Westport, County Mayo

After leaving Doolin, we headed up to Galway to get some badly needed gear (new shoes for Zach and rain pants for me). We originally planned to head to Achill Island that night, but decided to stay in Westport instead because Lol (our WWOOFing host) had recommended it. Good thing we stayed there because just this week The Irish Times, Ireland's most popular newspaper, voted Westport the best town to live in. Oh. Man.

While in Westport we stayed in a wonderful hostel in the center of town, hiked Croagh Patrick, one of the most famous mountains in Ireland, and watched Ireland lose their last Euro Cup match to Italy.

At just over 2,500 ft., Croagh Patrick towers over the town of Westport. It's so big and famous that most people in town just call it "The Mountain." According to legend, St. Patrick fasted for 40 days and 40 nights on top of the mountain and as a result, converted a lot of the Pagan people in Ireland to Christianity. Because of this, Ireland's highest cathedral is on top of the mountain and a few times a year, there are pilgrimages to the top of the mountain. St. Patrick is also said to have banished all snakes from Ireland while living on top of Croagh Patrick. After all of the gardening and outdoor work we've done, that's probably my favorite one of his accomplishments.

A view of Croagh Patrick as we were hiking.

We followed the pilgrimage route on the hike up which required us to create our own trail and hike through the bog. It rained off and on during the hike, but overall it was a great day!

More views from the hike - looking out onto Clew Bay. As you can tell, during this part of the day, it was sunny!

Views from the top! Finally!

Looking out at the Atlantic from the top of Croagh Patrick.

Clew Bay.

The Cathedral on top of Croagh Patrick - the highest cathedral in the country!

A tour of The Burren

Hello family and friends and Ranger! We miss you! and we miss hoppy beer. Please send us some. Or come visit with some!
We've been traveling along the west coast for 11 days now, and despite the incessant rain, it's been absolutely amazing. We've learned a few lessons the hard way - such as never trusting the online bus schedule because you might end up walking that bus route (12 miles!) in the rain, and when you ask someone how much the B&B costs, make sure it's the person who is going to serve you breakfast because the charge will increase (this lesson is also known as, stay in hostels and meet cool people).

We're currently in Donegal town, waiting on a bus to take us to Glencolmkille where we hear there is a beautiful hostel built into a hillside with a woman named Mad Mary O'Connell running it. We can't wait! There are two great hikes there - one is a loop on the coast and the other is the Slieve League Cliffs (at just under 600m, the highest seaside cliffs in Europe!) and now that we both own rain pants and rain jackets, even the rain can't stop us! But maybe the wind can...

Over the last ten days, we've been to the Burren, Westport and Achill Island (our favorite stop so far!). We started our travels in Ballyvaughan, a small town at the north of the Burren and one of the main starting points for the Burren Way, a beautiful hiking path we spent a few hours on one morning.

Cow and a beautiful stone church. We see about 90,000 of both of these a day.

More views from our hike along the Burren Way.

And more!

A wall with ivy! Each area has its own way of building walls and since Zach is now a wall-building veteran, we take notice of these things.

From Ballyvaughan we had aspirations to take the bus to Lisdoonvarna, a town about 10 miles south of Ballyvaughan, and then walk to Kilfenora, which has no bus service but is renowned for the music and dancing on Thursday nights - so we had to get there. Much to our dismay, the bus schedule we had was wrong and the bus we needed had come an hour earlier than we expected. So, around 1PM, just as the wind and rain started to pick up, we set out to walk the 12ish miles to Kilfenora. Despite the weather, we had a wonderful time. Since we were walking, we took a different route and walked by the Polnabrone Dolmen, which is something I've been telling Zach about for years, so it was great to see it.

The Polnabrone Dolmen! It was built in 4000ish B.C. and the capstone weighs many many tons (it was raining and cold so we didn't take too much time to read about it - yay for google!)

The other side of the Polnabrone. You're supposed to say it like your whole mouth is full of cookies. Try it.

After leaving the Polnabrone Dolmen, we continued our walk to Kilfenora where we stayed in a great hostel and participated in the Ceili dance that night! Ceili dancing is a type of step dance, very similar to Contra Dancing or Square Dancing, except there is no one calling out the steps, making it nearly impossible to follow along. For best results, I suggest finding an older Irish person of the opposite sex and asking them to teach you to dance.

I danced with the wonderful Irishman in the tan shirt, while our new friend Delphine (in the white shirt) danced with another man. Zach sat on the bench and took lots of pictures with flash, making us all rather dizzy.

There is lots of cheering and clapping in Ceili dancing. It's great.

The band! We hear the band on Wednesday nights is even better, so we'll have to go back!

From Kilfenora, we walked and hitch-hiked and bussed to Doolin, a great costal town that is famous for its proximity to the Cliffs of Mohr and the wonderful traditional music you can hear in the pubs almost every night. We camped right on the coast and hiked to the Cliffs of Mohr the next day where both of us and Herb had a wonderful and windy outting.

The main strip of Doolin. We walked from here to the Cliffs. Our campsite and the coast is just to the left of this photo.

The Aille River, which runs right through the heart of Doolin, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean.

On our walk!

The O'Herbs used to live in that castle. Herb was rather sentimental.

The Cliffs of Mohr!

The Cliffs of Mohr and Goat Island in the foreground. One of the Rangers (the people kind, not the dog kind) let us use his binoculars so we could see the puffins on Goat Island!

Us on the Cliffs. By the time we got there the wind was blowing about 25 miles and hour, it was rainy and about 10,000 people had just got off their tour buses. It was great, but since then we've been to some much more beautiful (read: more remote and better weather) cliffs.

Herb - in awe of the beauty. He wanted to claim the Cliffs of Mohr for America but we told him not to.

After leaving Doolin, we went to Inish Oirr, a small island off the coast of Doolin, for the day and night. It was a beautiful sunny day so we rented bikes, had lunch on the coast, wandered around a rusty ship wreck and spent a few hours on the beach reading and attemping to play mandolin.

The view from the peer on Isish Oirr. Right when we got off the boat there were men with horse and carriage asking us if we wanted to take a tour of the island but for some strange reason Zach wanted to bike around instead.

The beach! The water was more clear than any we had ever seen. Also, there was a dog on the beach who kept bringing us a deflated soccer ball to throw him, which made our afternoon.

Almost the entire island looked like this. According to the brochures we read, many of these stone walls are over a thousand years old.

O'Brien's Castle sits at the high point of the island.

The shipwreck we discovered on our bike ride!



In the morning, we left Inish Oirr and took the boat back to Doolin and headed up to Galway for more adventures on the West Coast!

Beautiful Ballyconneely

Hello from Ireland! We've been here for two weeks today and so far it's amazing. We're staying in Ballyconneely, a coastal village just outside of Clifden, a larger town which is the heart of Connemara. Connemara is a beautiful and rugged area on the West Coast of Ireland - it was one of the last areas to be conquered by outside forces. All of this is in County Galway and north of Shannon, where our plane landed.

When we arrived in Shannon, the customs agent almost didn't allow us to enter the country. We didn't bring any documentation showing that we were going to be WWOOFing and he didn't believe that we had enough money to support ourselves for three months without getting a job and therefore taking one from an Irish person. After talking to us for a few minutes, he made us sit in a waiting area while he processed the rest of the passengers from our plane and then went to talk to his boss. After a nerve-racking 10 minutes, the two agents came back and asked me what kind of music I played on my mandolin (traditional Irish, of course!) and then told us we were lucky that we had caught them in a good mood and we could go on. Phew!

Leaving from New York City and arriving to Ballyconneely, a town with streets wide enough for 1.5 cars (although the drivers somehow squeeze two) was definitely a shock. Also, falling asleep at 11PM even though the sun is still up is something we're still getting used to.

Meet Terri and Lol - our hosts! Terri's family is from Ballyconneely and we can see all of their houses from our front door. Lol is from London and moved to Ireland in the 90s. Terri works at a health shop in Clifden where she sells all sorts of vitamins, health foods, medicines, etc. Lol is an artist and paints a lot of the store signs around Connemara. He also does a lot of work for national monuments - painting pictures of what historians think castles, etc. used to look like. They're both very friendly, knowledgeable about gardening, great cooks and believe in a lot of conspiracy theories, making conversations very interesting!

Terri and Lol on their way to a Clifden pub last Sunday. Lol and a few friends play music every week at the pub.

We've been sleeping in a caravan right outside of Terri and Lol's house for the past two weeks. Her name is "Abbey Somerset" and she's pretty tiny - but has a gas stove, a table, a closet and a bed. There have been a few days of heavy rain and winds, so having a caravan to sleep in has been much nicer than having a tent. And the gas stove is perfect for making a cup of tea!

This is Abbey Somerset, our beautiful home. Notice the ropes and rocks that are used to hold her down. With all of wind, we're pretty grateful for these because there were a few nights where Abbey might have blown away.

Terri and Lol's house sits on 1/4 acre - almost all of which is being put to use. There are raised plant beds, fruit trees, a polytunnel and plans for a chicken coop, composting toilet and outside shower. A lot of the houses around us have pastures with cows and Connemara Ponies. Zach tries to talk to the cows as much as he can and sometimes they talk back. The house is a five minute walk from the Atlantic Ocean and on a good day, you can see at least two islands (that used to have residents but are now abandoned) from the back yard.

Terri and Lol's house from the road.

Terri and Lol's house from the back.

A typical lunch cooked by Molly in the caravan. Grilled cheese, beans in tomoato sauce (basically the worst version of baked beans you've ever had), an apple and of course, Herb, our dino! We didn't eat Herb. We're all vegetarians (him too).

The garden out back has strawberries, onions, herbs, peas, lettuces, radishes and more! 

The road from Terri and Lol's up to the heart of Ballyconneely (just a pub, a small store and a Post Office). We're about 15 km away from the center of Clifden.

The view from the back yard is spectacular. We can see the Twelve Bens, a major mountain range in the southern part of Connemara. We can see a few other hills (smaller than mountains) and pastures and houses for miles.

You can see the Twelve Bens near the middle of this photo. Since the Twelve Bens are so high (2000+ feet and right on the coast) the tops of them are covered in clouds a lot. We're planning on hiking six of them in one hike next week, so hopefully there aren't many clouds that day!

The potato patch (of course!) in the backyard. We didn't get to eat any while we were here, but Zach did a great job taking care of them.

The polytunnel (greenhouse!) in the backyard. Lol is currently building a stone pathway, as you can see in the bottom right corner.

The inside of the polytunnel - full of tomoatoes, a fig tree, cucumbers, lettuces, garlic and more!

 Chief (possibly short for Chieftan) is the family dog. He's 15 years old, deaf, can't always walk straight and loves to lay right where you want to roll the wheelbarrow and he's great to have around. Almost as good as having Ranger.

Chief!

 

 

 

Our typical work day starts at 10AM and ends around 6PM. We get a break for lunch in the middle of the day and on good days, Terri makes scones and we get a break for tea in the afternoon - but that's not very often. Almost every day we do something different. Zach seems to be given the jobs involving more heavy lifting and I tend to be given jobs like weeding and tilling. My attempt to get Michelle Obama's toned arms while farming is not coming to fruition, but Zach is well on his way.

We've gone to the bog three times so far. Working on the bog is almost as Irish as you can get. People cut turf from the bog and use it to heat their homes - a practice that has been going on for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. It takes multiple years to get turf into a state that is sustable for burning. Each summer, every family goes out to their section of the bog (if you live in an area with bog, the Irish government used to allot your family a portion of the bog - but this practice has been stopped) and cuts the turf into long strips. This is allowed to sit until the next summer, so the tops and sides of the bog can dry. During the next summer, the family (and WWOOFers if you have them) come our and turn the cut pieces of turf over, so that the other side can dry. Then, a few weeks later, the turf is stacked into teepee looking things called foots so the wind can dry the turf even further. At the end of that year, if it's been dry and windy enough, the turf is ready to take home and burn in the fire place.

Zach and Terri turning the turf on the bog. It's backbreaking work and not the most fun in the rain.

This is what the turf looks like before it's turned.

The same turf, a week later, when we had turned it!

These are the "footings" that the turf is put into so that it can dry.

A picture of Terri, packing up the turf from last year to bring home to burn in the fire place!

Zach and Lol built part of a stone wall one day. I was inside peeling potatoes for dinner and saw them building this crazy ramp and decided it needed documentation.

The rock that Zach and Lol built the ramp for is finally in place! An hour later....

Even though we worked a lot, we got two days off a week. On one of our days off, we attempted to climb a hill we could see from Terri and Lol's house. The hill is right behind a run down castle (that's on private property) and has a few stone monuments on top, so it seemed interesting. In the end, we couldn't find a way to get to the top of the hill without crossing private property, but we did find a great beach and take some good pictures.

A picture of the rocks at the end of the beach. This beach actually has white sand on it too - but we didn't take any pictures.

Another picture from the beach with more of Ballyconneely on the horizon.

A picture of us on the beach!

On another one of our days off, we walked from Clifden South to a hertiage center and Ballnahinch, a castle that is now a hotel for people much richer than us, but has beautiful gardens you can walk around in for free!
Here are some pictures from our walk and that day.

It's pretty terrifying to walk on a road with signs telling people which side to drive on.

Zach on a bridge! Or me? Our rain jackets are the same color.

This picture is mostly for Grey and Sinan. Or anyone else who likes biking. The biking symbol in Ireland is much more intricate. NOT. FAIR.

Zach in the rain! (I took most of the pictures this day....)

Dan O'Shea's Cottage. This cottage was at the heritage center we visited. The heritage center was great and had a lot of information about the history of Ireland and Connemara, including details on the Famine and more.

The view from Dan O'Shea's front yard.

A window in the cottage.

Ballnahinch - the castle that we visited. If you're ever in need of a pay phone in Ireland, don't go here.

Another view of the Twelve Bens from Terri and Lol's backyard.

We're in Roundstone, a town just south of Ballyconneely, today. Tomorrow we leave Terri and Lol's and head on a 20 day tour of the north west coast and Northern Ireland. We'll be at our next farm in County Wicklow by the beginning of July. We'll update the blog as much as possible, but it's hard to find internet - and there's generally more exciting things to be doing than sitting in an internet cafe.

We're off to watch the Euro Cup in the local pub! We miss everyone!!