Welcome Back
“You say, ‘Goodbye’ and I say, ‘Hello. Hello, hello.’
I don’t know why you say, ‘Goodbye,’ I say, ‘Hello,. Hello, hello.’
I don’t know why you say, ‘Goodbye,’ I say, ‘Hello.’”
Wexi is pretty fierce…she apparently scared all the sheep and rabbits into hiding!
The car is packed and we’re ready to depart, but first one last picture of the view we just couldn't get enough of! Thank you Wicklow Mountains for the exceptional scenery.
The Forty Foot
We figured we had time to squeeze in one more sight on our way to the Dublin Ferry Terminal.
The Forty Foot is a historic bathing spot on a promontory at the southern tip of Dublin Bay.
Hardy Dubliners come here year-round to swim in the Irish Sea. 🥶
Here’s our quick video of people jumping into the sea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMPG1AuT9l8
It used to be a male only swimming spot (probably a lot of male nudity back then 🙈 ), but today both men and women enjoy a swim here.
Irish authors James Joyce and Samuel Beckett both swam at the Forty Foot and subsequently wrote about it.
You can read more about the site and its name here.
The kiddie pool
The 2022 Apple TV Irish black comedy series Bad Sisters was set in Dublin and filmed on location in Ireland. The sisters frequented the Forty Foot throughout the series.
The concrete wind shelters of the Forty Foot are perched on an impressive rock outcrop that stretches out into the bay.
Concrete steps lead you right into the crashing waves of the Irish Sea.
Irish Ferries
Our return ferry was the Dublin Swift, named after the celebrated Irish author and poet Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), best known for being the Dean of St Patricks Cathedral, Dublin (where he is buried), and for writing the classic tale Gullivers Travels.
Swift is regarded as one of the foremost prose satirists in the English language, and Gullivers Travels is perhaps the most widely held work of Irish literature in libraries throughout the world.
A children’s favorite over the generations, the tale of Gulliver and his adventures is told in four parts, each with a distinctive satirical piece that also engages an older audience. However, when published in 1726, it was so well written that Gullivers Travels became an immediate favorite with the children of the time and has remained so to this day.
The Dublin Swift was considerably smaller than the one from our first crossing. On the last ferry, we drove up several levels while inside the boat, like being inside a multi-level parking structure.
This is the full extent of the car hold in this boat.
The center was for taller vehicles and then the cars were double-stacked on the wings.
On the wings they filled the lower levels first. The upper levels were split into three sections: front, center, and rear. The center section was a fixed height, while the far ends the front and rear sections could be lowered to act as ramps.
We were on the rear third of the port wing, so we parked on an inclined ramp. They had us remain in our cars and then raised the rear ramp so it was level with the center section.
When we arrived, they emptied out all the cars below us and then lower the front ramp, allowing us to drive down and off the boat. Pretty ingenious use of the space.
We departed right on time at 1:50 pm, and passed the same sights from three weeks earlier. Farewell Dublin!
The iconic red Poolbeg Lighthouse is reachable at the end of a lengthy seawall.
Slightly less accessible, the green North Bull Island Lighthouse.
Ireland, we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful country or a more gracious and welcoming people! Thank you!
The Irish Ferries Dublin Swift was smaller and indeed quite swift—our return crossing was an entire hour shorter then our initial voyage.
Google Maps showing us over halfway to Holyhead, on time for a 4:05 pm arrival.
The Fear
One thing most of you will not know is just how much we fretted about ensuring we would be allowed back into the UK to complete our tour. If you’ve gone through Passport Control, you’ll know that an agent can ask a lot of questions and entry is not guaranteed (recall we had our passports stamped to stay for only one day on our first trip to Russia).
Because the rules are quite vague and literally everything hung in the balance if we were not permitted to complete our trip, we went so far as to communicate with an immigration attorney in the UK before our trip.
All it says is that a US citizen can travel in the UK for 6 months without a visa (and we did not qualify for any form of visa). We read that some passport control officer do not know the rules well and sometimes interpret them as “six months in a calendar year,” which would not have allowed us to finish our trip. Plus, we never “checked-out” of the UK formally, so to prove we had left, we would have to show our Passport Control entry stamp from when we entered Ireland.
We were optimistic we could talk the officer through it (we could show we had airline tickets returning to the USA in September), but we remained nervous as we drove off the boat. The officer when we entered Ireland had asked a lot about our trip (purpose, duration, locations to be visited, etc.), so we excepted to have a decent “conversation” with the UK officer as we attempted to re-enter.
We were the second to last car off the boat, so we followed the line of other cars as we snaked our way through the terminal area, waiting to reach the queue at the Passport Control kiosk—and finally there it was. Only, the queue was because we had reached a red light at an intersection…outside the ferry terminal! Absolutely zero Passport Control. Zilch. Nil. None. Happy Coronation Day indeed! 🎉 🎊
Cae Canol Farmhouse
After stopping for groceries at a Tesco in Holyhead (we were downright giddy with relief as we shopped), it was about an hour and fifteen minutes to our next place.
The house overlooks the Teigl Valley. Here it is on a map:
We turned off A407 onto this farm road. Our farmhouse is at the base of the hill in the background.
Gate 1
After Gate 1, you drive over this old stone bridge across the Afon Teigl river.
Then it’s on to Gate 2.
Being careful for the chickens!
Oh, this new section of road looks a little better. 😊
Hmmm 🤔 (No, not the poorly worded sentence, but the ominous warning. ⚠️)
Gate 3, and getting narrower and rockier.
Gate 4. Amanda, you may need to spot me going through this one.
Almost there, and then I misjudged this rock. The rock has obviously been chiseled away to make more room for the wheel track, but the result is a very jagged and sharp surface.
OMG! 😳
Enterprise Rentals (intentionally I’m sure) does not provide a spare tire, a jack, or a lug wrench. I wonder what's the liability of leaving your renter stranded in Timbuktu?
I had no choice but to limp the car through Gate 5 and up to our farmhouse.
Fortunately, the wheel is alright; she may be broken, but at least she has a nice view.
Enjoy the tour of the 500-year-old farmhouse that was built when Henry VIII was King of England!
A few corrections from what I narrated on the video. Cae Canol is a beautiful example of a traditional Snowdonia House. The stairs are, in fact, slate slabs, and they are embedded in the original wall. The attached rental unit is the old bake house. On the back side of the large mountain behind the house is the old Manod Quarries, which became famous as the home to the National Galleries hidden art treasures during WWII. Pretty cool!
We arrived on Saturday evening. On Sunday afternoon (May 7) a very nice Welshman named Ken arrived at the house and removed the wheel. He will take it to a shop that is open for a few hours tomorrow (despite the Coronation Day bank holiday), and return with the wheel later that afternoon. With any luck, we’ll be back in business by Monday evening.
The Ionic Ken took the wheel away for replacement.
Ken is a local search and rescue volunteer, so we had a great time talking all things SAR.
Ken also loves helicopters, so we talked until his wife’s eyes began to roll into the back of her head. I sent him on his way with a few CHP shoulder patches, so it was a good day after all.
Wish us luck with the tire and on future trips down the road! 🤞
