Aughnanure Castle Gray skies, lush green lawns and another castle to explore: sounds like a typical day in Ireland.
There are no straight roads in Ireland. The country is dotted with lakes and bogs, and the carriageways meander around them, taking in sites and villages along the way. This makes for charming and unhurried driving – there is no point rushing or trying to get too far in any one day.
Of course, this can make route mapping challenging.
We had pre-planned a visit with a friend in Waterford towards the beginning of our month in the Emerald Isle last year, and we had pre-booked our ten day walk around the Dingle Peninsula. We needed to be in Dublin at the end of our time, but the rest we were working out as we went. I had in my possession, along with road maps and pamphlets, a Michelin Green Guide, and I was being influenced by their star ratings.
That was how we decided to include the wild Connemara region of West Galway and the ancient monastery Clonmacnoise– both “Highly Recommended” – in our travel plans. It was while trying to negotiate transport between these two sites that we decided to rent a car rather than rely on local buses.
So it was that on yet-another-rainy day in July, we were driving southeast from Clifden, Co Galway, back through Galway City to reach Athlone, in the middle of the country – stopping at sites along the way.
Our first stop was less than an hour from the start of our day, at Aughnanure Castle, a testament to the formidable O’Flaherty clan, who built the tower house around 1500.
Caisleán Achadh na Nlubhar ~ Castle in the Field of the Yews Aughnanure Castle stands on a rocky “island” near Lough Corrib; the walls are flanked by waterways and trees – even if only one ancient yew (not pictured) remains on the site.
Outside Castle Walls Aughnanure Castle can barely be seen through the trees, as a sow roots around by the creek.
Black and White Sow
Approach The rains came and went as we approached the castle entrance.
Inner Bawn A bábhún(bawn) is a defensive wall surrounding Irish tower houses. Aughnanure Castle is unusual in having two: the southeast corner turret is all that remains of the inner wall.
Castle Walls The walls around the castle are in differing states of repair.
Windows A view through the thick castle walls to the outside, and from an upper balcony into the banquet hall. The castle boasts a “murder hole” and a secret chamber, so is rather fun to explore.
Early Bird Inside the castle walls, the wet lawns are a rich source of bird food for this thrush.
“Pony, Meet Pig!” Back outside the walls, the sow decides to investigate a pony… and we drive fifteen minutes further down the road to lunch and our next stop.
Moycullen Wet streets and window wipers: the rains continue.
Richly Coloured Connemara Marble Moycullen is home to the Connemara Marble Factory & Visitor Centre.
Marble Machines The big machines were quiet when we visited…
Marble Workers … but the workers were busy: carving and polishing the locally-quarried marble.
The Arch, Athenry Thirty minutes later, we were driving through the Arch or Northgate of Athenry. The arch was originally built as one of the seven gateways into the town. The original town walls were built during Norman times, but there is some evidence that this, the only remaining gate, was built a little later.
Rock Following a vague description in the Green Guide, we drove around in circles for a while, looking for a famous stone carved in the Iron Age. Rest assured, this is NOT it. We found out later that the Turoe Stone had been moved, and though we drove through Knockacullen several times hunting for it, we saw no signposting!
St Peter and Paul’s Church The Roman Catholic church, completed in 1937, was an imposing sight as we came into Athlone.
“Be Still and Know that I am” Not surprising, I suppose, that in a Catholic country like Ireland, it was as easy to find religious objects for sale as it was to find dinner.
We did, of course, find food – and wine and music – for Ireland isn’t only about history and scenery and devout faith.
My computer crashed the other day: locked up with a blank screen and humming motor, and refused to boot again. I don’t like to speak ill of my MacLemon, but this latest episode makes hard-drive number four in as many years – and I have also replaced a battery. What is worse, of course, is that without my Mac, I don’t have access to my pictures or the Lightroom catalogues they are stored in. Talk about First-World Problems, right?
I’m still waiting for the final verdict. In the mean time, I’ve dug out an archaic PC and found some old picture files from a wonderful trip we took a long time ago – to Argentina – back before I had a digital SLR or access to sophisticated processing. Still, it was nice to revisit the shots.
Lemons to lemonade.
If you want a great day out, I can’t recommend Glaciar Perito Moreno, Patagonia, Argentina, highly enough.
Of course, just to make life interesting, when we visited, our plane from Buenos Aires to El Calafate – the town where we were to be based – took us the long way around: via Tierra del Fuego, that southern-most tip of South America; the jumping-off point to Antarctica.
Although we weren’t allowed out of the airplane, I can still say I landed at the end of the world.
Tierra del Fuego Flying into Ushuaia – last stop before Antarctica.
In El Calafate we stayed in a hostel – you know: one of those places with ply-board walls so thin you can hear the neighbours breathe (and the rest!) and with dodgy plumbing and no water pressure, so that the water sliding from the shower nozzle down the wall is not guaranteed to be warm.
The next morning, after a very early breakfast of some lightly crisped white stuff they called “toast”, we were bundled, with five other sleepy-headed travelers, our guide, and a driver, into a mini van for the pre-dawn drive to the bottom end of Glacier National Park.
Velvet Morning In a cold pre-dawn, we drove to the bottom end of Patagonia’s Glacier National Park.
As for the glacier itself, the pictures tell most of the story. They don’t show the noise, of course. There is nothing quite like the sound of a massive glacier heaving and groaning, especially when you are on it! The resonating booms and drawn-out splashes as bits fell into the water were simply amazing.
Floating Ice As the light comes up, the glacier comes into view in the morning mists, and we see ice pieces floating down the river.
Rock – Mountains – Ice It’s a stunning and dramatic landscape. The natural bridge over the two pillars collapsed March 13th, only days before our arrival. Apparently the noise could be heard 20 km away.
At the Front Parts of the glacier sit over 60 meters above the level of the water. We cruise across the front edge.
Boat on Lago Argentino Another tour boat motors across the huge lake.
Edge of the Glacier Once our boat was docked, we walked from ‘Refuge’ to a picnic area near the glacier’s terminus; I was never sure if that was the name or just a description.
Dirty Surface After we were fitted with our crampons, we started our walk across the glacier. It was surprising to me how rough and dirty the surface was.
Guide While our guide was describing the glacier, I heard what I thought was thunder; it turns out it was just the ice protesting.
Hole-in-the-World Drop something down a crevice, and it might show up again in 200 years.
Ripples on the Glacier The ice rolls in waves, making walking, even with crampons, difficult.
Have Ice-Pick ~ will Climb Our guide, unlike me, has no difficulty negotiating the terrain.
Group on the Ridge Like a caravan of camels on the desert dunes, there was another group in the distance.
The Famous Grouse As we climbed over the ridge, we saw what we thought was a weather station. It was scotch – which we drank with shaved ice and chocolates.
Crack and Splash Back at ‘Refuge’ after our walk, we listen to the ice crack off the front of the glacier and splash into the lake.
Perito Moreno Everything is impossibly bight – impossibly blue.
Coloured Rock The rocks have been well polished by ice and water over eons passed.
Carpet of Ice View from the walkway at Curva de Los Suspiros. The glacier stretches 30 km (19 miles) in length, and is 5 kilometres (3 mi) wide across at the lake. In spite of pieces falling off, this glacier is actually growing.
Lenticular Clouds Patagonia is famous for its spectacular cloud formations. These lenticular clouds look like UFOs against the blue sky.
Cerro (‘Hill’) Moreno Our last view of the glacier from the walkway at Curva de Los Suspiros.
Truly a magnificent landscape.
It may not make me feel better about my computer, but it puts life back into perspective.
[…] and maps from a long-ago trip to South America. Well, to be more accurate, from Argentina (see: Perito Moreno and El Chaltén) and Peru. South America is a big place! Naturally, the trip notes beckoned me […]ReplyCancel
Swallow-Tailed Kite “Wildlife Encounter Talks” are given every afternoon at Flamingo Gardens in Davie, Florida.
Florida welcomes you to the state with fresh orange juice and glossy brochures, and then subjects you to mile-upon-mile of billboards advertising everything from alligator airboats to the power of prayer. Endless highways and turnpikes are bounded by garish plastic storefronts advertising all manners of food, tacky souvenirs, alcohol, and entertainment.
I found it vaguely depressing, and very overwhelming. Fortunately, as I have written before (Kissimmee Lake), it is possible to escape. National Parks, Indian Reservations, State protected green spaces and privately bequeathed lands are never too far away, if you look.
Which is lucky.
We’d had a rough night. Our planned lodgings in Fort Lauderdale had collapsed spectacularly, and our attempt to find an alternative near the Everglades had failed. (The people I spoke to at the local gas station didn’t sound used to talking to tourists, let alone accommodating them.) We drove in circles, late into the evening, and finally ended up with a room at a dimly-lit strip motel where the “reception” was behind a locked grate.
So, I was determined to jump off the highway at the Flamingo Gardens, a not-for-profit botanical gardens and wildlife sanctuary, before continuing south into the Florida Keys.
It was a good decision.
Sun Parakeet The Sun Conure (Aratinga solstitialis) is actually a native of South America – but often found in captivity.
We escaped our dingy, overnight dungeon and were parked at the gardens before they opened for the day. We wandered around the parrots and macaws in the outside aviaries waiting for the doors to open, and once inside, didn’t leave until early afternoon.
Pink Ginger (Zingiberaceae) Flamingo Gardens is set on 60 acres of land, divided into seven distinct botanical zones.
Orchids The “Tropical Plant House” area includes orchids, calatheas and other high-maintenance tropical plants.
Wild Ginger (Zingiber zerumbet)
More Wild Gingers? The gardens are a feast of strange, tropical plants.
Erect Heliconia It must be the right time of year: colour peaks out from everywhere.
Harris’s Hawk We made our way into the “Bird’s of Prey” area…
Red Shouldered Hawk … where we met several rescued raptors…
Burrowing Owl … including this adorable little owl who came off second-best in a nasty accident.
Black and Yellow Garden Spider
Roseate Spoonbill In the large, walk-through “Everglades Free-Flight Aviary”, we were surrounded by some of the more-than-45 species of Florida native birds housed there.
Eastern Brown Pelicans Brown Pelicans live in Florida year-round ~
American White Pelican ~ while the White Pelican is a winter visitor.
Squirrel The Eastern Gray Squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis, is found in the southern parts of eastern Canada and throughout the mid-western and eastern United States.
School Children The Flamingo Gardens cater for school groups. Some of these children seem pretty excited to be so close to White Ibis.
Caribbean Flamingos “Flamingo Pond” is home to the eponymous waders.
Brazilian Red-Cloak (Megaskepasma)
Golden Candles (Pachystachys lutea)
Shade Trellis Delicate slipper orchids hang from the trellis where we wait for our “Narrated Tram Tour” around the wetlands and native trees.
The Wrays Floyd L. and Jane Wray came to Florida in 1925 and bought 320 acres of land. They were intrigued by the horticultural possibilities of the subtropical locale. Floyd and his business partner Frank Stirling founded Flamingo Groves in 1927, maintaining the indigenous plant life as well as cultivating exotic specimens and testing the viability of over 60 varieties of citrus. (History)
The Historic Wray Home The weekend home of the Wrays, nestled in a native hammock of Live Oak trees, many of them 150 to 200 years old, was originally built in 1933. Restored, it is now open to the public as a small museum.
Peacock Over four dozen peacocks live on the property.
Peacock Lucky for us, it was mating season.
Black Vulture The vultures nesting nearby are much less blessed in the looks department.
Northern Crested Caracara These impressive Florida natives are members of the falcon family.
Florida Bobcat The “Everglades Wildlife Sanctuary” section of Flamingo Gardens was opened in 1990, and was one of the first to house permanently injured or non-releasable Florida native wildlife.
Opossum Much maligned, North America’s only marsupials, opossums are omnivorous and often scavenge roadkill and household garbages. They are almost totally immune to rabies and snakebite.
I am grateful that Mrs. Wray established the Floyd L. Wray Memorial Foundation in 1969 in honour of her late husband, preserving the core property for us, and for future generations.
A few hours in the park sure improved my day ~
and we can all use a bit more nature in our lives.
[…] when the opportunity to get a little closer to our feathered friends presents itself (e.g.: Flamingo Gardens and On the Perch), I tend to jump at it. A couple of years ago, my husband and I were in Bali, […]ReplyCancel
Moria and Anita Kalbeliya gypsy sisters, Rajasthan
Incredible India!
That land of colour, chaos and contradictions.
I’ve only just returned to my quiet little corner of the NSW southcoast after three weeks of travelling in magical, manic, northern India. My suitcases are full of trinkets bought from street children and beggars, my shoes are full of desert sand, and my external drives are full of pictures. It will be months before I can fully sort out my thoughts and impressions. So, I thought I’d prepare a short post in the mean time.
“Short” turned out not to be so simple! I love what little I have seen of India – but I can’t claim to begin to understand it. To a Western-raised mind, it truly is a land of contradictions.
The caste system is a case in point. Codified almost 2000 years ago in Brahminical texts, four broad castes were defined, based on their functions – their roles – in society:
Brahmana (or Brahmin), tolook after the ‘head’; the religious and spiritual endeavours, and education;
Kshatriya, the ‘arms’, to take care of public service, law and order, and defence;
Vaishya, the ‘stomach’, to deal with the commerce and business; and
Shudra, the ‘feet’, to perform semi-skilled and unskilled labour.
Castes were determined by birth and could not be altered. While this system may have ensured stability, it didn’t allow movement or intermarriage between classes. Worse, it created an underclass and excluded and ostracised whole groups of peoples as Harijan or “children of God” – more commonly known as Dalits or achuta: “Untouchables”.
While I was in India, I was told that the caste system itself was outlawed, but I can find no evidence supporting this. Since 1950, it has been against the law to actively discriminate against someone based on their caste, or to practice “untouchability”, but in practice, prejudice and even violence against India’s lower orders is still commonplace (e.g. Untouchable @ National Geographic Magazine; Human Rights Correspondence School).
Rajasthan’s desert nomadic peoples are a prime example of India’s contradictions. Even though they were “Untouchables”, gypsies were hired in the old days by kings and maharajas to provide exotic entertainment – “the Bopa are talented musicians and singers and the Kalbeliya are dancers and snake charmers” – and today they still subsist as semi-nomadic street performers. They are, however, still outsiders, and are seen by other Indians as “squatters and hustlers” and “dirty and aggressive beggars”. I was told, sotto voce, that many of the women are “entertainers”. Indeed, in some areas of Rajasthan, in the absence of educational and employment opportunities, prostitution has become their main source of income.
The two gypsy women I met, Anita and Moria, might be outside the Indian caste system, but they are proud, self-possessed, and sure of their own value. Even if Karl Grobl, our photo-tour guide had not warned tour participants of their toughness before he negotiated a contract with the sisters to pose for us, I would have felt no inclination to cross them. These young women, aged 18 and 25, with four small children between them, may be dressed in beads, fancy embroidery, and sequins, but they are as hardy as tempered steel!
Gypsy Sisters Wagons, camels, and the hills of Pushkar provide a backdrop for our Kalbeliya models.
Gypsy Dancing Anita dances as Moria and Pushkar fair-goers look on.
Skirts and scarves flying …
… the women manage to dance and twirl …
… on rough sand with no music!
Anita Posing
Moria and her Famous Dimple
Moria Posing
Sisters Chatting
Moria and Anita
It is hard to imagine what these bright, industrious women would have made of the their lives if they had had the kinds of opportunities we take for granted.
Perhaps they would change nothing –
The apparent contentment of many of India’s people is, for me, one of the most perplexing contradictions.
Thanks SO much, Karl. I do love the opportunities you provide! 😀ReplyCancel
Jan Lively -November 30, 2013 - 12:46 pm
Wow Ursula. . . .of course you remain amazing in both words and images.
Thanks for sharing and thanks for your part in helping to make Pushkar (before & after) so very memorable.
And I do so like my new moniker. . . Pushkar People. It was indeed wonderful being a part of it all !ReplyCancel
[…] Kalbeliya Gypsy Sisters Sisters Anita and Moira, dressed in their finery, perform dances for fair-goers. (See also: A Gypsy Portrait) […]ReplyCancel
[…] experience that – while I’ve already shared some of the images I made there (see: A Gypsy Portrait, Faces at the Camel Fair, and Scenes from a Fair) – I still have a large body of work to […]ReplyCancel
Horse Carriages and Dusty Streets The colonial hill town of Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar, is an odd mix of dilapidated development and old colonial grandeur.
Pyin Oo Lwin (or Maymyo), a small town67 kilometers (42 mi) east of Mandalay is an odd place, with it’s dusty streets and Wild-West look. According to Wikipedia: “The town began as a military outpost established near a small Shan village with two dozen households…”, becoming a permanent military town by 1896. Tour books will tell you the town still feels “anglicised” from the days of colonial rule, but this is only noticeable once you are away from the inner-city rubble and litter.
I’ve written about the town, and the flower markets in the streets outside it, before:
It was after our morning stop at the flower markets that we ten photography enthusiasts, along with photographer Karl Grobl and local guide Mr MM, piled into gaily painted wooden pony carts for a tour of the town and its surrounds.
Pony and Cart These dainty ponies hardly look strong enough to manage the cart and driver – even without three sturdy passengers with camera gear!
Decorated Pony With their plastic flowers and gaily decorated harnesses, the ponies were almost as colourful as their carts.
Boyz in the Hood A pony cart provides a nice (albeit unpredictably bumpy!) elevation from which to watch the life in the local streets.
“City” Street In spite of the shimmering heat, the puddles from the last downpour remain.
Tourists in the Pony Traps Soon we are out of the downtown, and into greener areas…
Life isn’t Perfect … but even here, things can be tough.
Candacraig Our first stop is at Candacraig, the oldest hotel in Myanmar.
Inside Candacraig Originally built in 1904 by the British Bombay Burma Timber Company for their expatriates, Candacraig is now a government-owned hotel.
Upstairs Candacraig Paul Theroux, the American travel writer and novelist, tells of his stop here in The Great Railway Bazaar (1975).
Bathing For all it’s teak splendour, Candacraig is little improved. People still bucket-bathe out the back.
Makeup Ready While we were there, Candacraig was being used as a set…
Singing On the Porch … for a music video. We weren’t sure if this was for a song, or part of a movie, as the actors were an ethnic minority whom our guide had trouble understanding.
Horse Carriage Meanwhile, our ponies were grazing.
Pony Driver
Pots and Pans Back in town centre, I had the opportunity to wander through the shops…
Market … and the fresh-food markets.
Flowers for Sale Here, too, Pyin Oo Lwin’s famous flowers are for sale.
Smiling Woman But, it is the people I enjoy the most.
Delivering Coconuts
Selling Rice
Selling Flour and Grain (The beetle-chewing starts young!)
At the Mechanics The absence of protective clothing in high-risk work areas is always noticeable. Of course, the weeping goldsmith flowers on the bike will appease any mischievous Nats (Burmese spirits), so everything will be fine!
At the Mechanics
Grocer Bottles, boxes and bags…
Selling Flowers – and just about everything else!
Truly a town of contrasts.
But, as is the case elsewhere in Myanmar, the smiles are never hard to find.
- Performing the Ganga Aarti from Dasaswamedh Ghat, Varanasi
- Buddha Head from Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar
- Harry Clarke Window from Dingle, Ireland
- Novice Monk Shwe Yan Pyay Monastery, Myanmar
Packets of 10 for $AU50.
Or - pick any photo from my Flickr or Wanders blog photos.
I am grateful that Mrs. Wray established the Floyd L. Wray Memorial Foundation in 1969 in honour of her late husband, preserving the core property for us, and for future generations.
