Thursday 31 July 2008

A small windy island

Last week, Tane and I went to Ireland for a few days. It was an excellent trip, during which Tane turned 30, we put in over 800km of road in our rental car, and saw lots of stunning scenery that reminded us of New Zealand as well as plenty of piles of rocks in paddocks that really didn't.
Ring of Kerry: Stunning, and reminded us of home. Random neolithic stone circle: reminded us that we really were far from New Zealand after all

The highlight of our time in Ireland, apart from driving for the first time in a year, was a day trip to the Aran Islands off Galway in West Ireland. After hiring a couple of bikes, we spent fabulous day cycling around the strange but eerily beautiful and stone-covered Inishmore Island. There were so many rocks on the Island that that there is an overabundance of stone walls. It seemed a little odd, until someone pointed out that it was probably all that could be done with the giant rocks just lying around all over the place. The island reminded me of Father Ted, as the locals had such strong accents it was sometimes hard to know if they were speaking English or Gaelic. The weather was a little chilly and the skies grey, but the island seemed to suit the weather. I note though that Tane was crazy enough to go for a swim in any case ...

Inishmore Island is a must-see for anyone in West Ireland, and I thoroughly recommend it as a place to visit. The next day I really wished that I'd had padded cycle pants (ow), but loved going there nonetheless.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We would have traced some of your route, on our way from Cork to the Skelligs Islands, miles off the coast down by Valentia Island. We stayed somewhere like your first photo, in the campervan, but it was raining too hard to see much. We drove over this amazing hilly road, like central Otago but wet, to get to Kenmare for lunch. Very cool.