Tag Archives: County Clare

Day 18 – To Loop or Not to Loop

One thing was clear, I wanted off this campground asap. All sympathy to non-neurotypical folks, but maybe running a hospitality business is not the right calling for yous. I don’t care if I can eat of the toilet seat if all your quirks and utter inflexibility make the stay annoying at every step. “Can we charge the car?” “No, we don’t do this, electricity is too expensive”. “Can I pay for it?” “No, we generally don’t allow it …” -.-

the western tip of Loop Head

The big question was to head straight for Limerick City or take the 2hrs to go west first to do the loop head to the tip of the loop head peninsula (creative naming, I know). The weather forecast looked like the former, but when we hit the road at 9am, the look at the sky made us fancy our chances. It was the right choice, for sure. Lone single track roads with wild and exciting vistas all the way. A quick stop at the lighthouse at the westernmost point was all we needed. For once, we opted against the tour to go up and moved on. In we came on the southern route to come out again along the northern cliff-side road. Such spectacular views greeted us all along that last stretch that we really had to wonder why we were almost alone here, while fighting for bad vistas with busloads of day-trippers yesterday. This was preferable to us any day of the week!

Medival bridge, likely version 3

After this great morning, it was about a 1.5 hr dive to Limerick. As we could not charge the car yesterday and won’t be able to tonight (or so we though) I headed for a 15 minute top up on a fast charger before going to town to park conveniently at a 22kw AC charger in downtown. The kids slept through the drive and woke back up with enough drowsiness to excuse this slight delay of lunch. Including another short hunt for a free AC charger it took us until 1.15pm to get to the designated lunch place. There was a short queue to get seated when we arrived at the Hook & Ladder as it was still very busy.

up there we must go – for views and fun points

It turned out it was well worth the wait with excellent food all around. Even the kids were great and did not make a scene due to the delayed lunch. Service was nothing short of exemplary, even though the house was packed. A very welcomed change to our last lunch experience. We ended up staying to transition seamlessly into tea time as well.

After that success, Number 3 got his wish as well. Of the few options to go for, we decided the King John’s Castle was our best pick. It was a bit on the pricy side, but that was made up for by an excellent exhibition part. More interactive than Galway City museum, both kids were occupied long enough for me to dive into the meat of the history part. Win-win, I’d say.

After that, all there was left was a slightly late trip to the camp for the night, delayed even further by the fact that I had not realised that it was actually “in” the gated forest park it was named after. So with a final 15 minute detour, we got there, set up and were pretty much ready to collapse after a quick muesli dinner for the kids. No internet or cell phone reception anyway … 😀  

The spectacular northern road back
The southern road towards the Head
too tempting, sorry 😀
Of cause the kids wanted to do the monkey stuff as well …
Part air genasi, the Agent
the western tip of Loop Head
every windmill gets enthusiatically announced by Number 3
The skies are clearing for us once again
If you are wondering, these are wild atlantic way sight markers
So cool, much closer and this feels earned
the last one, I promise
as I said, excellent service – not a word of complaint from the kids either
I want this, more of this
Medival bridge, likely version 3
I’ll let this speak for itself
Number 3 has seen enough museums already that he can draw comparissions
the simple things in life
Kings castle, lost 2 sieges. Still there, though.
that one was a bid dodgy
discussing the finer points of medival armor
exploring the inside
up there we must go – for views and fun points
the views are good
one of seven churches in sight
well deserved – number 3 chickened out. He knows …
Almost out of place, with what little woodlands we have seen so far
cool pitches, right in the tick of it

Day 17 – Cliffs of Disappointment

We couldn’t wait to leave the campground in Galway. It didn’t feel welcoming at all. Instead, you had to pay for a hot shower and in the morning, we realized you even had to pay to use the campers’ kitchen. That was just a little too much for us. Even so, we met a friendly fellow traveller at breakfast to swap stories with. He’s lived in New Zealand for the last 23 years and he just joined our conversation when Flo was going on about the (Path of) Exile Con in Auckland next year.

deep contemplation

We weren’t too sure what we’d get to do today. Planning wasn’t really in the cards as we didn’t even know where we’d end up sleeping yesterday. But there were plenty of options.

Number 3 had bugged us about wanting to see a castle for a while. We agreed in principle though somehow the time wasn’t right. Dunguaire Castle was on our way today…we didn’t stop. Again, it just didn’t seem right for today. We had just left Galway.

In the end, our first proper stop was my pick: Hazel Mountain Chocolate factory. Flo and I had already agreed on skipping the factory tour. Buying chocolate in a factory outlet is a totally different thing though. When we got there, a tour bus had just pulled in so we swerved a little and sat down in the café before hitting the store. The café was lovely, serving hot drinks and baked goods, full of chocolatey goodness. All of it came in lovely pottery, making the experience extra cute. As you can imagine, I was happy. The kids seemed happy, too.

In the store, the tour was about to start. What had they done all this time? Shopping? Anyhow, the tour guide invited us to come along which was amazingly friendly of her. Flo and I listened for a bit but it is hardly our first chocolate factory tour. So we browsed the wares, turning around whenever something cool turned up in the talk. Number 3 got to smell cocoa beans, Flo got a handful of single origin chocolate to try. When the kids waved at the lady busy with actually making chocolates, she came out and rewarded both of them with chocolate covered marshmallows. A visit can’t be more of a win than this.

the pass into the Buren national park

Flo picked the next point of interest for today: The Burren National park. The Burren are a stony landscape that you can walk through or in our case, drive through. Flo is a fan of limestone so he was particularly looking forward to this part. At a road side car park, we got out to check out if we could walk around for a bit. Per chance, we’d stopped right next to the beginning of seven hiking trails, two of which were marked as easy and loop walks of only about 1.5km. Number 3 picked the white one which we walked in its entirety. We hadn’t actually planned a walk here. Thus, lunch had to be improvised. We had spaghetti leftovers at the roadside with recently bought chocolate for dessert. 😊

The one good view …

County Clare’s big draw are the cliffs of Moher though. The Lonely Planet (which I’ve been reading way more than Flo) already instilled caution in me, given its description of the place. In fact, they turned out to be the cliffs of disappointment. It’s a gigantic tourist attraction, no question. You queue to pay your ticket fee, are ushered to your parking spot, walk with the crowd to the wall separating you from the cliff edge, take a couple of pictures and leave again. Yes, the cliffs are high and yes, they are steep. The experience is almost lost in the crowds. Sliabh Liag was way more atmospheric than this. The best way to see the cliffs of Moher is probably by boat. We just didn’t want to spend that kind of cash on it. It’s not cheap.

From here, our campsite slowly came to mind. We’d booked a site in Doonbeg without electricity (nothing else was available) so the car needed to be charged if we wanted to start early tomorrow morning. The charger in Lahinch was luckily available (after a 10 minute wait), which even gave the kids an excuse to put their feet in the ocean one more time.

The Strand Camping Doonbeg wasn’t used to one night travellers. At least everything was set up to feel much more long term. Still happy that we had a place to sleep, we set up before the rain, had a lovely shower and brought the kids to bed.

I kept threatening to throw them over – they still trust me 😀
It looks so much like the Transalp XL650V, I felt homesick 😀
considered going in, autentic clans castle – too early to stop though
better stop here – chocolatly goodness
deep contemplation
Number 3 learning how its done
milk chocolate or dark?
this is how its done
the pass into the Buren national park
good fun going 80 km/h – ralley feeling
kid colour-matched to track markers 😉
“walk alone!” – ok, go for it, litttle goat
inquisitive mind at work – “mama, mama – a big root!”
over stick and rock
of cause we climed up the one rock …
An otherworldly landscape with the exposed limestone
the kids called out “tunnel”
Here and there, a tuft of grass survives the lime
Goodbye Buren National Park
that crow has seen better days …
The tallest section
The one good view …
Number 3 went wildlife spotting again
Sweet treats to keep ’em going
Do you see a pattern here?
display broken, brightness always on max 😀