August 4: Cliffs of Moher

We woke up late (9:15 am), since I didnt set the alarm properly ! Rushed and grabbed some breakfast! Today, the plan was to hike the Cliffs of Moher - here, for 5 miles or so, the dramatic cliffs soar as high as 650-700 feet above the wild Atlantic ocean ! We walked along the entire length of the Cliffs of Moher - 12 -13 km (7-8 miles) , making it a day full of exercise! 

The hiking trail from Hags Head to Doolin:

We took the Paddywagon bus to the start of the trail at Hags Head. A light drizzle had started by this time and I was not dressed for rainy weather. The bus driver was a friendly guy and suggested we do not give up and that the day would clear up in a bit !

 You can see the Hags Head, behind me in the below picture. This is the start of the trail. We were hoping to have the hiking path all to ourselves, but there were a lot of other folks as well ! Guess, we have to share :-)

The trail is on the property of some 30 farmers and we often run into some friendly horses ! 

Alex peering over the edge of the cliffs at the start of the walk. Alex and Satto don't like to be near edges with steep drops, where Neel and I have no fear of heights and love to dangle our feet over sheer cliff edges at every opportunity !

A nice frenchman took some family pictures of us ! Neel was able to communicate with him in French !

The views are amazing all along the walk.

We stopped along the way for a snack and a Alex sneaked in a quick nap, as usual. Since we got in late last night and woke up late, we didn't have time to pack a lunch. We just ate some trail mix, granola bars and chocolate. But we had the best views in the world !! By now, we had hiked close to 2 hours and still hadn't reached the mid-point. The amazing views were slowing us down !!

We continued hiking towards Doolin. As we got closer to the Visitor center which is roughly half way point on the trail, we ran into huge crowds ! The cliffs are at their highest here and you can see me and Neel enjoying the cliff edges, while Alex was having a mild heart attack :-)

We continued past the visitor center and soon the crowds disappeared ! We came to some very remote areas where we had the place pretty much to ourselves. 

Admiring the scenery lying down, just to be safe !

Pulling Neel's mop of hair out of the way !

Alex took a quick 15 min nap  (again) !

We continued the hike to Doolin.

Satto finally sat at the edge of a cliff ! I think after hiking for close to 4 hours, his fear of the edges receded ! 

The rocks had amazing colors !

We ran into another horse, standing peacefully, hoping for a petting !

Me with the flag of Ireland. The flag colors are similar to that of India, and is a bigger coincidence, considering both countries struggled for independence from Britain. The green represents the Nationalist (people who want Ireland to be united as one nation), the orange the Unionist (those who want a separate country for the northern 6 counties and tied to UK) and the white is for peace between the two.

We walk on a path that has the cliffs on one side and lands owned by farmers on the other. Many cows and horses can be seen grazing and lazing around.

Now we can see Doolin far away in the distance ! At the end of the 12 km hike, one walks right into the town on Doolin, where we were staying. The hike took us a total of five and a half hours. If we didn't stop so often for a hundred pictures and gazing at the panoramic scenery, this could be done in 3 hours or so.

Doonagore,  a 16th century castle in Doolin. Some of the sailors from the Spanish Armada were executed here, when they were captured after their boats sank off the Cliffs of Moher

Dinner at Fitzgerald restaurant in Doolin. We were surprised to see Indian dishes in Irish restaurants. Chicken Curry was prevalent. This one below is a vegetarian meal with pappadom! I should say I really enjoyed the food in Ireland, which is something I, as a vegetarian, cannot say for the other limited places that I have traveled to. The boys had ribs, seafood and other pub food.

Shrimp Samosa!

Tomorrow, we are off to the beautiful remote Aran Islands !!  Praying for another rain free day !