The Trail's Our Thing

We're leaving this Thursday to spend 7+ weeks back in Europe-- most of the summer. We'll get home just two days before Kelly starts 8th grade. Until the last few days, this has seemed just like a "normal" vacation. But now our departure day is almost here, I realize we'll be away for quite a long time and there's a lot to be done in the next few days.

The potential for this trip developed while we were still in Provence in the spring of 2005. A family in Bonnieux who had become good friends suggested that we could housesit for them for a month during their annual trip home to the USA. Our friends' house is newly-renovated and absolutely beautiful... with a swimming pool and views across the vineyards and orchards toward Lacoste, Goult and Gordes. Their housekeeper will even come twice a week! We're thrilled to provide security, feed their cats, water their plants, and get their mail for the chance to spend a month back in the Luberon, especially in the summertime.

Here's a photo of our friends' house:

After we committed to the housesitting job (actually, we jumped at the opportunity), we decided that since we were making the investment in expensive airline tickets, we'd take a few extra weeks and see some more of Europe. We also wanted to continue our tradition of a summer walking trip. Kelly picked the walking trip we'll be doing in Ireland. This will be the fifth summer in a row that we've done a long distance walk in Europe.

Here's the itinerary for this summer's trip:

- Fly to Shannon, Ireland on June 22nd
- One night in Bunratty, Ireland (a jet-lag recovery day)
- A week-long walking trip on the "Kerry Way" in southwest Ireland (50 miles)
- A week in Honfleur, Normandy
- Three days to drive from Normandy to Provence, via Burgundy
- Five weeks in Bonnieux, Provence
- Fly home on August 14th

We've been doing some reading and research to prepare for our time in Ireland and Normandy, two places we haven't visited before. We'll visit the World War II sites in Normandy, and we just watched "Saving Private Ryan" to learn more about what happened in June 1944. We're also looking forward to a day at Chartres Cathedral with Slow Travel friends.

We're planning to venture farther afield in Provence this time to explore some areas we haven't visited much before: Cassis and the Calanques on the Mediterranean, the northern areas of Provence, and the villages of the Grand Luberon. Charley and I both plan to work on writing projects. A couple of Slow Travel friends will visit during our stay, and we'll also enjoy seeing local friends and visiting our favorite places in and around Bonnieux.

We'll be posting to this new blog periodically during our trip and sharing some photos. We'll also be checking e-mail at kdcwood@aol.com (Kathy), cewood45@yahoo.com (Charley) and spartangirl722@aol.com (Kelly). We hope you'll follow our travels and stay in touch with us!

Bunratty Castle

We arrived in Shannon, Ireland at 7:30 am on Friday. “I can’t believe I’m in Ireland,” Kelly said in the taxi. She picked this walking trip and is especially excited to visit Ireland for the first time. The countryside around the airport was flat but very green. We spent our first night near the airport at a small guesthouse in the village of Bunratty. Since we had arrived so early in the morning, we decided to lie down for just a few minutes… and the next thing we knew it was 1 pm.

Bunratty Castle and Folk Park was a fifteen minute walk down the road. We had a late lunch/early dinner at Durty Nelly’s Pub across from the castle and then enjoyed several hours at the castle and park. This was a “real” castle, built in 1425. We climbed the twisty stone steps up to the top of the turrets and explored the hidden rooms. The folk park was especially interesting: a reconstruction of Irish culture and architecture from 100+ years ago, including a village street, a country manor house, two mills, various farmhouses, and livestock.

A shuttle bus picked us up in Bunratty at 11 am on Saturday and we traveled 2-1/2 hours into County Kerry where we will spend the next week. Our week-long walking trip on the Kerry Way begins and ends in Killarney, a picturesque town of about 10,000 people.

We were surprised to find the town filled with motorcycles—close to 10,000 of them! We left Knoxville during the annual “Honda Hoot” motorcycle rally and arrived in Killarney just in time for the "Harley-Davidson HOG". Bikers have come to Killarney from all over Europe, the sounds of their motorcycles echoing across the countryside. There were at least ten motorcycles parked in the small parking lot of our guesthouse. We will be interested to see what Killarney is like when we return a week from now.

Harleys in Killarney

On the Kerry Way

It's now Wednesday, and we have a “rest day” after three full days of walking on the Kerry Way. The Kerry Way is a 135 mile circular walking route around “Ring of Kerry” in southwest Ireland. We'll walk some 50 miles of the route during our week. The walk is very front-end loaded, and we’ve racked up over 36 miles in our first three days.

The countryside in this part of Ireland is absolutely beautiful with quite a bit of variety. After leaving the motorcycle-sounds of Killarney behind, we walked along the shores of a peaceful lake, past the ruins of a 15th century friary, and then through the landscaped grounds of the 19th century Muckross House. We are surprised by the subtropical climate. We hadn't expected to find palm trees in Ireland! Rhododendrons are also abundant in the countryside.

After a steep ascent by the Torc waterfall, we found ourselves away from tourists and in much more desolate countryside surrounded by mountains. Twelve miles later we ended a long first day at the Hillcrest Farmhouse at the edge of the Black Valley. We had a wonderful homecooked meal of hot soup, roast chicken, and apple pie at the farmhouse.

In our raingear at the Foilmore Church (mapholder around my neck)

We expected rainy weather in Ireland… and encountered sunny, surprisingly hot weather our first three days of walking. Day Four (our rest day) was cooler and a little overcast, but the rain finally came on Day Five. But what’s a walking trip without some rain? We hauled our raingear all this way—shouldn’t we get to use it??

Today’s walk was eleven miles from Glenbeigh to a very remote area near Kells. Our path took us around a mountain on a forest path, then out along the cliffs overlooking the sea. On a clear day we would have had absolutely beautiful views across Dingle Bay, but we struggled with rain, wind and quite a bit of mud. It was a very challenging day, especially working our way across the exposed mountain pass and through the many boggy sections.

On the way to Caherciveen (photo by Kelly)

Our last day was a short one—and fortunately another beautiful day. We walked just six miles to the village of Caherciveen, on the River Ferta, hiking this last leg with our British friends Tim and Linda. We had plenty of time for lunch and some exploration of Caherciveen. Kelly visited the Heritage Center in the old police barracks, while Charley and I took a nap out in the sunshine. Then we were picked up for our ride back to Killarney. We had walked almost sixty miles over five days; the ride back to where we started took only an hour and a half!

This was our fifth long-distance walking trip in Europe. We continue to really enjoy our this type of vacation, though we definitely weren’t ready for this walk to end. After an initial struggle, we had found our stride and were really enjoying the walking. Our last two walks were much more substantial (190 miles on the England Coast-to-Coast walk and 100 miles on the Alpine Pass walk in Switzerland). We would have liked to continue walking and experience more of Ireland. Kelly is already talking about wanting to come back and see more of Ireland.