Spring 2023

Kilrush then cliffs by Moher - 29 April 2023

29 April 2023 - Kilrush & Cliffs near Moher (County Clare)

Firstly - happy birthday to my lovely husband - and here’s to many many more 😊.

Bit of a strange day in some ways…

Had a phone call at 8am, as a contact for Rod - his lifeline had gone off, and they said they couldn’t get through - his line was engaged. Explained I was in Ireland, but that I’d call my brother Gary, who said he’d been fine lunchtime yesterday, and whizzed off to see. Half an hour later he called - thankfully all is fine. Rod said they’d had a power cut, he’d heard a lady speaking to him, but she couldn’t hear him. At least we know the lifeline works eh Rod!

Following on from our chat with the lady last night, this morning we took our binoculars and went for a walk to Carrig Island. Didn’t walk that far, as we kept stopping to look at birds. Neither of us have been that interested in waders before, we’ve had enough problems with identifying passerines!

Happy to be corrected, but we think we saw whimbrel, maybe curlew too, various plover, northern wheatear, pipet (maybe meadow) and stonechats - plus others we already know! Was very pleasant, maybe we should have stayed parked up and sat in one place and let them come to us…

Onwards! Tintin drove for about 20 minutes to Tarbert Port in order to catch the ferry across the Shannon to Killimer Port. We were first in the queue. Ferry goes every hour on the half hour from Tarbert. Was €32 for Dave. Was surprised at the number of cars which kept turning up, and still allowed on up to ten minutes late. Maybe better to be full, crossing only takes 20 minutes, so they can ‘make up time’. After having spoken with the old man in the carpark near Tralee a couple of days ago - he said dolphins often swam alongside the ferry. Really disappointed - didn’t see any 🙁

From there we drove into Kilrush, being the first place after the port in the right direction! We could actually park up, free of charge, and lots of space, and not too far away from main shops. A place called Zoë’s had good reviews, so in we went. After having been given menus, we looked at each other and decided to leave! Think Tintin wanted another Guinness for his birthday lunch, and this place was really a wine bar. Probably the first time we’ve ever done that!

Found Crotty’s pub, and we’re hoping it wasn’t going to be Grotty’s! As it happens, the food was ok - Tintin had the steak burger, chips and salad and I had the homemade lasagne. The special soup of the day was pear and celery, even the bar manager sneered a bit at that, he even brought us some to try - was actually very nice, just creamy, couldn’t taste the pear. Was the talk of the staff too, they all went off to try it. The waitress said the Irish don’t like trying different things - wasn’t an Irish chef! €37. Not quite the fillet steak birthday experience, but it is what it is!

Walked down to the marina - not sure what the castle like building with glass in the middle was!

You could also go glamping in the pods in the Marina. Popped into the supermarket for a few bits and pieces on our way back.

We both had a feeling that the town and its people in County Clare seemed ‘poorer’ than County Kerry - is it because we’re used to seeing lots of large houses dotted around the peninsulas, whereas here, back to street after street of terraced houses. I did a quick Google, found that in 1841, just before the Great Famine that County Clare was one of the poorest counties in Ireland with the 2nd highest distribution of poverty. Maybe we just drove in the wrong areas…

What is it with men’s haircuts over here?! So many are going for the Peaky Blinders look 🤔

So, husband in his wisdom said shall we try and get water from a cemetery? He duly wound his way through narrow lanes. No water to be had, plus, the road was too narrow to turn Dave around in. He was going to back a considerable way back out into the road, but I opened the gates leading into the cemetery and he turned around in there. I’m glad no one was there to witness that!

No matter, we put another €82 of diesel into Dave (€1.53/ltr) - asked if we could fill up with water - yes! Also emptied grey water as there was a big drain for all the car washing area. Job done!

We were going to park at White Strand beach. Looked lovely, however, there was a woman moving her portable sauna out of the way, people coming and going for their swims - they seem a hardy bunch over here, always someone in the water! We decided it was too busy for a bank holiday weekend, we take up too much space, and if we drove in for the view, might not be able to reverse out tomorrow morning, so left! Lots of untidy looking caravan parks around there.

Saw surfers off Lahinch - no parking to be found anywhere! Even stopped off at a pitch and putt to see if we could park in the carpark overnight - a definite no!