The Killer Flies at the Cliffs of Moher

---

Thursday, June 25 - Kilmacduagh, Kilfenora and other Kool Keltic (Celtic) Names

Two days in Galway was barely enough, yet we were forced to hit the road once again to drive to Dingle today. Along the way we had grand plans to stop at the Cliffs of Moher and The Burren. The long drives between destinations were definitely cutting into our sight seeing time by now and even sapping our energy but we had to press on.

Our first stop of the day was another random countryside ruin of an old abbey called Kilmacduagh. I just love Celtic names. Put “Kil” in front of anything and it sounds ancient, cool, tough, and a little mysterious. Since we had a packed itinerary today Tiffany griped at the detour to Kilmacduagh but when I saw the round tower and the Celtic crosses I couldn’t resist.

I was a good boy and only lingered at Kilmacduagh for a few minutes before getting back in the car and driving to the Burren. There is a wasteland of exposed rock before Kilfenora called the Burren. It’s a unique feature in all of Ireland, and I wanted to visit the Burren National Park that I saw on the map. Ignoring the official Rick Steves guide book directions (heresy, I know !!), I tried to follow the map to the park but there was no entrance. Great, another underdeveloped Irish park !! We still got a nice view of the landscape as we drove through and decided that was adequate.

Narrow Irish Roads 1 - Brian 0

We were cruising down one of the narrow side roads somewhere between The Burren and Kilfenora when a series of cars coming from the other direction forced me to drive close to the wall of brush that seems to line every Irish road. You could hear the bushes scrape we were so close. I didn’t think much of it until we pulled into the parking lot at the Kilfenora cathedral. When I emerged from the visitor center my heart dropped to the floor - the plastic cover for the driver’s side mirror was totally missing !!!

Apparently one of the branches from a bush had whacked it good and now the innards of the mirror were exposed like some gutted terminator robot. I don’t know if I was more upset because of the damage or because I thought I had been driving so well up to this point. Either way I could feel the shadow of the car rental company looming over my shoulder like Darth Vader. I was sure to make the black list for future rentals. Sigh.

The Killer Flies at the Cliffs of Moher

I was still bummed when we arrived at the main attraction of the day which was the Cliffs of Moher (pronounced like “more”). The Cliffs of Moher are a dramatic series of high cliffs that border the Atlantic ocean. Alyssa and I took the path to the left to check out the cliffs and soon came to the official end of the trail which had protective walls to keep dim witted tourists from falling to their deaths. We followed the other lemmings, I mean tourists, and skirted the end of the trail barrier to walk along the exposed edge of the cliffs.

As we walked along the exposed trail you could get really good views of the ocean and the other cliffs. While Alyssa posed for a photo, I was suddenly attacked by a cloud of small fly like insects that inflicted a terrible bite. I tried stepping out of the cloud of insects but they followed me, swarming over my bare arm. Ack !! I realized now that some of the tourists who fell to their deaths must have been chased by these vicious flies !! Alyssa and I beat a hasty and safe retreat to the protected part of the trail, swatting the bugs as we went.

Dingle - The Town With a Name That Makes Fun of Itself

To save time and avoid the traffic in Shannon we took the car ferry across the river. It was late in the afternoon and we were finally getting close to Dingle and had the choice of the direct route, or a scenic detour through the narrow Conner Pass in the mountains. As much as I might have wanted to, I did not want to tempt fate and the rental car any more that day so we went the easy route.

When we pulled into the parking lot of our B&B my intuition about the Conner Pass was proven correct. In the parking lot was another car identical to ours right down to the black color with body damage. This clone car was all scraped up on the left side including the mirror and fender just like my car. Brrrrrrr !!! A chill went up my spine at the coincidence. That was too freaky for me and I made sure that I parked away from it to avoid more bad luck.

Observations - The Narrow Roads of Ireland

Name the most dangerous thing on an Irish road:
a) sheep
b) farm tractor
c) other tourists driving like idiots

If you answered “C” you have been doing a good job following this blog, but I would also accept A or B. You never knew when you rounded a corner if there would be a flock of sheep munching on grass by the side of the road. It was like playing a video game with real life consequences to see how quickly you could brake to avoid the animal. Farm tractors were another nemesis on the road. These tractors were huge and slow moving, but drove on the roads, roundabouts and even the highways with impunity. Many drivers were too timid to pass, and inevitably you would be trapped in a procession of vehicles behind the tractor until it turned off the road.

But by far the most dangerous thing on an Irish road has to be other tourists. Some drivers never graduated past that first few minutes of controlled terror that I described when first driving the rental car. The tourist driver goes slow, fast, then slow again, faking turn signals in confusion and stopping on a dime whenever a photographic scene presented itself. It was the unpredictability of the tourist driver that made them so hazardous. No wonder most credit cards won’t insure your rental car in this country !!

---

Photos

Kilmacduagh
Killer !! Haha. Get the joke? Kil-ler ?

Scenic Hay Field
No tourists were harmed in the making of this photo.

Cliffs of Moher
Can you see the flies ?