three large passage tombs of County Meath are a fairly large tourist hype so we chugged eastward from Newport across the country to see them. Nearly four hours for yet another spectacular fail. Seems one has to book online at least a month prior to arriving. We did manage to walk Dowth Tulla (round hill) but the other two were off limits. Lyn found a memorial to yet another one of her aristocratic dead relatives. Bastards are everywhere.Ya just gotta laugh.So we toured the visitor centre, saw Newgrange through the telescope and headed into town to our BNB. Our host, Paddy, was deaf as the proverbial post so we yelled at each other for a while, moved our gear into our room, then went out for beer and a Chinese meal in the city of Neven. I think they spelt Nambour wrong.Back at Paddy’s house we found the bed had a plastic under sheet. The lamp was wrapped in plastic and the chair had a plastic liner on it. Not sure what Paddy’s experience has been but I’m glad to be leaving early tomorrow.Without whining too much, I’m getting more than a little sick of the endless driving we’ve done here. Possibly bad planning on our part but I’m gunna put some blame on the GPS which LOVES to take us down narrow and winding ‘L’ and ‘R’ roads instead of the major arterials. And I wouldn’t mind so much if I could see the country side but the hedges each side are over six feet high so the road is a claustrophobic green funnel. Cute for the first 200 miles but a little thin after that.Two more nights here and I don’t know if I’ll be back here. We’ve not done and seen everything we wanted but it has been enough. For now.And I’m looking forward to the Guinness factory on Thursday. Your good and faithful wandering Aussie will report his finding on completion of that tour. If it’s not another catastrophic fail 🤣🤣🇮🇪🇮🇪

Steve Baird

12/07/2023

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2023/07/10. Ireland

The GPS said three hours and seven minutes to Rockfleet. Five and a half hours later we arrived to see the castle home of Grace O’Malley, Irelands very own Pirate Queen. It was covered in scaffolding and the foundations had clearly been recently reinforced. Just a little disappointing but also lots funny. The best laid…

Steve Baird

12/07/2023

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Youghal. Ireland. 04/07/2023I’m in a pub called The Nook and while the beer is good, the company is worth the journey.We left Corsock, southern Scotland, around 9.30 am Sunday morning and headed westward to Cairnryan to catch our ferry to the Emerald Isle. I won’t miss that biting and squarking bastard bird but the three legged cat was cool.The ferry ride took two hours across the Irish Sea in a howling and freezing breeze while the sea spray hammered the windows. I felt alive! After disembarking in the port of Larne, Northern Ireland we drove two hours south, past Belfast, to spend the night in a bland, universally standard hotel room.Early Tuesday we spent the next four hours racing south to Youghal on the southern Atlantic coast so our hosts could get away to their flight to Turkey. We are tasked with caring for a teacup Yorkie for the next week while Lyn researches her family history from these parts. Those who read my missives from our last trip here may remember the amount of humble crow I had to eat after waxing lyrical regarding the English overlords she is descended from. Bastards. Nice bastards, but still….. bastards.We’ve had lunch in the pub and Lyn is back at the church looking for ephemera with which to decorate her scribbles. She worked this morning while I productivity watched the TV. First real TV in four months. Easy to get addicted so I did.PS. We spent the week traversing the countryside to see the things on our list. The Hags Bed, Rock of Cashel, Kilkenny Castle, Kells Priory just to name a few. An excellent week in a beautiful home overlooking the Celtic Sea off the south coast of Ireland and a part of the Atlantic Ocean.Life is good and I am grateful for everything.

Steve Baird

12/07/2023

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NC500. Day ten. Scotland

2023.05.12 Oban. West coast. Scotland.I went on the Worlds shortest Pub Crawl on the Isle of Iona. But first:We caught the Isle of Mull Ferry from the town of Oban at nine am. Only about a thirty minute ride to our destination on Mull, a lovely port town whose name I can’t pronounce.We climbed onto…

Steve Baird

15/05/2023

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NC500. Day nine. Scotland

2023.05.11 Mind. Blown.We are in Oban on the west coast of Scotland staying in a Georgian Mansion overlooking the city and with views out to the sailing yachts moored in the Mull of Oban. There are blue and grey sky’s and a light drizzle of scotch mist interspersed with random rays of sunshine. How does…

Steve Baird

15/05/2023

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NC500. Day eight. Scotland

2023.05.10 Wet, cold and miserable. Skye is repairing yesterday’s aberration of fine and sunny and is now treating us like normal tourists. Still love being here 😎.Lyn worked counseling again this morning so we have a late BNB checkout. And the best breakfast served so far, right here. Gotta be grateful 👍.Our day started at…

Steve Baird

15/05/2023

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NC500. Day seven. Scotland

2023.06.09 There are Giant Sequoias growing beside the road between Ullapool, last nights BNB, and the turn off to Isle of Skye, where we are now. Not a great number but as I’ve seen them in other parts of Scotland I guess I wasn’t too surprised.Five hours driving today and I’m a tad shagged.The western…

Steve Baird

15/05/2023

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NC500. Day six. Scotland

2023.05.08A short one today. A late departure from Thurso as Lyn was working. We are very fortunate that she can work remotely and this old fool can relax while she counsels people by Skype. Or what ever the program is. What a world!At 10.30 we pushed across the top of Scotland to get to Smoo…

Steve Baird

15/05/2023

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NC500. Day five. Scotland

2023.05.07 We left our strange little BnB in Helmsdale on the Sunday following the Royal Constipation in London and headed almost due north, further into the East Coast Highlands.We paused at the Hill O Many Stanes, a Neolithic site with 200 small standing stones. Set out in 22 rows. We wandered the site, perched on…

Steve Baird

15/05/2023

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NC500. Day four. Scotland

2023.05.06 They say here that todays rain is tomorrow’s whisky. So there will be no shortage in any conceivable future. I hold out this mornings blessing as clear evidence of this.It’s also said that the value of the whisky in secret Scottish stores is greater than that of the gold in Fort Knox. Yet another…

Steve Baird

15/05/2023

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