Ireland Bike Tour - Ennis Slide Show

We arrived a few days early and got to know the town of Ennis which was full of stone walls, first thing we noticed, and lots of local shops and pubs - no Walmarts or big box stores. The only chain store we noticed was a large Irish department store, Dunnes. The other big attraction is the Fergus River.

(select 720p to view in high definition and full screen to view full screen)
The slide show above features:

The Old Ground Hotel
Residential Streetscapes
Ennis Friary (being restored)
Fergus River
Ducks along the Fergus River
Downtown Ennis
The Suburbs (1960s style houses rather than 1860s style houses)

Ireland Bike Tour Overview

In recalling our wonderful bike tour of Ireland at first it seems like one long uphill ride in the rain, the green being the only constant. But actually every day was different with many different landscapes and varied geography throughout the over 300 kilometre route. We even had some dry and sunny days with fluffy white clouds.

So let us look at it day by day as described officially in italic with my recollections following. (Click on images to enlarge)

Pre Bike Tour Visit to Ennis

We arrived a few days early and got to know the town of Ennis which was full of stone walls, first thing we noticed, and lots of local shops and pubs - no Walmarts or big box stores. The only chain store we noticed was a large Irish department store, Dunnes. The other big attraction is the Fergus River, which undoubtedly I will post photos of when I do the day by day photo posts.

Arrival Day (Relaxing)

The tour begins in Ennis just north of the Shannon Airport. Most flights coming from North America arrive early in the day so you will have plenty of time to relax and shake out the cobwebs. We have a welcoming dinner awaiting your arrival, so you can meet new friends, peruse your tour itinerary, and have your trusty metal steed readied for the journey ahead. Tonight we'll stay at The Old Ground Hotel.

On the first day we were somewhat concerned when we never did get to meet up with the rest of the group to get our pre-ride briefing and our bikes setup. But at supper time, when me met our guide Jeff, we discovered that we were the group and the three of us had our own personal guide.

Cycling Day 1 (easy to moderate)

We will depart from Ennis today as we make our way to Doolin, the birthplace of modern Irish music. You will be spending two nights here, so there will be plenty of time to kick up your heels. Eight kilometers south of Doolin, you’ll find the towering Cliffs of Moher, one of Ireland’s most photographed natural attractions. Tonight and tomorrow night we're at The Aran View House Hotel.

Today we got setup on our bikes with our self-guiding instructions so we could ride on our own while Jeff went ahead with the van and then would mysteriously appear on his bike cycling towards us to make sure we were not lost. We rode to the Cliffs of Moher which reportedly has spectacular views, but all we saw was fog. But after the longest climb of the trip, 220 metres, we were not riding back up there again no matter how sunny the next day was.

Attractions along the way that we stopped to photograph included ruins, Ireland has lots of ruins, and a remarkable cemetery that I will post photos of in the day by day review.

Cycling Day 2 (moderate)

County Clare’s great attraction is the Burren, a rocky stretch of country with many reminders of Ireland’s long and storied past. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell dispossessed many Irish as his armies rampaged through the country, exiling them to this harsh and infertile land. We’ll cycle Burren today, enjoying the region’s stunning scenery and spectacular coastline.

Today we did a circle route through the remarkable Burren, a landscape that almost defies description, although parts of Ottawa's Lime Kiln Trail with it's underlying Limestone hints at it. Wait for the photos coming soon. And, of course it's Ireland so there were more ruins. This was the second hardest climbing day of the tour.

Cycling Day 3 (easy)

Today’s trip includes a short ferry ride to Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands. The natural beauty will quicken your heart, and you’ll be intrigued by the Irish passion for building stone walls to divide even the most inconsequential plots of dirt. We’ll cycle from the ferry up to the impressive stone fort of Dun Aengus — perched precariously on a dramatic cliff. After touring the island, we’ll ferry back to Rossaveel —a beautiful tract where Gaelic is still widely spoken — then on to Screeb, Gortmore, and Cashel. It’s a great day, ending at a lovely country inn sitting beside Bertraghboy Bay. Tonight's at The Cashel House.

A great day for photography as it was actually sunny and there was so much to photograph from a remarkable fort to literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of stone fences from millions of stones dividing up the tiny allotments that people had tend to survive from farming. Did I mention the dolphins swimming around in the harbour beside the ferry.

Cycling Day 4 (easy)

From Cashel we have a short day planned to Clifden, the main centre in Connemara. Our bike route will be along the coast of Ballyconneely Bay through Roundstone, Ballyconneely, and Ballinaboy. For the duffers among you, a beautiful golf course in Doonloughan sits along today’s route. Tonight we're staying at The Quay House.

Today was a day at the beach as we stopped at a wonderful little beach along the route, as well as made a visit to the lovely town of Clifden. More scenery and ruins, and did I mention the sheep. The sheep in Ireland seem to have priority over the roads, followed by bicycles and then cars.

Cycling Day 5 (easy to moderate)

We continue along the dramatic coast to Cleggan, Rinvyle Castle, and Kylemore Abbey before settling in on the shores of Lough Inagh, which is nestled between the Twelve Pins and Maumturk Mountains. Lough Inagh Lodge will be our home for two nights.

If you’ve ever been to a county fair or watched a movie about Australia you have seen sheep sheering, but usually with electric shears. In this part of Ireland they use hand shears and probably sheer the sheep faster and cleaner than with the electric ones. Along with photos I got some video of this special happening. This was a great day for photos, including a good number of flower close-ups. Watch for them to be posted later. There was a really great mountain behind our Lodge that I was so tempted to try to climb up.

Break Day (relaxing)

This morning you'll wake up in one of the prettiest places in the world — Connemara's Lough Inagh Valley. Your options include a visit to the Kylemore Abbey; a loop ride around the Maumturk Mountains; a hike in the mountains; or perhaps you would prefer to hire the local fishing guide and try your luck fishing, and drinking in the scenery. You decide and we make it happen.

We took today easy, managed to talk Jeff into driving us to the Abbey where we explored the grounds and the remarkable gardens. There is some real interesting history about this place.

Cycling Day 6 (moderate)

Our last day-- but oh!-- we end with a bang! We will leave the comforts of our inn and make our way to Leenane before heading north between the Mweelrea Mountains and the Sheeffry Hills enroute to Louisburgh. It’s such a gorgeous ride, and a fitting end to your Ireland adventure!

This was the longest ride of the tour but not too bad as far as hills go, except for the last ride into Westport, up and down and then back up and down again. Lots of scenery but not too many photo stops because of the long ride and then drive back to Ennis in the van.

Post bike tour: Ennis and Limerick

After the bike tour we stayed in Ennis for a few days and took a bus to Limerick for a day tour. The most interesting observation we made was that while Ennis had narrow streets with one lane one way traffic and narrow sidewalks, much of Limerick had wide streets with one lane one way traffic and very wide sidewalks. And both towns had portions of their centre cores that were pedestrian only.

Concluding Thanks

We would like to thank our guide Jeff and everyone at Pedal and Sea Adventures for a wonderful holiday in Ireland, seeing it in a way that you could never do by car or bus.

Open Letter to the National Capital Commission re Lime Kiln Trail Fire

The fire near the Lime Kiln Trail has been described as a tragedy. Perhaps not. If houses or roads had been built on the land it certainly would be a tragedy that the forest would never recover from, though some would call it development or progress. But the forest will recover from the fire and, though we all wish it could have been avoided, the fire presents an opportunity.

So what should the National Capital Commission (NCC) do about the site of the fire, I would suggest nothing, or as little as possible, only what is necessary to make the site safe. Please no attempts to make it presentable, or tidy it up, or artificially beautify it. What we have is an opportunity for the public to see a forest naturally regenerate itself, and perhaps a chance for scientists (an endangered species themselves within the current federal government) to study the regeneration.

I would call upon the NCC to allow the public, particularly regular users of the trails, back into the trail system as soon as possible to see the effects of the fire and to start observing the changes as the forest regenerates itself. Please avoid any further damage to the forest from heavy equipment beyond what was obviously required to fight the fire. The only tools likely needed might be rakes to clear burnt wood and debris from the trails. Trail users, who probably know the trails better than the NCC does, will rebuild the trail system by using it.

Simply closing it down would be to ignore a great opportunity and trying to artificially create an unnatural ecosystem or tree plantation would be worse. Let us seize this opportunity to build something meaningful from the ashes of this unfortunate event.

Religious Bullshit and Assisted Suicide Law Struck Down

If you are a religious person you know that life is sacred and only god can decide when and how you will die.

You also know that god has a plan for you and works in mysterious ways. So he might decide that you will die quietly in your sleep after living a long fulfilling life. Or he might decide that you will be killed by a sociopathic serial killer, or by a drunk driver, or while being raped by someone who is supposed to love you. Or he might decide that you will die a long slow painful lingering death due to disease.

But as a religious person you know that it is god's choice and you have no say in the matter and no rights as to how and when you die.

Well god fearing people, the British Columbia Supreme Court has just ruled that is all BULLSHIT.

The Bill That Couldn't Happen Here

Back when I worked for the House of Commons, every time an Omnibus Bill was proposed (and the usual discussions and negotiations around splitting it were occurring) we would joke about the ultimate Omnibus Bill - An Act for the Government of Canada, with everything a government wanted to do in one bill. Of course, we never believed it would ever happen in our democratic system. But that is essentially what Bill C-38 is about.

Omnibus bills were always controversial, but in comparison to Bill C-38, always focused. They might, for example, amend several crime and justice related acts in one bill or several pieces of environmental legislation in one bill. But they were still controversial and often divided into more reasonable groupings of legislation by means of multi-party co-operation. Yes there used to be such a thing, even during majority governments.

Budgets themselves would always result in numerous bills, usually an Income Tax bill, a bill related to other tax measures, and specific bills for specific policy measures included in the budget. It is unprecedented to include everything mentioned in a budget, and some things not mentioned in it, in a budget bill. It is unprecedented not only because no government thought they could get away with it but because all previous governments knew it was inappropriate and undemocratic.

This was back in the days when governments did not believe that democracy involved 40% of the people electing a dictator who would virtually govern by decree for four years, but when governments believed in Parliamentary democracy.

This was back in the days of the Progressive Conservative Party when government and opposition Members of Parliament may have differed on what the thought were the best policies for the country but respected each other because they all wanted what they believed was best for Canada. This was back when all political leaders believed in Canada and we did not have a Prime Minister who wanted to make this country something that Canadians would not recognize.

God Created Adam and Eve Not Adam and Steve

I'm really not sure why religious right wingers always seem to use this phrase in reference to the Adam and Eve story (as well as other Old Testament references) to justify their claims that homosexuality is an abomination (and as the Catholic school system would call it "intrinsically disordered"). The lesson from the Adam and Eve story doesn't exactly fit in with their moral code.

After all if you accept the story of "the rib", Eve was essentially Adam's cloned sister. So according to the Biblical version of the origin of the species the first two humans were siblings, who had sex to produce the second generation, also siblings who had sex to produce the third generation (well there was another possibility but it still would be incestuous). And then it was the cousins and so on and so on. So mankind is based on incest according to their literal interpretation of the Bible.

Of course if we accept Old Testament stories as fact people seemed to live a long time back then so maybe incest was not such a bad thing. But I prefer to base my opinion of the desirability of incest on scientific studies into the impact of "in-breeding".

I also prefer to base my understanding of the origin of the species on the scientific explanation of The Origin of Species.

According to the theory of evolution and natural selection non-useful traits of a species will disappear over time with evolution. Thus if homosexuality was not naturally useful to mankind it would have disappeared, The fact that it has not simply proves that it is natural and good.

Endangered Species Legislation Wrong Approach

Trying to protect endangered species is simply the wrong approach to protecting wildlife.

What we do is allow open season on development/destruction of wildlife habitat unless it contains endangered species. Then we make a half-hearted token attempt to protect those species, often while still allowing the development/destruction of the habitat they depend on. When that fails and the species is wiped out in that area it is open season on developing/destroying the habitat again.

This of course is because the purpose of the legislation is to interfere as little as possible with development while appearing to care about the environment.

The way to protect wildlife is to protect their habitat from destruction/development before they become endangered, not after it is too late.

We need to strengthen environmental legislation, not weaken it, as both provincial and federal governments intend to do, and not even openly but stealthily using illegitimate omnibus budget bills

Heritage Minister James Moore Wrong on Sexhibit

Heritage Minister James Moore is clearly wrong in his criticism of "Sex: A Tell-All Exhibition" at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

It is not so much his criticism of the content that is wrong, although suggesting that human reproduction is an inappropriate subject for a science museum is somewhat bizarre.

But it is the expression of an opinion on a museum exhibit at all that is worrisome. The Minister should know that cultural and scientific agencies are supposed to be free of political interference or influence. Knowing that, the Minister should have avoided any statement that could have, or be seen to have, such undo influence. However it appears to be quite clear that the Minister did not try to avoid such influenza but did everything he could to have such undue influence, and his efforts have had the desired effect in causing the museum to make changes to the exhibit in response to political pressure.

This appears to be just another effort, along with reducing Statistic Canada's information gathering and closing federal libraries, in the Harper government's War on Knowledge.

Are Foreign Funded Canadian Charities Soft on Child Terrorists

Analysis by the Canadian Press shows that the three of the top four Canadian charities that received the most foreign funding were Care Canada, World Vision Canada and the Canadian UNICEF Committee, all known for helping starving children, many in war torn areas. Many of these children were victims of war and some were likely to have been child soldiers, often forced into battle by captors and even by their own parents. It is reasonable to expect that some of the foreign funders of these Canadian Charities, and even the Canadian doners, consider these children to be victims rather than the terrorists that the Harper government considers them to be. 

So is this perhaps the real root of the Harper government's concerns about foreign funding of Canadian charities, that the charities may be aiding child soldiers which they consider to be terrorists (but which the rest of the civilized world considers to be victims).

CN Cycle for CHEO 2012: Forgetting and Remembering the Hills

I described last years CN Cycle for CHEO as the best yet but I'm not sure how to describe this years. It started out cool and I dressed for it but didn't think of removing layers as it warmed up. I maintained almost the same pace as last year at just over 20 km/hr but it seemed pretty tough at times with the wind and I seemed to have forgotten all those hills till I had to ride them again and remember them.

Fortunately I got in more training rides with the early spring this season, two rides over 70 km and another two over 55 km.

Overall it was a great ride and I want to thank all my sponsors for donating to CHEO