A Brilliant Day for Touring

Today I woke up with the sun streaming in past the curtains and I knew it was going to be a great day for the Cliffs of Moher. Molly and I met up with Annie in the lobby and we headed down Merchants Road to the tour buses. We were looking for Galway Bus Tours but instead we were stopped by a guy from Healy Tours and were roped in to booking that bus. We opted to do the walking tour of the Burren as well as the Cliffs. Those of us walking were dropped off at an Irish farm on the Burren and were led on a tour by a man who has lived on the farm his whole life.

John Connolly (the tour guide and resident on the property) invited us to partake of the blackberries that grew along the edges of the path. We walked a long way up the hill (mountain to me) taking breaks along the way. John does this every day so he was fine giving a tour and hiking at the same time, but I was exhausted every time we stopped.

The view from the top of the hill is worth it, though. Everything is green, green, green. John's family owns a lot of cattle and we could hear them lowing wherever we were. (They were confused because the family recently took their calves away...how sad.) About halfway up the hill/mountain, the grass disappears and it becomes the porous, limestone rock that the Burren is known for. It is not hard to climb on the rocks, but the heather and other flora that grow there can be deceptive. It looks like solid ground, when really one could be headed for a hole.


Annie, Molly, and I were very excited to be at the Burren. As you can see behind us, the whole mountaintop is covered with grey stone. Little flowers and things can grow through the cracks, though. The limestone is porous and full of calcium. The tufts of grass that are able to grow through the cracks are rich in calcium from the ground so farmers take their cattle to graze there. Cows that have eaten that grass (apparently) produce more milk and that milk is higher in calcium.

Fun fact: John's family does not milk the cows. Their calves drink the milk while they are young and then the calves are sold.


At the end of the tour, John showed us a really cool flat rock that is like a wide sliding board. One simply sits on a rock and pushes off and then woosh! Down it goes. John said he knows that his great grandfather used to play this game as a boy and it was probably going on before then too. It was a lot of fun, even if I did slam into a dirt pile at the bottom.


The hills in the background of the Burren and the greenery provide a good backdrop and it really makes it hard to take a bad picture. I took almost 200 pictures today. After the tour we were invited back to the little shop where John's mother had made apple pies and we could buy a slice. I only had a coffee since I'm not into apple pie, but it looked very good.


After the tour bus picked us up again, we drove to our next picture spot. I do not remember what this is called, but it is a little like Stonehenge. It's one of the most visited sites in Ireland so we could only stay ten minutes to regulate the tourist flow. After that, it was on to the Cliffs!


We only had an hour at the cliffs (I could have spent more time there) but we definitely made the most of it. First we walked on the "safe side" which was not really the cliffs. It had a railing and allowed us to take pictures of the Cliffs of Moher without actually being on them. It offered a great view and was decidedly the much safer way to go.

Fun fact: Recognize those cliffs? The Cliffs of Moher are the Cliffs of Insanity of Princess Bride fame. If I had seen the Dread Pirate Roberts scaling the side, I would have died of delight, but alas, I did not. Ready to continue with the post? As you wish. (Do you want to go watch the movie now? I do.)


Before I even set foot on the Cliffs of Moher, my mother knew this sign existed and warned me to stay VERY VERY far from the edge if I decided to ignore this warning. I'm here to tell you that I was completely careful and obviously I am alive, and yes, I did venture beyond the sign. There were very daring people sitting far too close to the edge for even my taste, but I did not get that close. We did take a lot of pictures of all of us and it may look like I am hanging ten over the side, but I promise I did nothing of the sort.


The sun was so wonderful today. We really could not have had better weather. It did not rain one drop the whole day and I was very pleased about that. Above, you can see me at my touristy best, backpack and all. This was my first venture past the sign and I was a little too freaked out to take the time to remove my backpack. I did lighten up eventually, but one can never be too careful.

And here I am again in the sunshine and the wind. The waves are crashing against the Cliffs and everything is right with the world. To my knowledge, no one fell off the edge today, so the Cliffs of Moher had a very successful Saturday. Word.