Connemara and the Killary Fjord

Day Eleven: June 13

Steve convinced me to go on a long scenic drive this Saturday by promising a hike as well.  I had begun to relax in the car over the last few days.  I no longer held the overhead handhold so tightly nor was I also gripping the center console as frequently and I had begun to actually look left and right while on the safer highways.   Today we would drive the Connemara Loop and stop at Killary Fjord for a hike along the fjord.  The directions were quite straight forward so I relaxed about getting lost too.

 At a junction on our route, at Maum’s Crossing my complete driving desensitization opportunity began.  For the next ten miles we had to wind in and out of a bicycle ride, not a race.  Multi-generational and spandex rich we noted that at least this lot of about two hundred riders wore helmets.  Between tour buses coming at us and bicycles in front of us we eventually ran out of adrenaline.   I can now say I am pretty calm as a passenger except when a huge rock protrudes into the road past its hedge line.  That can still get me.

A watering stop for riders in Leenane at the head of Killary Fjord

Scenes of Connemara

This was a great hike, quite windy with winds coming up the fjord from the Atlantic.  We had a few companions on the hike but by and large it was a pleasantly unpopulated event.  Let the pictures speak for themselves. It was a beautiful day as far north as I have ever been.

Rhododendrons were at their peak, capable of swallowing homes.

Our lunch spot, complete with waterfall and relief from the wind

Steve particularly liked the effect of windblown hawthorns.

Looking toward the Atlantic, those are linear rafts of oysters.

Looking east

The last fishing, oystering harbor before the coast. 

Southern Connemara along Galway Bay before the last stretch back to Dublin, amazing views.   We didn't photograph the huge barren mountains at the core of Connemara National Park, they were impressive but not very inviting.