The Wild Atlantic Way

We got ourselves out of the house mid morning, headed for Connamera National Park.  The drive was good with lots of things to look at and changing landscapes.  

(Rob has been doing a great job of navigating the roads.  Most of the time they are so narrow you can't believe they actually have 2 lanes.  And, of course, they are extremely winding and hilly.  So all in all they take a lot of concentration from my driver and he's pretty tired by the end of the day.)

We did a great little hike at the Park and checked out the visitor centre before heading out of the mountains towards the coast.

The Wild Atlantic Way is a scenic driving route down the entire west coast of Ireland.  Today we did just a small part of that drive. It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect.  The landscape is rocky and grassy with wildflowers, sheep and rock fences everywhere.  The coastline and water was calm and serene with beaches that could make you believe you are in the Caribbean!  

The traffic was quite heavy in spots as this drive is very popular with tourists.  We planned to stop in Clifden for lunch but it was so crowded with tourists and there was no parking to be found anywhere. So we popped into a grocery store instead, to grab some prepackaged food and had a little tailgate party in the parking lot.

We eventually ended up in a sleepy little village called Roundstone.  I think most tourists just drove on through.  But we stopped.  And we are so glad we dis.  We found a small pub on the waterfront and sat outside on the street with some steamed mussels and a cold beer.  It was a beautiful spot looking out over the harbour.

This was a spectacular day!