Ireland, Day Ten: Connemara

Connemara National Park was a short drive from our B&B in Clifden, so we headed over to the Visitors Center to get some guidance about where we could walk around in nature.

There were three loops that began right there at the visitors center - one easy, one medium, and one "strenuous." They all started the same so we decided to play it by ear.

The beginning part was pretty easy. And, of course, beautiful.

As we went along we realized the longest loop ("strenuous") was climbing to the top of that mountain right there (also pictured at the top of this post). It's hard to capture height with an iPhone, for whatever reason, but it seemed pretty much impossible that we could climb to the top of that thing and back down in 2 hours, which is what the longest loop is supposed to take. But, you know, might as well try.

How are you supposed to know if the weather is adverse? It could be fine one second and adverse the next. I enjoy how they leave it up to you to determine what "suitable" footwear and clothing means, and also give you a phone number to call in an emergency that only works during normal business hours.

Anyway, despite that we decided to go for it. How bad could it be?

It turned out to actually be pretty terrifying. The wind of the previous two days was still with us, and got worse and worse the higher we went.

After a certain point, though, what can you do? You have to keep going. It was so windy there were several times it pushed me three or four steps farther than I intended to go. I'd pick up my foot to take a step and the wind would push it off to the side before I could put it back down again! It was bananas!

So close to the top!

And then at the very end you actually have to CLIMB UP ROCKS. I was not enjoying myself right here looking up at these rocks.

However, I admit it was absolutely beautiful and one of the best things I have ever done in my life. People are complicated.

In the valley below we could see Kylemore Abbey on the lake, a popular tourist place we had decided not to go to because we'd already seen quite a few castles by this point.

  
These mountains are called the Twelve Bens.

I made Ben take a picture of me at the top to prove I actually did this.

Then yay! We got to head down. An extra bonus was that the return trail wrapped around the back of the mountain, out of the wind.

It really doesn't look that steep or tall in pictures!

Here are some tiny people on the top!

  
After that we headed for the visitors center and had the traditional vacation lunch of sandwich & cake. Amazingly, it never rained on us the entire time we were hiking up that hill, but started immediately once we were inside. Higher power at work.

After this we drove a couple of hours north to the coast of County Mayo. 

We stopped at a place called Céide Fields, the oldest and most extensive system of prehistoric farming in the world. People set up farms here starting five and a half thousand years ago. The museum was really interesting - and it poured for a while right as we arrived, so it was good to have an indoor place to wander around and learn some facts - but the outside pretty much looks like the rest of Ireland. Marshy bogland fields.

The bogland was created as the forests were cut down, and now goes down several meters before you hit the rock of prehistoric walls. These little poles stuck in the ground show you where the wall runs, many feet below today's surface.

They dug some of them out so you can see. There is a 45 minute guided tour that I'm sure would have been quite informative, but it kept raining a little bit and was windy and we wanted to go inside.

  
Our B&B this night (Creevagh Heights) was on a tiny road miles away from anything, and was one of the best places I've stayed anywhere in the world. We were greeted with tea and scones in a sitting room with huge picture windows overlooking the ocean. Our upstairs room was nice and cozy and quiet.

Our window overlooked the sea, where we saw a second rainbow.

And then the sun came out. You can see how quickly and thoroughly it changes the color of the ocean.

As this place is in the middle of nowhere, they also cook you dinner. We had mushroom soup and salmon and vegetables with three Swiss women and a lady from Germany who had been in Ireland for a week doing a watercolor painting course. The food was terrific; you can really tell when cooks genuinely care about food and like to eat.

I felt genuine regret that we only got to stay one night at Creevagh Heights. If you're ever in County Mayo, you should go.

Ireland, Day Nine: Clifden

We had tickets for the 12:00 ferry, so we had a nice leisurely breakfast at the B&B and then headed back to town to buy some sweaters. The Aran Islands are famous for their traditional wool sweaters. You can buy the sweaters all over Ireland (and probably on the internet and all that) but we wanted to get some straight from the source.

There were so many sweaters! We both got the traditional cream color.

Then we walked over to catch the ferry. Inishmore was my favorite day of the trip.

It was so, so windy. Worse than the previous day. I was really dreading getting back on the boat now that I knew what was coming. We stood in line in the crazy wind to get on first so we could sit near a window at the back, which some ladies at the B&B had told us was the best for minimizing seasickness.

Score!

And this time we didn't get sick at all. Being able to see the horizon out the windows makes a huge difference. It also, however, makes you realize you are in a very small boat in the very large ocean with very big waves, and if something happened to the boat you would be dead instantly. The waves were huge! I don't know if I've ever been on a boat in the ocean before this. I didn't love it.

We drove an hour or so to Clifden, near Connemara National Park. Ben had a blood sausage salad for lunch.

Our B&B in Clifden was top notch, one of the best of the trip. There were so many thoughtful, personal touches and the whole house was full of music memorabilia - one of the owners is the bass guitar tech for Adam Clayton of U2. While he's gone his wife runs the B&B by herself. They let guests take their dogs on walks! It's nice that they're so trusting of humanity; I would never let strangers out of the house with my cats.

The house is right on the Sky Road, the local sightseeing loop. I'd had vague plans to walk the whole thing (12km) but we arrived late in the day and it was very, very windy. So windy we could be walking side by side and not be able to hear one another without shouting. So we decided to walk to the lookout point at the top of the hill and come back. It was a couple of hours round trip.

This donkey LOVED us. He was so curious and ran alongside as we walked up the road.

The views from the Sky Road are amazing. I was glad we were walking this instead of driving - so Ben could take the time to look around, but also so I wouldn't have to worry about plunging off the cliffs to our doom.

When we started off it was nice and sunny, but we could see the rain coming. The first time was just a light shower, made a touch more unpleasant than you'd expect because the wind blew it straight into our faces.

Then it stopped again and became sunny and we dried off.

It rained again, however, and soaked us to the skin in a matter of seconds. We knew it would stop, though. It always stopped within a few minutes. So we kept going. We did decide that if we go back to a place like this we're going to have to get waterproof pants. Rain jackets work great but they don't cover your legs.

We made it to the top! It was so windy here I had trouble standing still.

We headed back down with the wind at our backs, which was much more pleasant. It didn't rain anymore, either.

There are delicious wild blackberries all over the place in Ireland!

As we came back down the hill we could see Clifden Castle, which is directly across from our B&B. It looked pretty cool! We decided to take the path to see it up close.

However, as soon as we turned the corner and headed back straight into the wind, we gave up. It was time to go inside.

We hung out in the B&B for a while and then headed into Clifden for dinner. The drive home in the dark rain on the hilly single-track road was pretty scary, even though it was only a mile or so. By this point we were pretty used to the daytime driving, but it never stopped being scary at night.