Why did the sheep cross the road? ...

...to eat more grass!
TODAY...
Lots of driving today, lots of sun pockets that came out of the clouds, but with winds gusting to 60 mph, we didn't stay outside of the car very much. We finished our tour of the Connemara peninsula, and there were two things here very different than what we've seen so far. The first would be the many sheep that tended to be alongside the road unfenced and free to cross from side to side in search of the perfect grass to munch on...on quite a few occasions we had to hit the brakes or cheat to the other side of the road in order to avoid hitting them! The other was the beautiful mountains. The Maumtauk Mountains stretch from the ocean inland, and we were able to drive completely around them between yesterdays and todays journey.

We drove north to the Westport area, pausing at the National Famine Memorial, and Croagh Patrick, a very daunting mountain that seems to stand out from the others around it, a pointed top with a wide stone path, visible from its eastern side. This is where St. Patrick was said to have driven the snakes from Ireland, and once a year Catholics come from all over to pilgrimage to the top, many attempting the journey in their bare feet. We would have liked to have hiked to the chapel at the top, but the high winds and time it takes to do so prevented us (they say it takes 2-3 hours just to reach the top, and then 2 hours back down!) The roads we drove today also allowed to us to almost completely uncircle it, viewing it from all directions.

We stopped for lunch at a coastal town of Clifden, not much else exciting here, but along our coastal drive we stopped at the town of Roundstone visiting a local pottery shop and also a local jeweler. Both design and make their wares onsite, and we each picked something out to take home with us. The land here is even different from what we saw earlier - unfortunately the narrow winding roads with no where to stop didn't allow for us to take any good pictures - but the best way to describe it is that it's just like the Burren, except instead of being flat there are lots of hills dotted with green and rounded rocks (perhaps how that nearby town got its name). A few more sheep crossing the road and then it was on our way east of Galway to spend the night.