IRELAND
Yearning for some greenery, what better place than to head to Ireland. On the advice of some ex-locals, we were encouraged that there is more to Ireland than Dublin. And so there is.
We fly into Dublin and jumped straight in a rental car for 24 hours. Rather than rain, we were greeted with brilliant sunshine and 26 degree temperatures. Positively scorching for Ireland. We headed off to explore the Wicklow mountains to the south of Dublin. 45 minutes after getting in the car we were in some tiny village in the mountains, tucking into some local fare. A welcome relief from London, where 45 minutes will get you from somewhere with loads of people and buildings to somewhere else with loads of people and buildings. I devoured a honey-glazed pork belly with colcannon (some kind of potato and spinach-like mix) with a mustard sauce. While Bella had a sandwich on fancy bread with local goat's cheese. The Irish are very patriotic and proud of what they produce (even more so than the Brits). But then it was off to Glendalough to explore some Irish ruins (religious, of course. Well, monastic actually.) and enjoy some of the sunshine. But not without a drive along some tiny mountain roads. No trees. Just spongey ground covered in grasses and small bushes. Heather and moors. And a single strip of tarmac straight through it.
Some monk (by the name of Kevin) went off wandering one day to consider the world and to appreciate it. He stumbled upon a couple of lakes in a lovely valley. Then he stopped. After around 10 years or so, others realised it was a nice spot and joined him. Before he knew it, he was surrounded by people and had started a monastery in Glendalough.
After appreciating the ruins, lakes and greenery, we stopped off for a required pint of Guiness at the local pub, watched some rugby, bought some local strawberries and headed off to our hostel. Which was about as remote as you get in Ireland. Up in the mountains, at the end of the road. No electricity, no running water. It was a great escape from London. Our hostel is about 200m straight down the hill in the photo below.
We headed back to Dublin the next day. Not quite as sunny, but still had flashes of searing heat (well, for the Irish at least). Below is Bella enjoying it in St Stephen's Green.
We wandered around Dublin. Tried a few pubs, had a look through Trinity College and then wandered in to Temple Bar for some fiddle dee dee music. We also squeezed in a trip to the Guiness Storehouse, which is great. Evidenced below.
Guiness. It's good for you. A marketing slogan that they have used for a long time. Very simple.
More Photos
PEAK DISTRICT
Not satisfied with only one weekend of greenery. The next weekend we headed off to the Peaks District in central England. We grabbed our packs and hiked about 50kms over the 3 days (thanks to another long weekend).
We caught the fast train to Manchester and then caught a slow train to the middle of no-where (Greenfield). We then started walking. We only hiked about 15km on the first day and reached camp by 2 or 3pm. But it was still a pretty tough day as we left London at 5am and hiked through rain and wind all day, with the first half being all up and the second all down.
Feels nice and rewarding at the end of the day though when you set up camp.
The second day was big. We were looking at about 25kms with a couple of climbs. Our friend wind, also decided to blow his head off all day. We also discovered the difficulty of navigating through peat bogs. A little hard to follow the trail, but luckily it is all open country, so you just wander until you find where you want to be. Apparently the area use to be covered in Oak trees but during the Stone Age, we began to clear the land. Everything starting decaying and the peat bogs started forming. It's mostly water but consists of mosses and other decaying matter.
On the third day, we had a fairly gentle 10km hike through the White peaks area. The peak's district is broken up into the White Peaks and the Dark Peaks. We spent the first two days in the Dark peaks which is all volcanic rock, moors and peat bogs and is very uninhabited. The White Peaks is the limestone area which is used a lot more for farming and grazing. The Peaks (or hills at only 600m) are also smaller in White Peaks.
We finished off the hike with a pub lunch and a pint. A great way to put some carbs back in. And caught a train to Sheffield before heading back to London.
More photos.
Our next weekend in London was relatively quiet, with Hair in the West End on Saturday night and a Rage Against the Machine concert in a park on Sunday.
