Day 3 started out innocently enough. Our directions simply read:
0.0 Turn left onto N67 as you leave Gregans Castle.
0.3 Begin to climb Corkscrew Hill.
0.7 Pass turn-out on left.
1.1 Top of Hill.
What the directions didn't say was: "This is one H of a hill for the next 1.1 miles! It's called "Corkscrew Hill". That's 'cause it's switchbacked. It's switchbacked so cars can make it up without stalling."
OK, I'm exaggerating just a tad, but it really was a challenge, at least for me (and a few others)! But what a wonderful feeling to finally make it to the top! (Little did we realize we'd have that pleasure again - in the RAIN, yet!) With Corkscrew Hill behind us, we were on our way to Kilfenora.
Somewhere around our first ring fort a friendly dog started running alongside me. She ran with me for 12.5 miles at about 12-15 mph, then dropped behind as I entered Kilfenora (going downhill at something over 20 mph). [But guess who showed up at our hotel (another 12 miles or so) at the end of the day! Saunie ended up taking her in the van back to where we first encountered her, finding her owners, and re-uniting them!]
After lunch
in Kilfenora, it was time to tour and explore the Burren, a couple hundred
square kilometers of limestone rock and....well....limestone rock!
But it's an awesome place. The rock is laced with crevices which provide a home for an incredible variety of sub-arctic and tropical plants and flowers, growing almost side by side (read those descriptors again)! There are ancient megalithic tombs and celtic crosses and caves and all manner of wonderful things. It was not the time of year for a real show of wildflowers, but at least I got a few shots of some of the Burren's other curiosities and sights.
Click on the link below to learn and see more!
