Connaught

Today we travelled from Portrush on the northern tip of Northern Ireland to Lahinch Ireland on the south west coast. Before we left I looked up on Google Maps and it said the drive would take 5.5 hours . The route would take us through Derry, Letterkenney, Donegal, Sligo just to name a few towns.

I think the person who surveyed the highways in Northern Ireland and western Ireland was a drunken Irishman. I have never seen so many curves and winding roads in my life.

The countryside was beautiful shades of greens and we saw many fields of sheep and cattle grazing . The people of Ireland take immaculate care of their front yards . All front yards whether in town or acreages are walled off with 1/2 walls made of brick and painted . The walls are small and the gardens inside the walls have beautiful flowers , grass and shrubs .

The bus driver has to take mandatory breaks so we had to stop at a couple of truck stops including our lunch . Let me tell you not places on the where to eat in Ireland list .

Our first oops was the driver took a wrong turn at Sligo ( I knew he should have took a left at Albuquerque). This oops cost us a lot of time and we had to go through the centre of the city on very narrow roads . He actually hit a hedge trying to make a right hand turn .

As we continued on our journey he unilaterally decided to take us the scenic route vs the shortest way to the Cliffs of Moher . He wanted us to see this rock formation along the sea that is massive and dates back to the ice age .

The roads on the scenic route got narrower and narrower with absolutely no shoulders and barely can fit 2 vehicles approaching each other I have never seen such a narrow road in my life . . More than once we had cars honking us as the bus crowding into the other lane. We continued on our journey then all of a sudden we brush some tees on the left hand side of the road . Then I hear a loud bang and I thought we hit another tree but nope we were meeting another bus and both buses doing 60-70 km per hour . The bus mirrors collided and our bus mirror was fine. Our driver said the other guy was in the wrong and his mirror took the worst of it. The road was so winding I was actually getting nausea.
The farm land around here is divided into small 5,10. 20 acre plots with stone walls separating them . This was done as fathers passed land to their sons , dividing the land and now it keeps cattle grazing in smaller lots as they are fenced in.
It was amazing to see so many stone fences everywhere.

We finally got to Cliffs of Moher we had an hour to view the cliffs and stretch our legs . It also allowed me to settle my stomach down. The cliffs are natural rock formations created by seismic shifting of the earth thousands of years ago. Along the Atlantic Ocean.

The cliffs are quite beautiful. We had to climb a lot of stairs to get to the top .

After viewing we continued our journey to Lahinch .

We arrived at our hotel at 7 pm , 10 hours after we left Portrush. ( so much for 5.5 hour drive)

We checked in quickly and walked along the sea wall to have a drink and enjoy the sunset and try to find a place for dinner .Read more