West of Ireland Pt. 2

On our third day of the trip, we were all supposed to be ready for the motor-coach at 7am.  That meant we had breakfast and were checked out of our rooms by then.  I was surprised and pleased that everyone was ready.  We had a new guide for the day, and he was there and ready as well, so off we were ahead of most of the traffic with just a little daylight.

After driving through some countryside with our new driver, the brother of our previous driver, we went off the main road for a quick look at a good example of an existing castle.  This one was not open so we couldn't go inside, but is actually used for weddings. As we stopped the bus and walked by a house, the owner was standing outside, smoking a cigarette in her housecoat and remarked "bloody hell, you're up already?"

Then we were off again for some incredible views, and if we thought we had seen a lock of rock walls the previous day, we saw many more on this day.

Then our guide took us by one of those "I think we've got time.  You've gotta see this (with an Irish accent).  It was a beautiful example of an ancient monastery. The cemetery is still being used by local families. The students were all thankful that we had made this stop.  I think our guide like this especially, because he is a stone mason and got to explain some of the building.

The we were back on the bus (or motorcoach as they call it) for more of this countryside. We were actually now in "the burren".  The burren is a countryside consisting primarily of limestone with thousands of sheep thrown in to eat the grasses that grow in the rich soil between the rocks and with an occasional castle thrown in to break up the landscape.  In some places wind turbines dotted the hillsides. For a better explanation of the burren, see the Wikipedia Entry.

Part of our understand of the burren was through a visit to the Burren College of Art where we got a short lecture by the founders of the burrenbeotrust, and organization dedicated to preservation of the burren and education about it. A part of the grounds was a castle that we actually got to go into. It had a great view from the tower, but I smacked my head on a low-hanging door and got a little bloody but was otherwise okay.

Even though it was still morning, most of us ate our box lunch since breakfast had been so long ago.  Then we loaded back up on the bus to actually get up in the burren.  Part of the arrangement with landowners who let us visit the burren was that we would help mend some of the rock walls as a service component of the trip. We parked and hiked up to some rock walls, getting some explanation of the flora and fauna and how the land had been developed. Everyone was actually looking forward to wall mending, and after some instructions, we started our hands on work.

One of the real highlights was when some of the ponies came down to visit and get petted.

Then we loaded up to head to the Cliffs of Moher.  Everyone was excited about seeing the cliffs, and this was one of the major components of the trip. I made sure our guide knew that everyone wanted to have some time to hike along the top, so we had adjusted our schedule a little to get at least an hour there.  We were not disappointed, although you could really spend a day if you hiked in from the other side.  We had gotten to see and do some cool stuff, so everyone made sure they were back on the bus on time.

Then we began our long drive back across the country to Dublin--stopping a couple of times for a pit stop and car sickness by a student. Our ship sailed that night, so the timing was carefully planned to get us back during the national hurling championships that day.  Even though the game was going on, we ran into a lot of traffic, so we got to see more of Dublin from the motorcoach and finally arrive at the ship with a little better understanding of hurling from our guide.  We sailed that night from a country that we had grown to love in just a short time.