Innishmore

We traveled to Innishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands, today: an hour-long bus ride from Galway to the Atlantic followed by another hour on a ferry to Innishmore. It was a windy day and the seas were rough--the ferry bounced over waves and heeled significantly now and again. I am thankful to Sealegs, sea sickness medicine we discovered in New Zealand, for keeping me from throwing up over the side.

Innishmore is not as bad as the Cliffs of Moher when it comes to monetizing tourists, but it sure is set up for visitors. When we left the ferry we were accosted by people hawking tours by bus and horse-drawn carriage. We hustled past these to get to the bike renting shop that was doing a brisk business. We rented e-bikes and took off to see the island's sites.

After a half-hour bike, we came to Innishmore's major attraction, Dun Aonghasa, a circular stone fort that clings to a 300-foot-high ledge above the sea. The hike up to the fort and back down is a chore, but the view was breathtaking.

The wind at the exposed top was tremendous.

On the way back to the ferry port, we stopped to see the Worm Hole, a peculiar rectangular hole in the rock where the sea comes in and recedes.

The long way to the Worm Hole is nothing but rock and stone walls.

There are a handful of red arrows painted on the rocks to point the way, but these are easily missed. Well, on our return we became hopelessly lost. We wandered over this barren landscape for about an hour getting very tired and a bit frightened. Pat called 911 but the people he spoke with advised us to use Google maps to find our way. Although we gave this a try--the trailhead showed up on the map--the way to that point was blocked by wall after wall. Finally, miraculously, we spotted a few people hiking on the trail and we were able to make our way there. Doubly miraculously, we found ourselves right at the trailhead where we'd left our bikes!

So, we biked back to town with about a half hour to spare to get on the ferry back to the mainland. And to make the day even more memorable, just as we were about to return our bikes, Jo lost her balance and fell awkwardly, banging her (thankfully, helmeted) head. She was a bit banged up but otherwise ok--a glass of wine on the ferry put her back in shape.

We had dinner in Galway and then got to bed early. The next day would be along one: up at 4 to drive across Ireland to Dublin (about two hours), return our rental car, catch a plane to Manchester, get on a train to Penrith, and finally hop on a bus to our next stop: Keswick, in the Lake District.