Wednesday in Connemara

We were a little later to get going this morning and the large groups had left the hotel by the time we’d made our way to breakfast.

Our first stop was a craft village where one or two craftspeople were at work.  Interesting things to see though only one workshop would have tempted me to buy.

My friend and colleague Norah would have been quite at home here, although the basket maker wasn’t actually working today.

I admired the beginnings of a couple of large trays, described as sciobs, intended for draining and then serving cooked potatoes.  I especially liked the central designs on these baskets and the soft, natural colours.  But the one I liked would never fit in my luggage and maybe that’s as well…

We drove through the lovely Connemara countryside, frequently within sight of water; sometimes it was an inlet from Galway Bay and others, it turned out to be an inland Lough.  Unless we consulted our map, we couldn’t be sure – it’s just that kind of landscape.

We made another short stop at a general store-craft shop-bookstore-cafe in Recess village where there was an interesting selection of bog standard products.

Nice name, eh?

Arriving in Letterfrack, the back seat Road Trip Larder (previously consisting of mostly chocolate digestive biscuits and mint humbugs) was augmented with a loaf of soda bread, cheese, apples and a couple of packets of crisps for a picnic lunch.

Another Avoca store beckoned, however, with beautiful blankets, gorgeous scarves and friendly service, not to mention other facilities essential to our comfort

We found our ideal picnic spot alongside the lake at Kylemore Abbey where a small roadside pull in offered a great view.

There was a buffet table for our Irish lunch.

Sticks to throw.

Inspiration for artists, embroiderers and knitters.

An ever changing pattern of bubbles, debris washed up on the pebbly beach and ripples in the water.

There was even entertainment in the form of a walking group on the far hillside, in addition to the more local US vs UK stick throwing activities.  What a great lunch!

Back on the road, we stopped for a closer look at the oyster beds in Killary Harbour

We chatted to a couple from Waterford about the two rag trees there above the fjord, enjoying their gentle manners and good humour and smiling at their reaction to learning that we were from Gloucestershire.

“Oh, we’d love to go to Cheltenham”, they said.  “We love the horse racing!”

One last stop of the afternoon, then, by the side of Lough Corrib.  Here was another fine picnic spot and a blast of afternoon sunshine tempted us down to the waterside.

Lovely, unspoiled meadowland, peace, quiet and a glorious view.

What a wonderful landscape!  We are so thrilled that we chose to come here and are really enjoying the journey.  It feels so remote, it’s hard to imagine that we are almost back in Galway and our “room with a (different sort of) view”

Tomorrow, we’ll move on a little further south, towards Tralee.  More fun awaits!

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[Mary]

Spotting rag trees may become the equivalent of looking for quilt barns.