Words would fail me were I to describe all which we saw yesterday, but I will try to\u00ac\u2020summarize\u00ac\u2020as best I can.
\nHaving camped at an actually campground in Northern Ireland we headed back south the way we had come the day before. The main reason for this retracing of steps was a small coastal town called Mulliganmore. Between the impressive table top and cliffs of Drum mountain and the serene aqua marine color of the sandy Irish coastline sat this little town on it’s own\u00ac\u2020peninsula. On a hill overlooking the ocean, town and surrounding country side sat a most impressive castle we just had to get closer to. On arriving we found the castle to be a private residence still maintained and out of reach. Though slightly disappointed, we still took amazing shots of the castle from across a cliff lined cove and had a nice warm breakfast at the local harbor side inn.
\nFrom there we continued south driving away from the rain which was building in the north. Just south of Galway we turned onto the “highway” which led to the Cliffs of Moher through an area known as the Burren. The “insanity” isn’t the cliffs despite their resemblance to those in the Princess Bride, rather it is this highway. Had we rode our bikes we likely would have turned around 10 minutes into the journey. Not because of how steep it was, but rather because the road is quite perilous;
\nBarely wide enough to fit our car in the lane, stone walls on either side with 3 inches of what can almost be called a\u00ac\u2020shoulder\u00ac\u2020in between, and numerous tour buses which most certainly do not fit in their lanes. Add to this blind corners and a posted speed of\u00ac\u2020100 kph\u00ac\u2020and you start to get the picture. We passed one car that had at some point completely swiped the side of a rock wall and another whose tires on the left hand side had simultaneously met their end with the razor limestones the walls are built of.
\nGod was\u00ac\u2020gracious\u00ac\u2020and we not only made it through without a scratch, but saw some amazing ruins and the very unique landscape of the Burren the hills, which look like mounds of loose stone similar to the crumble topping on pies.
\nOnce at the Cliffs of Moher we parked relieved and having felt accomplished that we had achieved some skill in the local style of driving. We then hiked through a dense pack of tourists (which felt odd having been in non-tourist regions for the entire cycling portion). And gazed from behind a stone barricade, which kept us 30 feet from the edge, at the cliffs which plunged into the ocean more than 900 meters below. Not content with this we followed a trail which went outside of the tourist area, toward a castle on a distant point. It is from here we were able to obtain the most impressive vistas for our cameras, seeing as the path weaved its way some times mere inches from the edge. Though one must be careful, high winds were buffeting us and since the cliffs are largely slate, they are\u00ac\u2020relatively\u00ac\u2020brittle and at least one section near the edge had a crack leading about 100 meters down and seemed loose to the step.
\nWe are now several hundred kilometers to the south on an area known as the Ring of Kerry. A region filled with ancient\u00ac\u2020forests\u00ac\u2020and dramatic mountains. We plan to ride some of the\u00ac\u2020mountain\u00ac\u2020trails which run along this region later today.
\nToday’s picture: Patrick inches from the edge of the highest cliff at Moher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Words would fail me were I to describe all which we saw yesterday, but I will try to\u00ac\u2020summarize\u00ac\u2020as best I can. Having camped at an actually campground in Northern Ireland we headed back south the way we had come the day before. The main reason for this retracing of steps was a small coastal town […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asyouwill.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asyouwill.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asyouwill.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwill.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwill.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwill.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asyouwill.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwill.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwill.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}