Irish Coast

2017-04-23

So we picked up a car and headed north to drive along the coast, which was great. There wasn't many cars and heaps of awesome scenery. We didn't go to the The Dark Hedges but saw some cool roads like it in the area.

Our first tourist stop was Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. The rope bridge itself was pretty tame and unexciting (the lady crossing behind us was freaking out), but the coastal scenery was pretty epic. The water was super clear and blue and we had great weather.

Next stop was the Giant's Causeway which was also great. The rocks reminded me of the rocks along the Tabletop Mountain hike back home. The name seemed a bit silly at first as I couldn't really picture how it was a causeway but we hiked up the hill at the end and it did look like a caved in bridge across the channel. Apparently there is a similar site on the other side in Scotland, formed when the islands were together millions of years ago.

We booked a random airBnB in the town of Sligo as it was on the way south. The next drive was also incredible, especially the last bit with a big mountain shrouded in cloud.

Sligo town looked fun, we went in for a dinner at a pub recommended by our host, The Swagman. We were a bit slow in working out it was an Australian theme pub but eventually cottoned on to why the menu had so many foods we liked, and they had VB cans on the wall. I had a really tasty steak sandwhich. The house we stayed at was beatiful and in a nice neighbourhood, we didn't actually want to leave the next morning and wished we weren't just passing through.

More driving south, this time through some lava fields called the Burren and some nice seaside towns.

The Cliffs of Moher were incredible. Reminded me of Jura in Switzerland but with ocean at the bottom.

You could leave the tourist centre and walk up further past farmland where there was no fence. It was a really great walk and views, Rachael really didn't like that there was no fence though and kept freaking out it would give way. She wouldn't even take a photo of me anywhere near the edge, but at least I didn't put my legs over it like some people.

Then yet more driving, but this time we went on the highway rather then the scenic way which was a lot faster. We stopped at a castle on the way but too expensive so didn't go in.

We drove through Limerick and there was a soccer game on, so there was lots of traffic and people out.

Despite the amount of driving we did, it's a pretty small country and before we knew it where at Dublin!