Ireland - Hiking the Dingle Way

I arrived in Ireland and headed straight to Kilkenny to catch up with Kate, an intrepid hiker that I met last year in Nepal. We made it into town just in time to see Lisa Hannigan play a brilliant live set to a sold out crowd.  The venue was outstanding!

Despite the having just run three marathons in as many days earlier that week, Kate managed to talk me into joining her on "The Dingle Way" a 170km hike in South-Western Ireland.

The Dingle Way is more like an endurance pub-crawl than a traditional hike. Each day we walked for several hours along country roads, through fields and along long stretches of beach before stopping each evening at a different small town and heading out to explore the local pubs.

One tiny town had an impressive ratio of 7 pubs to 2 non-pub shops. Another 'pub' in Dingle was divided right down the middle - half pub, half fully functional hardware store. They seemed to be selling a lot more beer than hardware!

There was live music on offer in most towns with the band played traditional Irish songs and covers of modern pop/rock which usually sounded better than the originals. Although we didn't meet many other hikers, there were friendly locals everywhere. Their thick Kerry accents often made them completely incomprehensible but you didn't need to understand them to know that they were probably complaining about the weather. If this pony could talk, he would've complained about the weather too.

By Irish standards the weather was actually pretty good. The sun made a few brief appearances (I even got slightly sun-burnt) and although it often threatened to rain, we only got completely drenched once. We had walked about 25km before it started raining and we ended up having to walk another 15km while it bucketed down. In the process we passed through several deserted holiday-home ghost-towns, a legacy of the Celtic Tiger boom of the mid-2000s. We'd been walking for almost 12 hours when we finally stumbled, saturated and shivering into a guest-house but after a hot whiskey and several pints of Guinness, all was forgotten.

Although the terrain was generally quite flat, the scenery was amazingly green and impressively rugged with lots of free-stone walls and curious animals. A highlight for me was a 12km stretch along Ireland's longest beach with huge storm clouds building up behind us.

If you're ever in Ireland with a few days to spare, a willingness to walk long-distances and a taste for Guinness then I can highly recommend The Dingle Way. Thanks a million to Kate for a fantastic hike!

Adelaidians in Paris

Although my AirAsia flight didn't quite run on time and at one point they did run out of food, it had the overwhelming advantage of being cheap. As far as 13 hour plane trips go, my journey to Paris was painless enough.

Having already visited most of the city's touristic attractions I devoted this trip to drinking expensive wine and eating fancy French food. I enlisted the help of Chris, Alice, Dave and Sheree (friends from back home) and we headed out to La Pergolese, a Michelin Star restaurant near the Arc de Triomphe,  for a 9 course degustation. The highlights of the meal were a delicate shrimp salad and hearing the waiter ask "how would you like your pigeon cooked sir". Overall, the atmosphere and service were excellent while the food was good but not mind-blowing.

Many of the older buildings in Paris are built from rock that was carved out from quarries beneath the city which resulted in several thousand kilometers of tunnels 50 to 80 meters under the city streets. Although "The Catacombs" are mostly off-limits to the public there are plenty of stories of people sneaking into them and sometimes not coming back. In the late 18th century a section of The Catacombs was converted into a giant ossuary and later opened up as a tourist attraction. Its a creepy place but well worth a visit!

On the road again... Adelaide ---> Melbourne ---> KL

2011 has already been a pretty interesting year for me. I spent the first few months in Sydney, chasing after a girl. Staying in Manly was fantastic (see photo below!) but in the end she got away so I decided to pack my bags, grab a one-way ticket to Europe and let the chips fall where they may.

My immediate plans involve hiking, biking and backpacking in Ireland, Germany and Czech Republic. Although my long-term plans are still pretty vague, I'm going get an apartment in Berlin for a month (from mid-July) and then try to do the same somewhere in Ireland and see which I like better.

Despite being away from Adelaide often over the past few years this trip feels somehow different. Maybe the uncertainty of not knowing when I'll be back is playing a part or maybe I'm just getting old, but I feel a lot more sentimental about leaving my hometown, friends and family than I expected. Despite what all the people say, Adelaide really is a lovely town. You should really check it out some time!

My AirAsia flight departed from Melbourne so I stopped over there for a couple of nights, checked that Hermie was still alive and received a last minute pep-talk from TheGasman and friends. The only problem with eating out in Melbourne is that it sets the bar unrealistically high - other cities' restaurants just can't compete.

Going from Melbourne winter to Kuala Lumpur, where every day is 32 degrees and 100% humidity, wasn't easy. When I walked into my hostel the guy at the desk asked me if it was raining outside - fortunately he never got close enough to smell me.

I've spent quite a bit of time in KL over the past couple years and it feels a bit like a home away from home for me now. This trip I ate plenty of delicious food, met some cool people and had a couple of great nights out - the perfect start to my trip.

While wandering around the Chinatown markets with some crazy Norwegians (is there any other kind?) I was able show off my legendary bartering skills. I showed some interest in a flat-cap and initially the price was set at RM35 (A$10). I offered RM10, walked away at RM12 then turned around to reconsider. On closer inspection I found that the cap was slightly damaged and didn't quite fit properly. The price was reduced to RM8 then RM5 before the seller finally give up and offered to give cap to me for nothing. I politely decined. :)

Miri & Mulu

Another Air-Asia flight got me to Miri where I relaxed for a couple of night, ate entirely seafood and organized the rest of my trip before flying to Mulu National Park. 

The only world heritage listed National Park in Borneo, Mulu is completely surrounded by jungle although a short runway carved into the trees saved me a multi-day boat trip. The park is famous for limestone caves, spectacular rock formations and is the worlds number one destination if you're looking to wade neck deep in Guano (Aka batshit).

 The park management was magnificently incompetent. First they 'unbooked' my planned 3-day Pinnacles trek and then the accomodation bookings of several people mysteriously disappeared just in time to make room for a large organised tour group. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because there was cheaper accomodation just outside the park and more than enough activities to keep me busy for five days.

Many kilometers of wooden boardwalk provided access to the worlds longest canopy Walk and several impressive caves, the largest of which is home to about ten million bats. The bats hibernate during the day and then fly out together in huge waves around sunset. The atmosphere inside the cave was straight out of Jurassic Park - just don't look up!

A variety of adventure caving trips were also on offer and although my trip was only rated 'intermediate', 2.5 hours of rope-assisted scrambling and squeezing through a pitch black cave full of scorpions, snakes and spiders as big as your head was enough for me. For serious spelunkers, one of the expert level caves takes 12 hours and even involves several hours swimming along an underground river.

However the highlight of my visit was heading out to experience the jungle at night - I've never been in a place that was so alive. Athough our small torches barely pierced the blackness every small patch of light revealed countless bugs, beetles, spiders, lizards and more stick insects than you could poke a stick at. 

The atmosphere got even more impressive when we switched off our torches. At first the thick overhead canopy left us in total darkness but after a couple of minutes of pupil dilation the ground in every direction started to glow an eerie green as fields of luminescent fungus became visible. And then there was the sound - bizarre noises at a deafening volume from every direction.

My trip to Mulu ended with a few beers, some Beer Can Jenga and more farewells to the cool people that I had only just met. Such is the fun and frustration of travelling alone.

Kuching

While in transit from Kathmandu to Kuching my stomach finally lost the war against Nepali cuisine. I stayed in transit for another two days (between my bedroom and the toilet) but recovered in time for an overnight trip to the jungle at Bako National Park. 

The park is only accessible by boat and comprises a several hundred square kilometers of thick jungle dissected by hiking trails. The stifling heat and 100% humidity made trekking hard work but the views across limestone plateaus and over secluded coves were worth it.

The park's other drawcard is the monkeys. Three different species can be found within a few minutes walk of the HQ including an army of tiny macaques which encircled the cafe and terrorized diners. At one point I was sitting in the cafe with three friends and made the mistake of putting an unopened packet of Oreo down in front of me. It took no more than three seconds before a monkey had darted into the crowded restaurant, circled around behind me, made a running jumped onto our table, scooped up the whole packet and made good his escape. Grand Theft Oreo.

Back to Kuching I headed out an orangutan conservation centre. Although I have never been a serious animal lover, being able to watch a whole family of primates interacting in a semi-wild environment was pretty special. At one point a juvenile male grabbed a coconut and banged it against a tree 7 or 8 times to open it. This attracted the attention of the Alpha Male who, in a very deliberate gesture, grabbed his own coconut, swaggered over to a tree and smashed it open with one thundering blow. The whole excursion, including a 45 minute bus trip and park entry, cost less than A$3. Unfortunately without a zoom lens I couldn't really get any great photos. 

Fortunately I made friends with a really cool dutch couple who did! I pinched this next shot from their blog.

Annapurna Circuit (Part 5 - The Come Down)

After all the buildup to Thorong La, the descent which followed was something of an anticlimax. It didn't help that the next two days were along a long, dusty road and into a stiff head-wind. The walking woud have been a lot more pleasant if some of the dust had been replaced with water and trees.

The western side of the Annapurna trail (the part after Thorong La) has been accessible by road for the last 5 years. The good news, at least for this poor guy, is that he would no longer need to carry 38kg freezer up the mountain.

The bad news is that in just 5 years the style of the towns has already started to change. EVERYONE has freezers. The modernisation isn't in itself a bad thing and the local people's quality of life will probably be improved, but as a trekker the atmosphere wasn't as authentic. It wasn't all bad news, we did stay a couple of lovely campsites, one surrounded by an apple orchard and another nestled in a pine forest.

The food just kept getting better - over the entire 3 weeks I can't remember a single meal that I didn't enjoy. The kitchen-staff whipped up curries, stir fries, soups, dumplings, pastries and even baked us several pies and a couple of cakes! I'm still astounded at the variety of food they could prepare given they had to carry all the cooking equipment and fresh produce on their backs every step of the way.

Fortunately our chef was able to pick up some fresh local produce along the way. Three chickens were happily pecking around our tents at one campsite one afternoon but a little later they mysteriously disappeared. The mystery was solved at dinner - no worries, chicken curry.

Although no-one drunk any alcohol for the first 10 days, now that we were over the pass the atmosphere was more relaxed. There was a Bob Marley bar in every town and Kate and I dragged Margaret and Ruth along to most of them.

Although most days were gradually downhill, we did suffer through one very grueling day where we climbed about a million steps and 1500m in the pouring rain - the first bad weather of the entire trek. We were rewarded handsomely with a night in a hotel that even had a fire-place!

Once we got down into the Annapurna sanctuary the scenery was spectacular once again, rugged mountains with glaciers, steep gorges and thick forest. Although walking through a rain-forest shrouded in thick mist was spectacular...

not all of the views were quite so good.

We spent the final couple of nights in Pokhara, living it up in large, luxurious, individual tents with western toilets and a hot shower. Pokhara is a lovely city situated on a huge lake. It seemed quite similar to Kathmandu but without all the traffic, pollution and poverty. If I travel to Nepal again I would base myself there rather than in the capital.

Just when I was about to claim victory over the Annapurna Circuit a final challenge appeared: Yeti Airlines - "only 5 fatal crashes in the past 10 years!" Although the flight from Pokhara back to Kathmandu is supposed to be quite spectacular, it was quite cloudy and the windows were scratched and dirty so I couldn't see much. In hindsight, that might explain why so many of their planes plow into mountains.

Although I doubt any of them will ever the chance to read this blog, the porters, cooks, sherpas and in particular our guide Bikash deserve special thanks. They are all very talented and worked tirelessly day and night to make our trek run safely and smoothly. I take my hat off to them all.

Annapurna Circuit (Part 4 - Thorong La)

The uphill section of our journey culminated on day 10 with an ascent of Tharong La, the worlds largest mountain pass. We spent our penultimate night camped on the edge of a cliff at Tharong La Low Camp (4500m) with about 100 other excited trekkers.

Overnight the temperature dipped well below zero, the wind picked up and it snowed for the first and only time since we began, however when we awoke for breakfast at 3:30am it was perfectly calm and the skies were clear. The only evidence of the overnight storm was a light dusting of powder which brought the the otherwise dull-grey mountains spectacularly to life - we couldn't have choreographed the weather more perfectly.

After breakfast the atmosphere was tense. Margaret lost her backpack only the discover that she was actually wearing it, Di visited the toilet tent seven or eight times and the large droplet of snot that had taken up permanent residence under Ruth's nose came dangerously close to freezing solid. Kate sacrificed her right hand to frostbite in order to capture this photo of the mayhem. Although it might look like i'm smiling, its just that my teeth had frozen together.

The trail started uphill along steep switch-backs and our group was quickly divided. Rita, Greame forged ahead, Kate and I were next, while all the guides stayed back to look after the slower hikers. We walked with head-torches and despite the cold, we paused for a few minutes at the high camp (4800m) to watch the sun rise.

As we passed 5000m I popped some panadol to dull my headache and although I was also feeling light-headed and a little dizzy, I was doing a lot better than some others. An English couple from a different group had already turned back and we were passed by two horses, each carrying a semi-conscious 'trekker' over the pass. After seeing them I opted to stay a little closer to Kate, a veteran of several mountain climbs, confident that she would be able to piggyback me over the top if required.

Fortunately it never came to that. Although we were trudging along very slowly the time passed quickly and once the end was within sight adrenaline kicked in to keep me upright and functional.

Although the views at the top of the pass weren't particularly special, just a small teashop, a couple of banners and an excessive number of prayer flags, the looks of elation and relief on the faces of the other trekkers brought the place to life. After a quick photo stop, we headed up slightly higher to a lookout over Thorong Peak and Basecamp. It was just possible to make out climbers carving a path through the snow, about halfway to the summit. 5450m was more than enough for me.

Although we didn't actually have a thermometer, we agreed in retrospect that the temperature must have been at least minus 20 and even on a 'calm' day the wind was strong and biting. After about 25 minutes on top of the pass my hands got so cold that I couldn't physically press the trigger on my camera which I took as a good sign that it was time to head down.

The long march back down to 3800 meters wasn't a huge amount of fun, but at least all the symptoms of altitde sickness disappeared. We celebrated that night in the local bar and although one and a half Everest Beers were more than enough, they tasted pretty damn good!