Monday 9th
September
Today’s pedometer
reading 7.2 k’s
His
morning we set of for The Burren region on the northwest coast
of County Clare. The
rolling hills of the Burren are composed of limestone pavements
with criss-crossing cracks known as "grikes", leaving isolated rocks
called "clints".
Once again it is one
of those immense landscapes that can’t really be captured in a photo…for most
of the day we drove on small roads that twisted, turned and went up and down a
lot. Andrew now feels right at home in the manual car with it’s 6 speed gear
box and today there were a few times when I thought he was imagining he was
Peter Brock, elbow on the window sill and all!
Our first stop was at
the Burren Birds of Prey Centre…we had read great reviews and we were not
disappointed. It’s set up as an educational experience and so they don’t have
the birds doing tricks or performing cute little acts. It was spectacular to
see the birds in free flight …3 birds; a Bateleur Eagle, Barn Owl and a Falcon
– one at a time…the display was about one hour long and the handlers had
phenomenal relationships with the birds and explained many aspects of each of
the birds of prey to us. When they asked if anyone would like to meet ‘Batty’
the Bateleur Eagle I jumped at the opportunity.
Up close and personal with ‘Batty’.
The Barn Owl
The Falcon
We did the woodland walk…
…up to a great vantage point over The Burren
and had a look at a workshop where you can book into learn traditional wood
turning and whittling skills to make a walking stick…they were fantastic and
Andrew would have loved to have a go but we needed to move on.
Next stop The Burren
Smokehouse where we planned to have lunch. The minute we opened our car doors
the aroma of the smokehouse wafted past and was mouth watering. The shop was
fantastic however the only place you could have lunch was a pub down the road.
We went and had a look but it was awful so we decided to drive on another 10
k’s to the Cliffs of Moher where there is a café.
We were very
surprised at how many cars were parked next to the Visitors centre…very busy.
Opened in 2007 the grass roofed Visitor Centre is set into the hillside. We shared
a Panini in the café then set off to explore.
The vista is magical,
the cliffs rise to 214m/702 ft and range for 8 k’s over the Atlantic Ocean. We
followed the walking paths to both the south and the north…again the photos
don’t do it justice.
The view to the south
& the
north…that’s a castle on top of the cliff!
We then drove on to
our accommodation tonight…Bunratty Castle Mews B&B…recommended by our
friends Jan & Noel. In trying to describe it, the word that springs to mind
is ‘quirky’ our room is quite tame in comparison to the rest of the place…
It’s fabulous and our
host Dolores is a REAL character.
Jan & Noel also
suggested we eat at Gallaghers of Bunratty
– J.P.Clarkes Country Pub. Wow…another great meal…a bit of deja vu from last
night…I had Salmon again, it was mouth wateringly delicious and Andrew had not
a lamb shank but a pork shank…check it out!!!
Today we’ve see lots of thatched cottages,
before this we’ve only seen one or two…this is a lovely one…attached to the pub
where we had dinner.
No ice cream on the way home tonight…good night
all…Limerick is only 15 k’s from here and we’ll visit in the morning but I
thought I’d leave you with a limerick tonight…
No comments:
Post a Comment