The west coast of Ireland has been so lovely so far. Dingle was a great first stop on our trip up the coast-- really kind people and a beautiful coastline. Our time was spent lounging by the bay and going to listen to music at the local pubs. Can't complain.
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| Dingle Bay |
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| The statue in the center is to honor "Fungie" the Dingle Bay dolphin. Yes, we are in the cutest town in the world. |
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| Just a dog on a donkey in Dingle. Say that three times. |
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| Dingle at night |
We met some girls staying at the same hostel who were also going to Doolin the next day in their rental car and they offered to give us a ride. We left early and including one car ferry got to Doolin within about 3 hours in the early afternoon. We were eager to get use out of our new two man tent we picked up in Dublin so we found a hostel with camping space in the back (the same hostel Elliot camped at 6 years ago in Doolin-- memoriiiees). After some laundry we headed to the local pub for some live music and a couple of pints. We had a full day the next day in Doolin so we hiked up to the Cliff of Moher and enjoyed the beauty and a picnic. We cooked a bit for dinner (after the 2 mile walk to the only grocery store in Doolin which is actually a petrol station) and then hung out with a few travelers we met at the hostel. One of the guys, Mike, also from the US, was heading in the same direction as us the next day to the ferry so we made plans to go together.
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| Beautiful Doolin |
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| McGann's Pub |
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| Great hiking |
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| Path to the Cliffs of Moher |
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| Little friend we spotted in the water---look closely! |
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| Some amazing rock formations along the path |
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| A good spot for a picnic |
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| The Cliffs |
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| Cave we spotted on the way back |
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| There's something wrong with that horse. |
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| Time in the pub with other backpackers |
The following day we headed down to the pier, and after a bit of confusion finally got on a ferry headed to the Aran Islands. While waiting for the ferry we met some locals and had a pretty magical encounter with Dusty the Doolin dolphin (seriously, I think every adorable coastal town in Western Ireland has their own dolphin..)
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| The Doolin Pier |
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| Seriously friendly wild dolphin (although one of the locals we were talking to told us a story about how they think some of the solitary dolphins were dragging swimmers out to sea... I decided not to get too friendly) |
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| Mike, Elliot, Dusty |
Of the three Aran islands we chose Inish Oirr because every local we spoke to told us it was their favorite though the smallest. After a very quick ferry ride, the three of us walked down the beautiful coast to find a campsite (Mike was camping too). After setting up our tents we spent the rest of the day walking almost entirely around the tiny island enjoying the quiet and almost complete isolation.
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| Ferry ride |
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| Finding a spot for the tent |
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| O'Briens Castle, we could see it from our campsite on the hill and decided to start our hike by checking it out |
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| The hundreds and hundreds of stone walls that completely cover the island |
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| Heeeeeeey buddy. Another miniature horse (no, I am not gigantic.) |
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| Elliot and Mike |
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| On the tiny map we had of the island there was simply something marked shipwreck and this is what we found |
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| Amazing |
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| Inside |
When we got back to camp we started a fire and had a little barbecue-- first "american style" (as the package said) hot dogs in a long time. Delicious. We headed to bed fairly early after the long day (it was about 10:30pm but the sun wasn't down completely--we're sooo far north) after watching the sunset for a bit.
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| Our new home |
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| At around 10:15 at this point.. |
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| Breakfast of champions |
We woke up this morning (a couple hours after the sun came up around 5:00) and had a breakfast of leftovers from dinner. We headed to the pier to catch a ferry off the wonderful little island. The plan is the continue up the coast towards Belfast--- more to come!
Amazing photos!!
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