Ireland 3

Probably the last post from the Emerald Isle. We are doing laundry in Clifden, which means waiting for someone else to do it for us -- there is no "automatic" laundromat. It's OK. The weather, after being fabulous for a few days is now what they call "grand soft" (warm, windy and misty). So we've been hunkered down in a cute cafe and are now getting our email and blogging fixes.

As I said in my last post, we had a good visit to the village of Roundstone, our favourite area so far and where we'd look for a cottage in the future. The hill climb was just the right size for us. I didn't mention the spectacular header I did off the top of a 6 foot cliff landing on my back in a huge gorse bush. Thank god for backpacks otherwise I would have been a human pin cushion.

We didn't end up going to the Aran Isles yesterday as planned. We decided to stay closer to home and rode our bikes down to Cleggan where we caught the ferry to Inishbofin Island. It was about 30 minutes on the most beautiful, sunny day yet, making our way across the waves and being reminded of being in a much smaller boat on Georgian Bay.

On the way to the ferry, the thing happened that you'd think would happen more often. Just after a bus had passed us, we came around a corner and there it was, stuck trying to pass a truck. They were thoroughly wedged. We couldn't wait so we lifted our bikes into the neighbouring field and road around them -- keeping a watchful eye on the single cow and calf in the middle of the field hoping it really was a mom and not a dad!



The island was small enough that we easily biked all its roads in the 5 hours we had, even with an hour and a half on the beach (with a vicious sunburn to show for it). Small but beautiful, it was especially nice not to have too many cars about. The ferry is only for pedestrian and bike traffic. The cars are all very old and they obviously keep them going as long as they can, and mercifully there aren't many. So we have the roads mostly to ourselves, except for all the hikers. We even had about an hour riding off-road on sheep tracks. Very wonderful. We came back quite exhilerated.

Enjoy the photo album or slideshow.