Battlefield Tour

Today we headed out to check out the local area. First we headed out to Lochnegar Crater which was a giant crater hole made from the explosion set off by the tunnelers on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

We went to Villers Bretonneux and the John Monash Centre which is the interactive museum and it is just so well done, spent several hours there.

Chipply to see the horse monument
Villers Brettonuex
John Monash Centre
Corbie
Red Baron
Super U for dnner

Lochnegar Crater

Sculpture- "The Empty Chair" to represent all the empty chairs in homes around the world of those those who were killed in WW1.

Villers Bretonneux

Villers Bretonneux

Villers Bretonneux

Villers Bretonneux

The memorial to the horses at Chipply

Picnic lunch

Tombstone where the remains of the unknown soldier where exhumed and taken to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra

Lovely view of the Somme 

Butterworth Farm, Pozieres, France

We left Dublin on Monday, returned our hire car to the airport and flew to Paris, where we picked up our hire car at the airport and headed straight out to Pozieres. It wasn't as bad as I expected it would be, after a few roundabouts, concentrating very carefully keeping me in the middle of the lane and Amy on the kerbside, it was pretty much straight up the motorway for 120 km or so then off onto country roads to Butterworth Farm at Pozieres. It was a relief to get there though but were able to relax in this lovely place. This is my 4th stay here, so it was lovely to see John and Chantel again and we feel very much at home. After relaxing and unpacking and chatting for a bit we headed into Albert for dinner at the Corner Pub. It had been recommended we try the Creme Brulee made with poppy seed oil, so we obeyed our instructions and were pleased we did it was delicious.  After getting back to Butterworth Farm we went for a bit of a wander around the village.

Butterworth Farm where we are staying.

Some shots from our walk in the evening

Lovely sunset

 A French snail I spotted on my morning walk

View of the Pozieres on my morning walk

Avoca

On the Saturday Amy and I headed down to Avoca with Bindi.  Here we were able to check out the Avoca Weavers and see how they weave their scarves, blankets and wraps. It was a pretty little spot. Avoca was also the village where the series Ballykissangel was filmed many years ago- a series which I used to love.

Glenstal Farm

On the last day of our road trip we drove to Glenstal Farm which is near Limerick, we had organised an Irish cooking lesson and farm tour of a dairy farm. The farm supplies milk which is used to make Kerry Gold butter which was the attraction for Amy. We arrived about 10:30am and meet our host Sharon. We sat down to scones, jam and cream which were divine. After a good chat we were put to work making Irish Soda Bread, Champs (Irish mashed potato) , parsley sauce, buttered cabbage and loin of bacon  for our lunch. Amy also got to churn and make butter.

Amy churning the butter

Spreading, salting and cooling the butter

Shaping the butter

Amy preparing our dessert and our Irish Soda Bread we made earlier cooling. 

Then we met Andrew, Sharon's  husband who came and took us for a drive around the farm and explained to us some of how they dairy farm in Ireland, it was very interesting. We even got to meet some of the cows.

Then it was back to the house where we finished of preparations for lunch and then sat down with our hosts and enjoyed a lovely lunch.

We had a really lovely time and enjoyed our experience.

Then it was back on the road, we headed to Dublin where we are staying with my brother and his family for a few more nights.

Cliffs of Moher

We did a boat ride out of Doolin to see the Cliffs of Moher from the water and then we drove up to the Visitor's Centre and walked along the cliffs and saw it from the top.  I think you got more of an idea of the extent of the cliffs from the top.

The Burren

We went for a delightful drive up into The Burren which is a unique landscape of limestone rocks and hills in County Clare. We drove up to The Burren Perfumery which took us into this area, we drove on some very narrow country roads but got to really appreciate this stunning area.

The Burren Perfumery was out in the middle of nowhere in the Burren, it was in a lovely setting and had beautiful gardens we could wander through.

 

We headed further along the road and stopped in this rocky area and were able to get out and wander around and see some of the vegetation between the rocks.

Poulnabrone- an ancient passage tomb

Eagles Flying at Ballymote

From Sligo we headed to Eagles Flying for a Birds of Prey Show and  then the animal petting area. We were there for about 3 hours. We met white tailed sea eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, and a number of other birds. Being mid week and  not the busy tourist time there were only 10 of us there so it was up close and  personal.

Lovely peacock tail

The turkey who had an unfriendly encounter with a local fox but survived the ordeal

One of the falcons

Aisling the  European Eagle Owl- he was just gorgeous

 White tailed sea eagle

 

Vermin?

Amy and a raccoon

The fox that was badly injured by a car and rescued by the owners of the centre, had now become their house fox.

7 week old baby barn owl chicks that Amy got to hand feed.