Donegal

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Sunday 26^thApril. Happy Birthday to me…

The US Postal Service talks about rain, hail, sleet and snow. Well, today I had three of those (no snow), but also plenty of sunshine, as well as a freezing cold wind (especially on the coast). It was really cold today!

I spent the day touring Donegal, in particular the Glenveagh National Park and the Rosguill Peninsula on the coast. It seems that touring Ireland in a clockwise direction – south to north along the west coast – is the way to do it, because every day the scenery becomes more staggering than the day before. Each day one thinks “can the scenery get any better than this?”, and the next day it does. In Donegal, the combination of barren mountains, which in some cases plunge straight into the ocean, beautiful loughs fed by babbling streams and the rugged coastline interspersed with sandy beaches is beyond spectacular. So many great photos, really hard to decide which to include here.

The Glenveagh National Park was magnificent. The drives along the quiet glacial valleys, with just occasional other cars, were superb. Stop, take a photo, drive another 200 metres, stop again for an even better photo! Then, on the coast, almost every bend or crest brought ever more stunning views. The exposed rock on many of the mountains actually shines silver in the sun. There was mist rising and wreathing the mountain-sides, early in the day the ground and mountain tops were frosted with what looked to be snow, but was actually a coating of little hailstones. The patchwork of cloud-shadow and sunshine added to the drama of the scenery, particularly in the afternoon.

I arrived at Derry in the late afternoon, and had time to walk across the Peace Bridge and explore the walled town a little bit. Tomorrow I plan to walk the walls of Derry, and drive up the coast a bit to see the Giant’s Causeway.

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Photos

Dunlewy Lough
Shiny mountains gouged out by glaciers.

Comments

[Graeme Judd]

Congratulations
Hi John, Happy birthday! You are having a great birthday present. Enjoying the blog greatly. Safe travels. GJ