Postcards from Ireland

Did you explore Connemara? Its a beautiful place

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Would have done that today but it’s been constantly raining and scenery is hidden behind a blanket of grey. Only ventured out of hotel to go as far as Kylemore Abbey, just so we weren’t staring at the same four walls all day.

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Shame, will you get a chance tomorrow or do you have to move on? How far up are you going? Fingers crossed for sunshine :crossed_fingers:t2:

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Not really a chance tomorrow, starting to head back east. We did go via Doo Lough up to Achill Island yesterday for some more beach action and great scenery and views. That’s the next day for me to post about :⁠-⁠)

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So is that a B&NB? :laughing:

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Or just B (ugger off and fetch your own)

It was a special ‘Buy 2 and Get 1’ offer.

Day 7, after an 8am breakfast at hotel (yay!) first destination of the day was Doo Lough.

Then we headed along the coast to a supermarket at Westport for the obligatory prepacked sandwiches and other supplies for the day.

After escaping that chaotic town we had a good ride along the coastal main road, with every mile feeling like we were getting remoter and remoter. Once near Achill Island the big mountains and open hills were punctuated by villages of white house, which I thought if they were done red would be indistinguishable from a Scandinavian landscape (not that I’ve been there myself, just seen TV and videos).

Our next stop was Keem Beach just about the furthest west in Ireland you can get.

Mrs Mouse got her swim and as it turned out there was a fast food wagon so we had some chips to supplement our lunch sandwiches.

After a relaxing time here we headed back via some viewpoints. First one was the Minaun Heights which has a 2 mile long road that just seems to keep going up and up until you get to the reason the beach had a full strength 5G signal.

Views from up here are amazing. Our beach is barely visible in top left of this pic.

Photos just don’t capture the feeling.

We followed the coast around the south of Achill Island.

Then headed back on the main roads for 90 minutes to get back to the hotel. Only rain of the day was 20 minutes or so on this stretch.

After food at hotel and a Guinness or four we ended the day sharing a brownie.

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Day 8 as already alluded to was a washout with light rain and drizzle all day hiding the scenery behind a blanket of grey. Only ventured out of hotel to go the 10 miles to Kylemore Abbey, not something we found particularly interesting but just needed a break from hotel room and a little excercise.

My brain initially misread sign above and it initially registered as one over the eight :⁠-⁠)

At least at the end of a damp and sticky walk to the unimpressive gardens there was a tearoom :⁠-⁠)

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Day 9 we were to start our journey back eastwards towards blighty but we delayed setting off until 11 to allow a band of rain to pass so we could explore a little more of the area we didn’t get to see the previous day.

First heading down by Lough Inagh

Then making a figure of 8 route to head around the hills south of Lough Mask and back along a nice valley. Sunshine makes all valleys nice :⁠-⁠)

It was about 2pm before we got to our planned lunch stop just north of Galway.

From there it was another two hours riding to a B&B in some random town in the middle of Ireland where I now write this.

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