Westport to Ballybunion

Sunday 20 May 2012  - Happy Birthday Brad

Day 38 and 121 to go

Well we weren’t the only ones this morning looking for a sleep in, so was our host. We were up and waiting in the dining room with no one to greet us. While waiting we packed the car. I continued to ring the bell and eventually we had Mary serving us breakfast along with apologising profusely for her sleep in. Only in Ireland!

After enjoying another cooked meal we were on the road and heading to Letterfrack .The views were spectacular. We have 2 peaks rising to our right with cold fog shielding the top. We drove on through Letterfrack the town that is famous for Ireland’s only fjord.  Just out of here we had to beep at a lamb that was asleep on the road!

Our drive through the Connemara National Park was a wonderful one. We passed a large lake on which the Kylemoore Abbey was perched on the lake edge.

We stopped in the very green town of Oughterard briefly to check out the very clear river before cutting over the mountains, passing large peat bog areas and other lakes to head to Galway.

We drove into the city and parked and then wandered through part of the city where we stopped for a drink and enjoyed a rest from the road however we didn’t stop for long.

Our next stop was the Cliffs of Moher. We reached this after driving through small streets that twisted, turned and were lumpy. It felt like a rollercoaster ride and supposedly you can do 100km on them if you are game. Not today. The cliffs are the most visited natural attraction in Ireland. It is found on the coast where the cliffs stand 214m above the sea. They are a lot like the Australian Bite only dark in colour. They say you can see puffins here but I didn’t see any today. It was lovely to get out and have a walk in the sun for a change. They reckon it was 14 today. Positively summery!

The continuation of our drive saw us arrive in Tulla. While this is not a direct tourist spot we were stopping here as my dear school friend Pamela used to live here and I wanted to see where she lived. After taking photos of her house we stopped in at a pub nearby for a drink and a chat with the publican who remembered Pam and her dad. It was great to drop in.

Our final drive was to bypass Limerick and follow the coastal tourist route along the River Shannon and on to Ballybunion a seaside retreat. This town is obviously a popular tourist spot with pubs and B&B’s everywhere. It is also a big golfing spot and that is saying a lot, as I don’t think a day has gone by while we have been here that we haven’t seen 3 or golf courses and half a dozen pitch and putts. However there is a statue of Bill Clinton playing golf as he visited in 1998.

We parked at the beach then found a B&B to stop at. We seem to have a knack at finding interesting hosts and today’s choice was no difference, with our host being able to tuck her boobs into her pants! It did make Paul and I laugh.

We settled in, had a cuppa (I have never drunk so much tea) and then we went for a walk along the beach front, checking out what remains of the castle. We wandered up the main street where Paul stopped for a pint before we found somewhere for a roast dinner. Yum.

As our B&B did not have wifi we brought the computer down to the pub next door and used theirs instead. We checked the Motogp results. Casey Stoner picked up third in Le Mans. I loaded more pics and then we returned to the B&B to call it a night. 

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