So much stuff, so little internet.

Well the weekend just go was a crazy North Ireland experience, or as they would say here there ‘The craic was great’. We had driven from Scotland going via Stirling to see the castle, then we got the ferry across to Belfast from Stranraer. Pretty cool. It was quick so we got into Belfast at about 5:30pm then made our way to Jasons. We spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night staying at Jasons house, about 20 minutes drive from Belfast. Damn we drank some beer. The guy had 6 cases of Tennets in the garage which he had picked up for about 5 pound each, so we obliged and helped him get through most of it. The first day there we had some time off and decided to have a break from all the driving, electing not to go out and get some washing done and catch up on a few things. We went a bit crazy on Friday night and sat up late drinking and carrying on so the next day we where all a bit worse for wear, but we headed out to the Giants Causeway, a natural geological formation right at the northern part of the country. We got home late and had the best intentions to head out into Belfast but never quite made it. Then on out last day there, Sunday, we drove into Belfast and got a tour bus around the city. I got to see some places that I am sure I would have seen on the TV during the 80’s when they where bombed. We even saw Europe's most bombed hotel, The Europa. It had 70 bombs planted in it, of which 33 exploded. It was good to see that the Northern Irish don't have a problem taking the piss out of what they call the 'Troubles', heaps of jokes and craic about the subject.

Monday morning came and we packed up and said goodbye to Jason and made our way south into Ireland, where we now use Euros and suddenly have to pay for road tolls. Last night we spent the night in a hostel in Kilkenny and drank at a pub called ‘The Field’, there where some guys playing some traditional Irish tunes and it was all good craic ! This mornings drive was from Kilkenny to Cork, via a place call Cashel. To get from Kilkenny to Cashel we used a tiny little back road, It was rough and very uneven in some places, and we had to pass many tractors. While in Cashel we went to see a place called ‘The Rock of Cashel’ but the weather was so bad they had closed access to it because it was dangerous. There is a massive low pressure system over the southern part of the UK and Ireland at the moment, this is causing strong winds and unpredictable rain. So for now we are holed up in a hostel where I type this, we may venture out shortly and go to the pub… hmmm that seems to be what people do here….. There are some picture on my picasa page, but I cannot up load the latest ones from here since they seem to have some firewall blockages on may web pages.....

Arch… You can’t get more Scottish than that…

Blog entry for 4th March

Let me start by saying that the last two days have been nothing but a very genuinely Scottish experience. After spending 3 nights holed up in a Hotel in Onich (which I neglected to blog about due to me being so tired every night from our activities and the fact that the hotel did not seem to have any internet access…wtf!) we drove north, north, north, up to a little village called Ullapool (Pronounced with a hard ‘u’ like ‘allapool’) This place is a small fishing village with a population of 1600, everything is a 5 minute walk. We meet a friend of ours and we where pleased to find out that we where the only Australians in the whole place, not hard when you consider how remote this place is, infact I don’t think you can get any further from Sydney on the planet. We spent the night there at a B&B and got the local dirt from the lady that runs the place called, Linn. She said that a drive to a place called Plockton would be very nice and we could easily go to the Isle Of Skye after that, so we did. The drive into Plockton was interesting. To start with the road was very good, nice long straight wide bits where I could get the car humming along at 90mph, but then as we got closer to the village to road go more and more narrow and hilly. Eventually it was just like driving on a small goat track, under trees, dirt patches and cattle grids every few hundred yards or so. I was fine with it, but Karen in the passengers’ seat was not enjoying it at all. Eventually we made it to Plockton and I took some photos of the vista. From here we took a leisurely drive into Skye. As the name suggests, this part of Scotland is actually an Island, it was connected only by a Ferry until very recently when they completed a bridge. Surprisingly there seems to be a rather large population here. Now the best part of this story is that on the way into Skye, our friend Jen who we had picked up in Ullapool, suggested that we contact the father of one of her friends and see if we can stay the night. Andy and Morag live in a small village called Portee on the Isle of Skye, So sure enough that’s where I am now typing this up in the Kitchen. We had a few wines last night so everyone is slow to rise. I went to bed early as I was too tired from all the driving but just before going to bed I was asked if I wanted to go on a radio show in the morning, not so much asked but convinced. It didn’t help my cause when I told them that I have done some radio work in the past, so right no I am waiting for Andy to get up to take me to the radio station, I don’t think it is going to happen…… More photos of the Scotland experience.