More. Better.

Lazy day around the house. In the morning it rained. In the afternoon Greg & I walked around Bantry town. I made some “authentic” Irish stew—lamb, potatoes, onions, thyme & parsley. Pretty tasty.

Woke to another sunny day. Put Greg in charge of destination; Ring of Beara, here we come. Wind-swept, pancake stacked, rocky ledges. Breaking surf from the deep blue Atlantic. End of the road: Dursey Island. We talked about riding the (old) cable car across. Nope. Along the western side somehow got off the road and meandered along the coast on little more than a path. About mid-way up the peninsula cut back east through Healy Pass. Simply breathtaking. And, of course, more sheep! A local farmer hailed us down, shook all our hands and asked (numerous) questions about our trip and lives. As we were pulling away he laid his hand on my head and “blessed” me with 10 grandchildren. Girls, be forewarned!

With so much ground to cover going north, we decided to leave a day earlier than planned. Cleaned & packed up; sent an email to hosts. They are in Croatia doing a 600+ kilometer bike tour. I told them they needed to come to Alaska for a TRUE holiday. She read my blog and told me to tell dad that the sheep look fairly pitiful in the rain in January.

ANOTHER bright, sunny day. We’ve been told by locals that usually it starts raining in October and stops 4-5 months later. We hope it holds another week and a half! As we came back through the Killarney National Park, the stag we watched before resting on a knoll was in the middle of a harem of does & fawns bellowing his heart out. Greg responded—who even knew he knew stag speak? It was pretty dang cool. Sorry, all those pics are on the camera with a zoom.

Enjoyed driving along the Shannon River between Tarbert & Foynes. Picked our way across to Grange Stone Circle and Lough Gur south of Limmerick. I guess by now you’ve figured I have thing for these ancient circles of stone? This one is the biggest—113 stones, 115 foot diameter, largest stone over 6 feet weighing more than 40 tons, dating 2000 BC. Even Greg & Dad (reluctant to visit ANOTHER) were impressed.

David & Lynne recommended we bag our plans for Bunratty so we headed back to the coast for the Cliffs of Moher. Oh. My. Hands down the most impressive sight we’ve seen on this trip. Dad was able to walk to the edge and experience the depth & breadth of these walls of layers-of-sedimentary-on-top-of-limestone-on-top-of-shale. At the tallest they’re around 700 feet...and there are about five miles of these ribbons of rock! Dad went back to the Visitors’ Center while Greg & I hiked a bit further. Way very cool.

Tonight we’re nestled into a bed & breakfast in Doolin, a tiny town known for authentic Irish music jams in the local pubs. Dad’s resting so we can all stay out a little later than usual.

Added a few more pictures to the album here.