Eire 2022 part 1

We arrived in Eire on the 27th March and found the nearest campsite just to make things easy for the night, put the tents up and have some food and just enjoy the feeling of being back in Eire. Not the kind of camping we are used to…. it is a big area and more akin to a holiday park. And on the whole we prefer to wild camp, But we are here. On the last approach to the ferry Aaron had a puncture … typical. A relatively slow puncture and we decided not to fix it by the road but to inflate the tire as necassary, and fix it later. Also by the time we got here and with Aaron’s puncture light was begining to fade and we had time enough. Tomorrow we would decided on whether to cycle to Ennis or perhaps to take a bus to pick up from where we left off on our last tour of Eire.

And the next morning we caught a coach to Limerick where we stopped briefly to have a look around. In 1986 I took part in a student exchange between Wolverhampton Polytechnic where I did my degree in Fine Art and Limerick school of Art and Design, on this occassion it was for an ice cream and then we began cycling towards Ennis along the Eurovelo 1 cycle route.

…. Euro Velo 1 great stuff ….

…. Cycling the back roads of Eire …. quite, peaceful,

…. First wild camp in Eire, just by the side of a quite road sheltered by trees and surrounded by fields and bird song and some curious cows ….

…. The setting sun at our wild camp…. every day a different home….. great stuff… the Earth is my home …. in fact it goes even beyond that …. this universe is my home ….  WOW ….

…. Sunset ….

…. Engineering at it’s most sublime …..

…. Tonights first course …. Polish beetroot soup … great stuff

….. Maidin mhaith ….. a bright and sunny morning with some dew to deal with which quickly dried and we were soon on our way

…. packed and ready for another ride … our first wild camp was a humerous experience due to the highly inquisitive nature of the cows in the next field….. we were quiet as always…. but they coukd here us chatting and making camp as the sun was setting and as soon as they saw us they would get spooked and run away. We simply ignored them and after about an hour of this they settled down and just got on with the neccessities of eating grass …..

… Our second wild camp was fab and for the first time in years we were treated to some cold mornings …. and yes I love them…. the bikes the ground the tents all covered in a thick layer of frost. The nights were suoper clear and we spent some enjoyable evenings star gazing, picking out the constellations and testing our memories and knowledge of the names of stars and the mythological stories behind them …..

This wild camp was in invitation, we had been cycling between Ennis ( Inis Cluana Ramhfhada, which translates to Island of the long rowing meadow ) and An Leacht  – Leacht Ui Chonchubair which translates to The memorial Cairn of O’Connor. Well I had not even noticed the car that overtook us and a some distance ahead had pulled in to have a chat. The guy who was really friendly asked if we had anywhere to stay for the night and offered us a pitch at his place. He is setting up an off grid community with a mix of glamping, camping and wild camping at the moment it is really at the beginning of the project and he was interested in us as cycle tourists and also on the look out for like minded individuals who might be interested in being a part of this community.

Well we were at that time of day when we were starting to look for a place to wild camp and thought why not. It was just a few kilometers away down a single track lane well away from the road in a really secluded valley, and we could see why he had had this idea, it was a great spot to think about an off grid community. We had access to composting toilets and there are plans in hand to provide outdoor showers but they were not up and running as yet. and we got to stay free of charge in return for some thoughts about the project and pitching in with a little voluntary work and to throw around some ideas…….

…. Early morning frost …

… Frosty bikes ….

Donal was the owner and we ended up wild camping here for 9 nights …. much longer than we expected but Donal is a terrific host and had many tales to tell, and was very interested in our journey and that we are artists travelling the world on our bikes – artist in residence to artist in residence with no fixed plan or time scale, and we too had some tales to tell. And so we got to talking about the artist in residencies that we had been involved with and that I was due to start an artist in residence in County Kerry but due to covid that had been delayed, and in fact I am still waiting for that to be finalised, we also got to talk about our journey and particularly that we had an artist in residence later in the year in Iceland and one in Greenland in the spring of 2023…… really looking forward to them. In the end we so liked the pace and Donal was quite intrigued about the possibility of us doing and artist in residence here he was very keen for us to set something in motion. Aaron and I then had the idea, that to have a base in Ireland would be just great stuff. Donal already had a 3 meter diameter bell tent with a wood burning stove set up and a 5 meter one ready to put up so we suggested what if Aaron and I bought ourselves a yurt to put up so that we would have a place to stay and to do an artist in residence, how would he feel about that and this idea went down very well, so much so that we started searching for a second hand yurt and found one for sale only an hour away near Galway. The owner even offered to bring it to us for a small fee.

So, we now have a 16.5 foot diameter Mongolian yurt ready to put up perhaps in the Autumn or after our trip to Greenland. When it arrived we checked it over and it is now stored at Donal’s waiting for us to put up….. cycle touring … you just never know what new adventures are about to happen …… great stuff …….

… And then we went halves on a 16.5 foot diameter Mongoliam Yurt …. we won’t be carrying that on our bikes though …

…. And then it was time to continue once again heading towards Dubh linn and the ferry to the Aran Islands ….

… waiting for the ferry to take us from Doolin to Inis oirr, with the cliffs of Moher …

…. We came to know this landscape really well …. it is limestone bedrock and is fascinating visually and geologially …. Known as Glacio Karst, and the Aarn Islands are one of the best examples in the world to see this landscape carved by the last ice age …..

….. I have the feeling that there will be paintings of this coastline, we were planing to visit ‘The Buran’ just a bit further North and to see Polnabrone Dolmen, but having been 9 nights wild camping in the same place we decided to push on to the Aaran islands knowing that at some point we would be back to put up our yurt …..

On the ferry from Doolin to Inis oirr

…..Cycling up from the harbour and on our way to a campsite …. we really needed to shower … we had found a launderette on the way to An Lehcht and were able to wash all our clothes. We also had once again an early start to get to the ferry so that we arrived with plenty of light to make camp and do some exploring ….

…. Our campsite on inis oirr …. we were the only ones camping. Great stuff …..

As soon as we had set up camp ….. we had opted for a campsite on Inis Oirr after 9 days of basic camp washing we were both really looking forward to a proper shower, but then the urge to explore is never far from the surface, and although I am not physically creating artworks this whole project – to cycle round the world is a travelling artist in residence …. the residence part well that is where ever  we pitch our tents and the creative artistic part becomes the entire activity – each ride an artwork in it’s own right and falls into the realm of a mix between landart and performance. though there is no definitive ‘ism’ that this can be described with, that is intentional as is artistic intent.

Glacio Karst landscape with ship wreck

The largest of the Oileáin Árann is Inis Mor which we were going to visit in a few days time, hosts a Father Ted festival, something we did not know about but this wreck is of the MV Plassy a merchant vessal that was washed ashore in 1962. It is an impressive wreck and huge and you can walk right up to it now the home of birds it continues it’s passage through time having relequished it’s purpose it now assumes a journey all it’s own ….. and seems the happier for it too ….

It is also the wreck you can see in the opening sequence of the comedy series ‘Father Ted’ one of our all time favorite comedy series. Craggy Island where it is set is a purely fictitious place but the  Oileáin Árann– Inis Oirr Inis, Inis Meain and Inis Mor is the closest you can get …… It is a breathtaking place and I have many paintings in mind …..

Fossils ….. The limestone bedrock is itself almost entirely made from fossils and within the limestone bedrock on Inis Oirr are countless fossils

….Dry stone wall … great stuff

… This landscape is one of the finest examples of Glacio karst landscape in the worls formed during the last ice age it is truly a remarkable place….

Glacio karst landscape and erratic

Dry stone wall

…. It is becoming something of a tradition to collect fossils while cycle touring ….

…. The following two images are where we found some of the previous fossils ….

This was still early in the year so not all the ferry’s were operating as regularly as the do in the summer so we had to mis out on visiting Inis Meinn and head for Inis

…. Eiri gealai inis mor …

Eiri gealai inis mor

…Eri na gealai agus rothar – inis mor

Lui na greine Inis Mor

Glacio karst landscape with ancient dry stone wall

There is an extraordinary and huge ring fort on Inis Mor that forms a semi circular enclosure right up to the edge of the cliffs, and the cliffs are magnificent. This was a fab day out. What we liked about this most of all was that there were no protective barriers at the cliff edge to spoil the effect, thus preserving the character and atmosphere of the place. In the centre but fowards towards the edge of the cliff there is a raised platform of natural rock and one cannot help but feel that this place could well have been an open theatre of some kind perhaps serving multiple purposes. It very much reminded me of the Minack theatre in Cornwall in terms of atmosphere and character.

… And then it was back to the mainland …. and on to Conamara …  great stuff

Part 2 of this tour of Ireland continues in the next blog post …..