From Tralee to Galway via the Shannon River Ferry, Cliffs of Moher and the Burren.

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After an extremely nice 17^thAnniversary dinner out in the Grand Hotel in Tralee we were packed up and ready to leave quite early today. We needed to phone the Caravan Club to change our ferry booking and the doctor to get an appointment to sort out my volatile BP but usual problem with phone calls, just get stuck in the hold queue with irritating musak at 26p a minute !

We stopped after half an hour, in a lay-bye and this time got the Caravan club and sorted out the ferry change. Then when Bob turned the Tandy key to set off again the engine wouldn’t start (the alarm did though !).

Oh dear. Engine battery dead as a dodo.

But we had the luck of the Irish today. Behind the lay-bye was an electrical rewind company. Bob went over and asked and a lovely electrician came with his van and jump-started us as well as checking the battery and confirming it was sick. We followed him a mile into Listowel where Bob bought a brand new battery and then fitted it and off we went on our way with astonishingly only 1 hour’s delay. Pretty handy that Bob is handy and carries a set of tools as fitting a new battery to a motorhome is not the easiest thing to do.

So next stop the ferry across the Shannon. We had been told it went on the hour and we arrived at 11.30 just in time to drive on before the ferry set off. It actually leaves on the half hour going north so we were once again really lucky.

I put today’s lucky happenings to the shamrock fridge magnet I have bought.

The ferry across took about 20 minutes and have to say it was pretty chilly, especially for 3 days before midsummers day. Brrrr.. that rain just can’t help itself, it comes down every chance it gets and I’ve not seen the sun for days.

We stopped for lunch in Kilkee overlooking the beach and followed the coast road though several nice villages and lovely rural countrysiden with some splendid sea views very now and then. Really a very scenic route today.

We are however unfortunately most unimpressed with Irish roads. Worst we have driven on in Europe and the poor Tandy has been shaken around so much we are surprised it isn’t feeling sick. Maybe the battery was its way of saying it was !

On today’s route, as well as the usual exceedingly bumpy and bouncy road surface, the road was really narrow so poor Bob struggled all day to fit the Tandy between the central cat’s eyes and the walls and scratchy hedgerows on the road side. At times it was not easy and I had to breath in so we could squeeze through.

We stopped at Moher Cliffs. These are 690 foot high and 5 miles long. There is an official walkway along them from a visitor’s centre so together with 100s of other visitors we took a walk along the top and marvelled at the views. Bob carried the umbrella but it only half worked today as it did rain for a few minutes.

From Moher we followed the road through the Burren, a rather weird rock covered landscape which stretches for miles.

And then we arrived in the beautiful Galway Bay. Lovely views all the way into the town and then out the other side to our campsite, right on the sea. We walked the promenade along the sea to Salthills for a mile after dinner and the views across the bay are quite stunning.

What was really, really good was that as we arrived in Galway, the heavy clouds which have followed us all day, and also landed on us several times, suddenly vanished and glory be, blue sky and sunshine.

We are keeping our fingers crossed and our shamrock well polished that maybe, just maybe tomorrow, it might be a sunny day. This blog will have to wait until we get to Dublin on Wednesday night as no wifi on this campsite



SaltHills Camping 7.5 out of 10. (though we give the location 9.5 !)



(Sorry to publish twice but when I type extra characters against my photos I can't find them until I have hit "publish")

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