Tralee to Westport

From Kerry we caught the ferry at Tarbet, and made our way up the coast to Galway. We enjoyed the evening atmosphere here and spent the evening in the pub to enjoy some music. Thankfully Liam’s insistence that all Irish music nights end in Karaoke turned out to be a fabrication. He did have me worried for a while.

Until now most days had been blustery, but the fine spells in between gave us a chance to get some fresh air every day. We drove from Galway to Westport through Connemara national park the first day with relentless wind and rain. Deciding getting out and about was more important than staying dry, we went for a walk through the lower reaches of the park hoping there might be a gap in the storm clouds. Reminding us mostly of the central plateau, the boundless bog area has its own beauty- a collage of green mosses, yellow tussock, and brown to red heather. Unfortunately the highest hills were swathed in cloud. We got our break in the weather about 10 minutes after we arrived back at the car, drenched to the skin.

It was snowing when we woke up on our first morning in Westport. We turned it into a great excuse to feast on delicious soda bread and sip coffee next to the fire while waiting for it to stop. Mid morning it cleared and we had a blue sky to climb Croagh Patrick. It was spectacular covered in snow and we made it to the top just before it closed in and started snowing again. The view of clew bay was well worth the steep climb. We whimped out on doing it the traditional way in bare feet. Liam insists he would have if it hadn't been for the snow.

In the evening we had a walk along the rural roads around Eamonn and Mary’s admiring the scenery and the local sheep. Though most of the flocks in the area were probably small even by Irish standards, we have been amazed at how intensively managed they are. Most of the small blocks seem to have Scottish black face sheep. They have an interesting identification system whereby different coloured signs and numbers are sprayed onto the fleece of the sheep. It makes it easy to work out which lamb goes with which ewe, but I do wonder how often they have to repeat it. I'm not sure what's wrong with good old ear tags!