Thursday, June 7, 2012

"Not a Day to Do the Washing" or Skylights and Sun Poisoning...Take your Pick

Wednesday June 6
Inishmeer Island of the Aran Islands

19 miles

Rain early then glorious SUN!

Waking up to rain is a bit daunting. I just want to stay in bed...well, I just want to stay in bed every morning, but especially on a raining morning. ANd this morning was a rainy morning...and I had a hard time going to sleep last night (he said it was decaf!) so I was shorted a few of the usual 10+ hours I've been sleeping. But after listening to a bit of the audiobook Wild, I dragged my tush out of bed to join Fuat under the tarp for our morning coffee. I thought it would be good if we did a load of laundry seeing as how it was raining anyhow and biking wouldn't be as much fun.

So off I went to find out where the laundromat was in town, it being a larger town on the map than most we'd cycled through. I spotted the Postman at the gas station. He oughta know if there's a laundromat in town or not, don't ya think? Yup, right across the street, but I don't think he opens until 10. That works. So we pack up and pedal over at about 10 and it's open...but it's not a laundromat, it's a launderette...he does the washing. He didn't think we'd find a laundromat until we got to a city. Oh well, off we pedaled. A few more stinky days won't matter much.

And the town we were departing from, Ballyvaughn, was right on the Bay of Galway, we just hadn't gotten to the water the night before. What a beautiful ride we had down the rolling coast, past the sweetest stone cottages ya ever did see, and oh, the views. Up and down, and up, and down. Oh my aching legs.



And the sun came out, and the day was delightful. One thing I've noticed is that most of the houses have skylights, even older ones have had them put in. Good thinking, these Irish:) One house had 6 panels next to each other in 2 rows of 3. Now that's a well lit room!

Our plan for the day was to get to Doolin so we could go out to the Aran Islands tomorrow. If we had a plan. We got into Doolin about 3 and the woman at the visitors center said we could catch a ferry out tonight and camp on Inisheer (the smallest and nearest island) and return tomorrow night. When I kidded with her about what a beautiful day it was and how I thought I should have done the wash so it could have dried in the sun, she shared what a friend had told her..."Too nice a day to do the wash!" I hear ya, sista!!! Then I told her how I thought the Irish dried there clothes in the rain...that gave her a chuckle.

So we paid her 25 euros each for the ferry roundtrip and hustled down to the dock. Come to find out we'd been ripped off in town by at least 10 euros too much. Lesson learned. Oh well.

It was a bit scary for me seeing them lift Blaze off the dock onto the small ferry. I know how tippy she can be and I had visions of her landing in the drink. But they managed her and then I had to leap across the crevasse between the dock and the boat because they didn't want to put down the gangplank for just the 2 of us.

So here we are in the quaintest of villages. We're at the "campground" and we're the only ones here. 10 euros for the night and free showers! And they have a washer and dryer so tomorrow, when it's suppose to be raining (surprise, surprise), we're gonna get some wash done.

We took a quick ride around the east end of the island. Oh, I've never seen so many stone walls...and so high. The actually wall in very small corrals, they're too small to call them pastures. We met a local woman (born on Inishmore - the largest island, but has lived here for 30 years... summers... winters in Dublin. She told me she walks 5 miles around the island every day. She has to walk on EVERY road to do that! Asked her what we should see here and she said "the sunken church". So we checked it out on the way home. Of course the first problem was finding a lane that led there. We could see it, but the lanes ended at someone's house. This church is on a high plot of land in the middle of a cemetery and can't be seen until your at it's door. It's really built in a hole in the middle of the cemetery. I think it was to hide it from attach. It's from the 10th century.

Ok, it's after 10 pm, and still light out and you can here the children playing at the park. I can't get used to all this daylight, but I love it!

Another day in wonderland,

BagLady

Oh, ya, about the sun poisoning. I've got these painful bumps all over my chest and tops of my thighs that were exposed to the sun today. I've got a good tan so I didn't put anything on them but tonight the skin feels lumpy and raw to the touch. Ouch. It's not burned. It's more like hives that hurt. They'll heal. My body's strong.

And now, goodnight!!


And, for anyone who cares, I was able to charge up all my devices today with all that sun. Now we'll just see if the batteries that said they were fully charged have any juice when I need them.


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3000 BC was surely a long time ago!

June 5th
Ballyvaughn, Ireland
26 hilly miles

Started the morning learning about Lady Gregory, a patron of WB Yeats and a playwright and actress herself. Great story about her and her mansion, Coole Park.

Then a lengthy discussion with a woman who worked at Coole Park about what route to take and what to see in The Barren (the "Burn").




It's the large expanse of rocky, rocky rolling hills with fragile alpine flora and fauna growing in the clints and gyres (maybe I got that right) of the limestone. We missed our turn right out of town, but that always makes for the best of times: the carpenter in the yard cutting flooring gave us directions, the horses hovering nearby while we had our lunch on the side of the road, and the guy in the truck who asked if I was the police as I stood right in the road getting directions from another guy in a truck:). I'm glad our maps don't work well and we get to talk to so, so many folks. The climb up over the Barren was steep and of course that's when the skies opened up and it really poured on us. Talk about cold! The temps are only in the 50's anyways. Colder yet was the long run down the other side but we were blessed with the most delightful pub in Carron where we decided to have dinner by the warmth of the fire.




And I got a bit of wifi, if I stood in the corner of the far dining room on one foot:). It was nice to get everyone's notes. Thank you:)).

This area is covered in stone ruins EVERYWHERE! We stopped and rambled through an old stone house overgrown with briars. It had a lovely stone fireplace in the center wall. You could tell it was a couple hundred years old. Later we saw a stone tomb, Poulabrone, called a portal tomb. It had two tall portal stones flanking the entrance and a flat capstone on top. This was from 3000 BC! Hard to fathom!! They've found 33 bodies buried here when the excavated it about 20 years ago. Breathtaking. And I never knew these existed. Continuing on into the evening, trying to get some km behind us and while looking for a place to camp that we could hang the tarp, I pulled off when I saw a nook that might work. There was a fence wall with an opening too narrow for our bikes, but I decided to explore beyond. Spotting a path off to the left I decided to follow it up, thinking it might lead to someone's house. And what do you think I found? An old stone fort! There was a plaque about it when you got up there. Cathermore was the name. A double walled circular fort. Most ruins now. But still an exciting find!!!

Pedal on, pedal on. Hard to find places to camp because of all the walls and the animals in the pastures. We continued on into the next town and pulled into the church yard. Churches love pilgrims! Even a bathroom open to the outside. Ahhh! All the comforts of home:)

Happy Birthday, Kim C! I was thinking of you today. Hope it was a happy one, you beautiful being:)

Bonking BagLady

Oh I forgot to mention the puppy who hopped on Blaze's seat as we were leaving the pub then proceeded to follow us for several kilometers down the road. She sure was cute but I was afraid we'd adopted her and she wouldn't find her way home. We managed to lose her on a long downhill. Then we met a cyclist going the other way and I asked her to pick her up and take her back to the pub. She'd follow anyone!