Each night we try to plan the following day’s destination route and activities based on the current weather forecast. Each morning we get up and make adjustments. Leaving the Burren we plan to head to Westport but do we go via Connemara or just take the main shorter route north from Galway? Miss all that amazing scenery, of course not. We will not let a little rain deter us, well not yet anyway.

We bypass Galway, which we have heard is a very beautiful town, but there is not enough time for everywhere, we will just have to make do with Matt Malloy’s pub in Westport recommended by Patsy. After riding around Galway lunch is taken at Joyces Craft shop/Post Office/Petrol Station/Bar, which sits next to Glendollagh Loch, which seems to cover just about everything in one building. We find the bar seemingly closed however with enough of us tourists congregating at the bar door, it magically opens and we are in shortly followed by the locals who must know the opening times. After lunch we head north past Lough Inagh.

The scenery in each region we have spent time in as we travel up the west coast of Ireland has been so different and Connemara is as varied again. At Leenaun we are faced with another choice, the direct route to Westport or the longer smaller road via Doo Lough. As usual the longer route wins out and we are treated to a spectacular ride. Anne talks to a couple at the north end of Doo Lough who come each year to the region and this is their favourite spot. We understand why and the pictures cannot capture the beauty, you will just have to visit yourselves.

Thanks for all the suggestions of staying out late, sampling the local “Uisce beatha” which translates into “water of life” and nightlife into the night. Anne has been practicing a little of the forma but if we attempt the latter then the next day would be a write-off and affecting our tight timetable for Ireland. We do visit Matt Malloy’s which turns out to have a long musical history and reminds us in some ways of the Station Inn in Nashville.

As we travel the thin line that is our route, what are we missing on either side? During a stop to avoid a rain showers ahead, we detour via Mullaghmore. A clifftop ride we would not have experienced without the detour. However if we did this all the time we would still be on our first RTW trip!

Giants Causeway is the last major place we want to visit during our time here. We cross into Northern Ireland after another drenching. The storms do seem to have a habit of finding us, but perhaps it’s a trade off for the blue sky riding we have had over the years. The crossing into Northern Ireland is uneventful, just a road-sign with the word “Northern” crossed out. Nobody has asked to see passports since we departed France.

We get the hotel to both turn on the room heating and get an extra heater. The hotel staff were bemused until we explained we were Australians then the hotel staff understood. The temperatures have rarely reached 20 degrees Celsius during our time here. We spend the evening trying to get a semblance of dry back into our clothing.

Getting to the Giants Causeway has us dodging the rain again, but the weather cleared to give us, and the seemingly hundreds of others a clear view of the Giants Causeway. The mostly six sided basalt columns, close up, appear to have been stacked that way. I understand the shapes were caused as the lava cooled and contracted the shapes were created. Cooling rates created a different number of sides. I prefer the story that it was created by giants, much more plausible when you see the columns close up. The other side of the causeway can be found at Fingal’s cave on the Island of Staffa in Scotland which we visited in 2019. A circular walk back to the top gave us great views down onto the Giants Causeway, well work the extra distance walked and the 100 or so steps we had to climb.

Given the time we spent at the Giants Causeway we only have time for one more visit this day. The rope bridge and motorcycle museum will have to wait for another time. Although neither of us has seen Game of Thrones, we decide that seeing the “Dark Hedges” will be something different. A row 150 of Beech trees planted in the 18th Century, of which 90 remain, provide a somewhat mysterious looking vista.

Tomorrow we will head to Belfast for the last night of our time in Ireland. It is a public holiday, Orangemen’s Day.

– Anthony