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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