Well-known journalist to recall adventure of a lifetime to Westport Civic Trust

Westport Civic Trust is delighted to host its next lecture at 8pm on Tuesday, November 19, in the Plaza Hotel when well-known journalist and author Peter Murtagh will talk about his retirement project which was a motorbike trip from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska. All are welcome: admission is free to members, otherwise €5 on the night.

A former well-travelled journalist from the Irish Times, Peter published the book of his adventure called 'Tip to Top: the journey of a lifetime', which was launched earlier this year. It has been described as a ground-level portrait of the Americas as we rarely see them. He travelled alone with just a tent, his bike and a sleeping bag. His story has been described by Fintan O’Toole as ‘a personal odyssey, a political exploration and a rattling good yarn’.

Peter, who lives some of the time in Louisburgh, finished his journey in Deadhorse, a one-horse town in Alaska, where he had to stop his bike because ‘there’s a bear, a very, very large brown bear, ambling along on all fours towards us. He’s a grizzly bear, which I can tell by the hump on his back … and although he’s ambling with a sort of lumbering motion, he has that way about him that has me thinking: 'he looks like he could run very fast if he wanted to'. I pull over to the left side of the road and start fumbling urgently for my phone to take pictures. I can see people in the cars sort of freaking out and the bear apparently tried to open one of the car doors, grabbling the handle in his mouth. My efforts to video Mr Bear fail miserably as I realise that I too better hightail it out of there, which I do, making in the process a two-second video of the road surface'.”

His illustrated talk will be well worth hearing.