Category: Photos

Day two in Clifden

Happy 4th of July to all you Americans… I have to admit, it was kind of nice to be here, and not having to deal with a bunch of crazies setting off fireworks and such, that’s for sure!

Today dawned partly cloudy but very windy. Hard to believe, but even with all my talk about the wind, this was the windiest yet! At least it was also the sunniest too…

After a tasty breakfast (poached eggs with Connemara smoked salmon; yum!), we were delighted to head out on our loop ride for the day. It was great being able to leave our big panniers behind, and bring only the essentials for a change. Definitely made for a much lighter load on the bikes!

I think it’s hard to see in the photo above, but there were a lot of whitecaps on the bay next to the first leg of our ride. Which, of course, was into a headwind of about 35 mph!! Nice bit of sun anyway…

The first two-thirds of the ride was a big 25-mile circle down around the coast south of Clifden. A definite highlight the back-to-back Dog’s Bay and Gurteen Bay, where the sun shone onto beautiful white sand beaches. Despite the wind, Mallory decided to dip her feet in the sea…

Then it was on to the little village of Roundstone, where we had tea and cakes, and then shopped at a small open market. From there it was day two on the stretch back to Clifden called the Bog Road. Strong headwinds, once again. It looked for awhile like it was going to rain, but by the time we were back in Clifden, the sun had returned. That gave us renewed energy for the last part of the ‘figure eight’ loop, which led up onto a peninsula east of Clifden onto what’s evocatively called the Sky Road. The view from the overlook was spectacular, even if it did cloud up again a bit by the tine we got there…

Another thing I loved about this road was that it was lined in places by a gorgeous combo of gorse and heather, giving one a sort of ‘essence of Ireland’ effect:

As an aside, I have to reiterate how great the iPhone is working for this whole adventure. It takes great photos (I think you’ll agree); I’ve even done some photo editing with the Photoshop Mobile app, to improve an underexposed image or two. Seeing how I’ve been able to get wireless almost everywhere, it’s been incredibly easy to track my email and publish the blog. There’ve been less than a handful of times that I’ve needed to actually use the cell phone…

All of that is just my way of saying that I think this little tool has passed the mini-travel-computer test with flying colors!

As a postscript, here’s one last shot for today, of what has been our favorite lodgings so far, the lovely and cozy Sea Mist House:

Clifden, and a special day!

We got to sleep in this morning, since our place didn’t start serving breakfast until nine. We also knew that the ferry didn’t leave until noon, and we didn’t feel the need to do any extra riding when we had 36 miles to do once we got off the ferry. So, we just rode the short distance into Kilronan (the main village, where the ferry pier is), and Mallory did a little shopping while I hit the local Imternet cafe to check email and publish the latest blog post.

The weather looked very promising on the ferry ride, but I figured we’d probably see a little of everything, which was not a real gamble, as we’re beginning to learn…

Once off the ferry, all we needed was a quick provisioning stop, and we were on our way…

The first five or six miles were wonderful, as we had the wind at our backs. It seems to blow a pretty steady gale of 25 to 35 mph here, and mostly as a headwind, for some reason. Something about the Irish and hardship?? Anyway, once we turned west again, we were facing into it for most of the rest of the day.

Here’s a couple photos to give you an idea of the landscapes we’re riding through:

…a creek over which we rode, on an ancient-looking bridge…

…and an example of the astoundingly green bogland with the occasional lake but nary a tree to be seen!

We had surprisingly little rain up until the last couple of miles into Clifden, when it really started coming down. It was perfect, though, as we were able to ride straight to our home base for the next two nights, the Sea Mist Guest House, where we could wash up and get into dry clothes.

Seeing as today is our 27th wedding anniversary, we then headed out to celebrate! We found a fabulous seafood restaurant where we enjoyed a meal fit for the occasion. We wandered around the square a bit afterward, listening to banjo music emanating from a packed pub, and checking out a couple other restaurants for tomorrow night. Unfortunately, we’re just a little too pooped to party into the wee hours like we used to. It’s okay, as we know we need to keep resting up for the rides ahead! Me especially, if I’m going to keep Mal from passing me all the time…

Inishmore

Our first day of riding turned out to be an epic one. Though we only had a little less than 20 miles to ride to get to the ferry to Inishmore island, the problem was that there was a fair amount of uphill, combined with a nasty wind that was either in our faces or blasting us from the side!

We thought we’d given ourselves plenty of time, but ended up getting to the ferry with only about ten minutes to spare… After a 40 minute ferry ride, we had to go only about two and a half kilometers to find tonight’s lodgings. We unloaded the bikes and brought everything into our room …and promptly took an hour nap!

With our legs recovered a bit, but still with sore butts, we set off to explore the island. While it looked pretty threatening as we headed out, the squall quickly blew through and we had sunny skies for most of the rest of the afternoon.

Finally able to ride at a leisurely pace, and not fighting the wind too badly, we enjoyed our little tour immensely. Roughly another 12 miles roundtrip, with a stop for dinner in the village, and the highlight of a short hike up to Dun Aonghasa (pronounced Doon Aengus), which is the slightly restored ruins of a stone fort that dates from the Iron Age, about three thousand years ago. The central area is built right up to a two hundred foot cliff that drops straight to the sea. The wind was howling so hard that we both crawled to the edge (going the last few feet on our bellies) just to be able to take in the view of the waves crashing against the cliffs below and to our left in the distance. We got some photos with Mal’s camera, but I didn’t have the courage to try and take one with the iPhone! Here’s one though, of Mal next to the innermost ‘door’:

From there, which was the halfway point in our ride, the way back had the wind at our backs, which was glorious to say the least. Now we’re back in our room, ready for a nice long rest before our 36 mile ride tomorrow!