On Thursday, we got up and had our last breakfast at Dingle (it was tough to say goodbye to the little town, we had grown attached) and headed north toward Galway. Back when I had originally gotten our driving directions for this trip, I noticed that Google Maps had told us to take a certain car ferry during the course of the trip. When I checked the guidebook, the author also carried the same sentiment, so Sam got her first experience driving on to a car ferry and getting shuttled across a small bay. The ride was only about 20 minutes, and we only had to wait for the ferry for about 10 minutes, but we saved over an hour and a half off our driving time.
After exiting the ferry, we continued our journey and visited the Cliffs of Moher. The natural geographic formations were just astounding–watching the waves crash onto the cliffs hundreds of feet below us, watching the birds play in the wind drafts, and just being amazed at the sheer size of these cliffs. We did not, however, care for the very sleek & modern visitor’s center which they charge you €8 for, whether you visit it or not. Sam and I did use the W.C. (restroom) and sit down inside and ate our own brownbag lunch, but we were very disappointed at how commercial this natural attraction had become.
We took some good photos and got back in the car and continued into a 10 square kilometer area of Ireland known as The Burren. Literally, The Burren means “rocky place”, because that’s exactly what it is. It’s hill after hill, mountain after mountain, and field after field of limestone. Limestone as far as the eye could see. There were occasionally some wildflowers or mosses or grasses, but the landscape was almost totally rock. This picture does not do the area justice. We were reminded of the Badlands of South Dakota, but on a smaller scale. There wasn’t really much to “do” here except to marvel at all the rock, so we essentially just drove through the area and pressed on to Galway. We’ll save that story for tomorrow.
