Inishmore Exploration1

Exciting day today ... travelling over to Inishmore.
The day started with a walk up the street to a theoretical meeting point for a minibus to the airport. A slight detour to the taxi office to drop a bag off, as it advertised a left luggage room. This allowed us to leave some bits behind while we were on the island.

The bus arrived and we got on, there was only one other person, and we set off along the coast road - this followed the same trait as yesterday, old fashioned A roads through every village and hamlet at an average speed of 20 mph.
No hanging around at the airport .. out of the minibus, check in, weigh in, and off to the safety briefing. A stop off at the toilet, and we were late for boarding - the others were already out by the plane. Taxiing and pre-flight checks took longer than the actual flight over. Before you could blink we were on the island and walking out the gate.

Overnight we had been given a change of B&B, and in place of one in the middle of the island we were just around the bay from the airport. The B&B was a green house, and our room was looking out over the bay.
The taxi driver wanted 5 euros for the half mile trip so we walked around. Dropping off our bags and changing into walking kit we were soon back on the road again.

We wanted to visit Dun Aonghasa - just like every visitor to the island, and this was up past the middle of the island .. we took the "mountain" road over the centre of the island, which proved to be a nice quiet option. This was classic limestone pavement, with old traditional fields and dry stone walls all around.

Not on the "normal"trail but just off our track was a small trail down to the coast and some limestone ledges.

This was the location of the "wormhole" .. a kind of slot bath cut into the limestone - moving with the waves.

From the wormhole we cut over the fields to the bay on the other side and followed the road to the visitor centre.
We had thought that we could get something to eat here, but the cafe was closed and everywhere else was over crowded, so we headed off up the path to Dun Aonghasa, up on the skyline.

We had arrived at the time all the day trippers were here so it was very crowded and there were lots of people milling around.
I was not as impressed as I should have been. It would have been better if we had stayed in our original B&B and we could have gone up at a quiet time.

We managed to get a few bits to eat in the souvenir shop, before the long walk back ... we took the main road, and were passed by a variety of transport .. bikes, vans, cars, and the horse drawn carts.
The walk back was hard as we were tired, but lightened up by sights like the boat in the garden.

It was a little early for food, as we came to Kilronan, however the lack of lunch was catching up with us and the siren call of the afternoon menu at the pub became too much to ignore.

Back at the B&B to see the sun go down, after a long day.