Coasting around Doolin

Monday, July 06, 2015
Doolin, County Clare, Ireland
We woke up Monday morning to heavy rain, which was upsetting as we were planning to do some of the Cliffs of Moher Coastal walk. By the time we finished breakfast the rain had stopped, however and we headed out about 9:30. It turns out that the timing was very important. When we got to the parking lot at the visitor centre a few miles down the road, there were maybe a dozen cars in the parking lot and 1 tour bus, so once we got a few hundred yards from the main observation platforms we had the trail virtually to ourselves . Now the wind was howling, so you will notice that I didn't get very close to the edges when taking pictures. It had died down on the way back so I got a bit braver, but I still don't like heights and I know how thin the edges can be with shale rock formations from our trip to King's Canyon, Australia. Also, the weather changed about five times while we were on the trail, going from cloudy to clearing to rain back to clear and then totally socked in with fog/low cloud by the time we were done. The poor busloads of people (and there were hundreds and hundreds of them) who were arriving as we left couldn't even tell that there was a cliff. We walked about 3 hours total, out to an old fort which was used as a lookout during the Napoleonic wars and was later used as a telegraph station. At one point along the way (I couldn't get a decent picture) there was a quarry and they had quarried to within about 20 feet of the cliff face. Seems a bit stupid to me, given how easily the shale rock erodes and crumbles. Anything for a buck, I guess. After our walk we went back to Doolin, parked the car and took a walk down to the pier, stopping for lunch at Gus O'Connor's pub. Now, Doolin is quite a bit bigger than it appeared at first glance but it is spread out, with little clusters of homes and businesses spread out along several miles of road. The walk down to the pier was about 2 km. We know that because there was a sign every kilometre or so that said that it was 2 km to the pier. Was tempted to play the pitch & putt golf course but decided to go back and rest up for an evening of music--ballads first and a traditional music "jam session" afterwards. Both were very good.
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