Keane’s, Maam, Galway. Pub No 4

I used the fact that my daughter was in the Connemara Gaeltacht as an excuse to head west and tick another pub off the list. Yeah, probably a bit of a cheap trick, but I was looking forward to seeing her, and checking she was being adequately fed! It’s called time management, OK? The morning is warm and...

The Palace Bar

You’ve got to grab opportunities when they come your way, right? So when I found myself in Temple Bar recently, (God help me, I still don’t quite know why), faced with the equally unpleasant options of the Dubliner or some other tourist pub serving champ with piped diddly ay music, I was delighted with the...

Great White Hippo

“Christ, what was that?” I’m startled awake and blindingly look around, trying to get my bearings. There is a crack of light filtering in through the window so I know it’s early morning. I realise I’m in Uganda, in a safari lodge, and Gwen is sitting bolt upright beneath her mosquito net...

Haggling

We are heading to the market. The excitement levels are high as we anticipate buying woven baskets, handmade jewelllry, colourful sarongs and bags, authentic looking masks and god knows what other African delights and cheap tat to fill our now empty luggage for the return journey. Gwen has been struck down...

A Village Stroll

Our tour guide is Augustin.  We spend over three hours with him, meeting his family, being shown around his garden where vegetables and fruit are grown in abundance, and then taking a stroll through the local village to see life as it happens in rural Uganda. We are I’m Jinja, three hours east of...

Safari

We have a 5.30 am start for our safari trip, after a restless and sticky night.  The heat is intense and we spent most of the night tossing and turning, trying to find a cool place to lie, whilst listening to the noises outside: crickets and frogs; unidentifiable night birds; and wonderfully, the sound of...