Wes & Rachel Take on Ireland

Day Four was filled with several different adventures! We started the day by taking a 7 minute flight from the Connemara Airport to the Aran Island of Inishmore (Inis Mor). We rented electric bikes to get us around the small island. Inishmore is only about 12 square miles. We got a few miles in before the rain moved in. Along the way, we stopped to take selfies with a horse that head-butted Rachel and rode past an area known to have a seal colony. Unfortunately, we did not see any seals. We biked to Dun Aonghasa, the largest prehistoric fort on the Aran Islands. We made the short hike to the top of the sea cliff. The fort is over 3,000 years old and consists of three stonewalls surrounded by a chevaux-de-frise (a band of dense, jagged, upright stones used to impede intruders). The fort sits atop the edge of a cliff that's about 100 meters high. Visibility was poor due to the rain and the dense fog and the force of the wind kept us from getting too close to the edge. The winds were picking up as a storm approached us so for safety concerns, we decided to skip the Worm Hole. It was at this point that we started out on an adventure that neither of us will soon forget. It was raining so hard and we were soaked! It was at that time that Rachel decided to "Embrace the Suck." Our map had torn and Wes's phone screen/GPS wasn't working well. There were signs on rock walls with names and little hikers pointing us to the sites so we thought we were headed the right way. We continued on the path and saw lots of pastures divided by rock walls and the very occasional hiker. We started downhill on the E-bikes in the pouring rain on a path consisting of mud and slick limestone rocks. Both of us came close to losing control and wiping out. We climbed some step inclines that involved us pushing the bikes uphill. We weren't sure exactly where we were but on an island that's only 12 square miles, we figured that we couldn't have been that far from civilization. Finally, we came to a paved road and the realization that we were closer to our destination than we thought. After starting up a huge hill, we made the mutual decision to scrap the mission and head back into town. We turned the bikes in and headed to The Bar. We were soaked, cold, hungry and in need of a pint! We had some seafood chowder, brown bread and Wes enjoyed a pint of beer while Rachel tried an Irish coffee. We shopped for an Aran knitted sweater before making our way in another downpour to the ferry to take us by the Cliffs of Moher and back to Galway.

It was foggy as the ferry approached the Cliffs of Moher but the luck of the Irish prevailed! Part of a rainbow became visible and the grey clouds made room for some blue sky. Seeing the cliffs from the water was pretty neat. From the top of the ferry, the cliffs do not seem as tall as they really are.Read more