Close to the animals!

Friday, 20 June, 2014

Last night after I posted my blog, Randy and I went for a walk, he was hoping for some good sunset photos.  We walked a circuitous route of roads to reach the beach at the end of our peninsula.  It is very rocky and didn't seem that many people visit it.  I counted three other sets of footprints walking on the beach and we only saw one other couple.  Well, it was a cloudy night and you could see shafts of sunlight coming down from the clouds (kind of like drawings in the bible).  You could also see a glow on the water from the sun illuminating the water from above, even though the sun was behind the clouds.  It was pretty, but not good for sunsets.  It was around 10:00 and still daylight out.  I love the long hours of sunlight!  I walked into the kitchen last night around 11:30 and didn't even need to turn on the light to find what I was looking for on the counter; it was that light!  Too bad we're not up in Scotland now--we would probably have white nights with the sun never actually setting.

You can see the shafts of sunlight and a bit of the glow on the water

The Atlantic Ocean is out there!

The cove--the end of the Renvyle Peninsula in Connemara.

Well, as we walked along the beach, we figured that there had to be a more direct route to our cottage than the way we came--just around the end of the peninsula and down, right?  Well, the sand doesn't go all the way around--there are some cliffs that go straight down into water.  So we decided to walk this huge pile of stones (washed up by centuries of ocean) up to the field above.  Well, as soon as we stepped from the rocks onto the grass, a cow spied us and decided to follow us--getting closer all the time.  Randy and I had a bad experience on a public footpath in England with cows stampeding us.  We were nervous and I didn't really want to start throwing rocks at a cow, so we walked the rocks around the edge of the top of the cliffs.  The cows can't walk the rocks--thus no reason for a wall.  The cow eventually lost interest in us when it realized that it couldn't follow us.  Soon, we had to walk across the field to get to the gate.  We had to cross a stream so I threw some rocks into it and stepped across (Randy just walked in the water) and Randy gave me a hand up the sleep slope on the other side (it was rocky and muddy).  The gate was tied with a rope in an intricate knot, so we didn't want to untie it.  We tried to get around, but the wall was all the way to the edge of the sheer cliffs with barbed wire on top.  So, we climbed over the gate, scaring the sheep in the next field.  They took off running! (Sheep will move away if you move toward them, unlike cows).   As they rushed to the next field, we carefully make our way across the field to the other wall.  The field was pitted from animals walking on it and was full of piles of doo which we were careful not to step in.  We walked along the wall until we reached another gate--this one was just latched, so we went through, being carful to relatch it. Then we followed the road past the outbuildings and came to another stream.  Well, this was disgusting with scum and weird colors and garbage in it.  So we spied a bridge closer to the house and walked across that (trying not to be seen by the farmers in the house).  We eventually came to the part where the driveway meets the road and were able to walk that back to our cottage!  A very eventful evening stroll!

Today, we decided on a drive, the Connemara Loop.  We stopped once, at a walking path to hike.  We walked up this road toward some cottages and a B & B where the road ended, then moved onto the walking path.  The road had been all uphill, but the path was fairly flat.  On the way, we walked through grazing sheep, then saw two horses--one that Anneliese said was a palomino.  We walked on, scaring the sheep as we got close, then encountered a donkey standing on the path.  He let us pass, but then followed us.  We eventually sat on a large rock and petted him.  We think he was looking for food--all we had was a water bottle and cameras.  Then the two horses we had passed followed us, so we had all three of them.  The donkey kept nosing at Anneliese and eventually bit the inside of her thigh under her skirt.  It didn't break the skin through her tights, but will leave an ugly bruise tomorrow.  It is all red now.  We petted the horses and donkey and fed them grass--they seemed to like the more tender ends Joshua pulled from the ground.  By then we had been there a long time and had to make our way back to the car.  We saw those stone walls leading up into the mountains--right up the steep mountain sides.  Why?

These are turves made from cutting peat from the ground for heating
their homes. They are drying them by stacking them in pyramids.

Sheep

Family

This is my favorite type of sheep with the black face and leg
and white coat.  How sad, that I've developed a favorite sheep!

scenery

more sheep

donkey

Shelby, the donkey whisperer

Here come the horses!

Right before the donkey bit Anneliese

Joshua

Shelby

Well, we saw Kylemore Abbey from the road across the lake as we drove by the other end.  We also stopped to see the only fjord in Ireland--the Killary Fjord.

Pretty sure this is a foxglove--it grows wild here.

Joshua and Shelby playing King of the Mountain on a pile of gravel.

Then we stopped at the gas station/grocery store in Tully for groceries for tonight and tomorrow morning.  It is actually quite well stocked with a fresh meat counter and frozen food section.  We found fish filets for dinner and cereal for breakfast.  We are leaving early--9:00.  Yikes.  For a 6-8 hour drive to the Giant's Causeway.  Sunday is in Northern Ireland (Belfast), then we drive down to Dublin Sunday night for a Monday morning flight to London.  The flight was less expensive than gas, lodgings, and food along the way would have been.  We are planning to stay a few days in London before driving through the Lakes Region on our way to Scotland.  (London and the Lakes Region were two requests from Anneliese).  So for our last night here, we'll probably do a movie or game night.