IRELAND
Leinster Province
County Wicklow
2,024 km² (781 mi²)RATHNEW
The "Culture Vulture" Tour
Monday September 8th, 2008
With our playing commitments concluding, with the end of the 17th annual World Golden Oldies rugby festival, 7 of us adventurous Dingoes were set free to explore the wilds of Ireland – and on our own even!!!
The Sowerby’s (Roscoe & Marie), the Bates’ (Geoff, Michelle & 10 week old Matilda), Jungle and myself all jetted off from Edinburgh, on what one middle-aged women on the plane described as a “somewhat exhausting” journey. The flight from Edinburgh to Dublin was a huge undertaking in proportions of travel to the New World, with the sum total of 218 miles (351 kilometres) of travel between the cities. I reckon we covered most of that distance in taxiing up and down the bloody runways.
We hired three cars..... well...more like two and a half, as I ended up with the clown car from the circus. After booking a Toyota Corolla, I was handed the keys to a busted arse Renault Clio that wouldn’t pull a sheila off a sailor. This “silver dream racer”, comprising 1.2 litres of the finest of French technology (remember they are noted rifle droppers), ensured an adrenalin fuelled, white knuckled, heart pounding drive of pure fear on the highways.
This sensation was not caused by the sheer blistering pace of Formula 1 race inspired technology, no siree Bob, it was the simple fact that when loaded with Jungle, myself and our luggage we had troubles getting out of the breakdown lane, let alone cruising the slow lane. Nothing good can come from being at eye level with a trucks mud flaps, when they’re “doin’ a dollar” (100 kph) down the road, which is the speed limit.
After negotiating the Dublin M50 toll road, where you cannot pay for the toll, unless you phone them and provide a credit card for the €3 ($6.25AUD) toll PLUS a €5 ($10.42AUD) credit card fee, before 8PM the following evening, it was only a short 44 miles (70 kilometres) to the town of Rathnew, County Wicklow.
We all settled on staying at the Riverside Bed & Breakfast, which is located within the Riverside Interiors building, on the main street of town.
Our hosts, Anne and Tony Courtenay were a little bit, how would you put it, in a bit of a quandary, as the 3 rooms came with only one double bed in it. It was easy to see that Roscoe & Marie would be in one room, Batesy, Michelle & Matilda would be in the second room. But what to do with Jungle and myself???
We had no dramas, so we said we’d just bunk in together in the remaining room. The looks between the hosts were priceless. They weren’t sure if we were a couple, a family or what. Obviously two fellas in the same bed in County Wicklow was a bit of a rarity judging by the looks. Should I have mentioned to them we had slept together the previous week, all be it in separate beds??? I thought better of that as they probably would have fair fallen off their perches.
Tony mentioned they lived on the premises, so leaving our gear would be no problem. Little did we know that they used a set of pull down stairs in the lounge room to access the attic and that’s where they slept. Unfortunately for me and my light sleeping, with them overhead it sounded like the world’s biggest possums had moved in with us. Every time they moved, I woke up thinking they were coming through the ceiling.
We did have a win though. I managed to get the silver dream racer (that could double as a fat chicks silver “bullet”) to do a bit of a burnout. In all fairness, 4 of us blokes were in it, the roads were wet, I was on an incline trying get on the main road and the Clio was near stalling. So, I just stuck the right foot into it, valve bounced the 73 cubic inch 4 banger and dumped the clutch. And off we went with Dunlop dogs howling proudly from the front end.
