Actor Cathy Belton
What was your best holiday?I went away at Christmas 15 years ago with my cousin who got two free plane tickets after an airline lost her bags.We flew in to Harare, Zimbabwe, got the train to Bulawayo and then went on safari. We were up at 5am and I have never seen anything like the African sky.
It was extraordinary to see lions, tigers, wildebeests and elephants in the wild. On Christmas Eve we went to midnight Mass where the locals were singing and dancing and on Christmas Day we went whitewater rafting at Victoria Falls.
We finished up in Cape Town where we did the Stellenbosch wine tours and went up the extraordinary Table Mountain. It was the trip of a lifetime.
What was your worst holiday?I've been lucky so far and never had one. My idea of a bad holiday would be being stuck in a cruise ship with all of the people I never wanted to meet again.
If budget or work were no restriction, what would be your dream holiday?I did a show a few years ago called True Lines. Each of the characters had to pick a place to travel and mine chose to drive across America on Route 66. It has haunted me ever since. I almost feel that I have travelled it in my head with all of the research and the performance.
So my dream is to start off in Chicago where I have friends, rent a convertible and drive through Missouri, Oklahoma, Albuquerque to the Grand Canyon and finish in LA at Santa Monica Pier.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?My nephews Ben and Oisín, aged six and eight (pictured). They are two little adventurers who teach you to stay in the moment each day. Their sense of curiosity, openness and joy at each new discovery makes them perfect companions. When they want to go to the Burren they say "Let's go walk on the moon."
What's your favourite place in Ireland?The Burren, Co Clare, is one of the most beautiful places on earth and I feel like I come home when I take a walk in its flaggy shore and look across at Galway and over the Atlantic.
There is something peaceful and ferocious about it. I find that if my mind is troubled it settles me.
Your recommended holiday reading?I especially like reading short story collections on holidays, such as Claire Keegan's Antarctica and Alice Munro's Too Much Happiness, because you can finish one on a train journey. There is no greater luxury than lining up a pile of books before I go then I leave them behind in hotels for others — the Kindle will never replace that!
Where will you go to next?I'll shortly take a mini-break to Errislannan, Connemara and I hope to finally do Route 66 by the end of the year.
Cathy Belton stars in Rough Magic’s The House Keeper which runs at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin from April 24th.
In conversation with
GENEVIEVE CARBERY